Harris to blast Trump in Florida as state’s 6-week abortion ban goes into effect

Vice President Harris will head to Florida on Wednesday as the state’s six-week abortion ban is set to take effect, using the occasion to tear into former President Trump for his most recent comments about how he would approach reproductive rights if he is reelected.

Harris will deliver remarks in Jacksonville, where a Biden campaign official said she will describe Florida’s new law as one of the “Trump abortion bans” that have been implemented since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022.

“This ban applies to many women before they even know they are pregnant — which tells us the extremists who wrote this ban don’t even know how a woman’s body works. Or they just don’t care,” Harris will say, according to excerpts of her remarks.

The vice president will also seize on Trump’s recent comments in an interview with Time magazine in which he said it should be up to individual states whether to monitor women’s pregnancies and whether to prosecute women for having the procedure.

“Florida, the contrast could not be clearer: Under Donald Trump, it would be fair game for women to be monitored and punished by the government,” Harris will say in her speech. “Joe Biden and I have a different view: we believe no politician should ever come between a woman and a doctor.”

Harris’s visit comes one week after President Biden traveled to Tampa, where he also pushed back against the state’s restrictions on abortion.

A Florida court ruling in early April upheld the state’s 15-week abortion ban and allowed a six-week ban to go into effect after 30 days. It also approved a ballot measure that would protect abortion access if voters pass it in November. 

The renewed attention on abortion in Florida has led to optimism among some Democrats about their chances of competing in the state, which has become reliably red in recent election cycles and is Trump’s home state.

Biden, in a statement through the campaign, said Trump was directly responsible for the state of abortion access in Florida.

“Trump is worried the voters will hold him accountable for the cruelty and chaos he created. He’s right. Trump ripped away the rights and freedom of women in America,” Biden said. “This November, voters are going to teach him a valuable lesson: Don’t mess with the women of America.”

Abortion is a major issue heading into the 2024 election and a significant vulnerability for Trump. The former president has repeatedly taken credit for the Supreme Court’s decision in June 2022 to overturn Roe v. Wade because he appointed three conservative justices.

Trump, in an effort to get around the issue, has taken the position that abortion policy should be left up to the states through legislation or ballot referendums as GOP-led states enact restrictive policies. But that, too, has prompted attacks, including from some on the right who expressed disappointment the former president was not embracing a federal minimum standard for abortion.

“President Trump has long been consistent in supporting the rights of states to make decisions on abortion. Joe Biden and the Democrats are radically out of touch with the majority of Americans in their support for abortion up until birth and even after birth and forcing taxpayers to fund it,” Trump campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.

A Republican National Committee spokesperson argued Democrats’ position on abortion is out of step with many Americans and noted Biden and Harris have not outlined any limits on abortion they would support.

Updated at 9:31 a.m. EDT