Sabrina Bousbar, one of five Democrats who will appear on the ballot this year for Florida's 13th Congressional District, is adding her voice to the cacophony of outrage from the Left as Florida's six-week abortion effect goes into effect.
"It is a dark day in Florida as this cruel, biologically nonsensical law creates a health crisis for millions of women across the Southeast. And as with most health disparities, it is young women, low-income women, and women of color who stand to be disproportionately harmed," Bousbar said of the law, before directing her ire at the CD 13 Republican incumbent she hopes to challenge in the General Election.
"For self-described extremists like Anna Paulina Luna, banning abortion isn't about protecting life — it's a blatant power grab, attempt to control women's bodies, and attack on lifesaving healthcare."
The law took effect Wednesday after the Florida Supreme Court a month ago ruled that the state's 15-week abortion ban could stand, which triggered the more restrictive six-week ban. Both were approved in Florida's GOP supermajority Legislature and signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis.
The law provides exceptions in cases of rape or incest, or to protect the life of the mother.
Even with those exceptions, the ban is among the strictest in the nation, and leaves North Carolina as the only option for abortion care past six weeks of pregnancy in the Deep South.
Democrats across the state have been lamenting the new law this week, including two of Bousbar's Primary challengers. Whitney Fox held a press conference Tuesday with supporters and a local mom who was forced to obtain an abortion after her wanted pregnancy was no longer viable — care that she argued might not have been allowed under the law that is now in effect. And Liz Dahan weighed in with an op-ed similarly criticizing the law.
But Bousbar, who would be the first Generation X female member of Congress if elected, offered an additional perspective on the law's implications to women like her.
"As a young Latina who has always wanted a family, I'm running for Congress to make sure my generation and future generations don't feel this burden and have the freedom to decide if, when, and how they want to start or grow a family," Bousbar said.
"Leaders have a responsibility to empower the people they serve, not further obstruct their paths to opportunity. If I have the good fortune to serve, I will fight tooth and nail to restore our fundamental freedom to make decisions about our own bodies. The stakes of this November couldn't be higher."
The Supreme Court decision came the same day the high court also ruled that the petition-led ballot initiative to enshrine abortion protections into the state constitution could stand.
Democrats in the state, and even those in other states and from national coalitions, are hoping that outrage over the new law, paired with the option to reinstate abortion access at the voting booth, will drive voters to the polls. The hope is that voter turnout will help pass Amendment 4, but also give Democrats a boost in hard-to-win races, such as CD 13.
Luna won CD 13 for Republicans in 2022 following redistricting, which shifted the district from a slight Democratic advantage to a GOP-leaning seat. Cook Political Report lists the district as likely Republican at R+6.
Whoever wins the Democratic Primary will have a hard climb to topple Luna. She's raised nearly $1.3 million and has more than $636,000 still on hand, as of the end of March, the most recent date for which data is available.
Fox has so far come the closest in terms of fundraising, with $420,000 raised and just over $278,000 on hand.
Bousbar, who entered the race after Fox, has also been aggressively fundraising, though she trails Dahan and Mark Weinkrantz, who has largely self-funded his campaign. Bousbar has more than $98,000 on hand after raising $127,000 as of the end of March.
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