(C) Florida Phoenix This story was originally published by Florida Phoenix and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . DeSantis’ view of FL abortion precedents: ‘Closer to China and North Korea’ [1] ['Michael Moline', 'More From Author', '- July'] Date: 2022-07-14 Gov. Ron DeSantis has compared standing Florida Supreme Court precedents on abortion rights to laws in communist China and North Korea, where the governments reportedly have forced people to undergo abortion and sterilization. “We’ve had for many decades now very radical state-level judicial decisions that really makes us closer to China and North Korea, you know, when it comes to being very radical with abortion policy,” DeSantis said during a news conference in Putnam County, in the northeast part of Florida. In the People’s Republic of China, the government’s one-child policy encouraged abortions or infanticide of female fetuses and newborns because of a cultural preference for boys, as documented by Foreign Policy magazine. The Canadian Broadcasting Corp. has reported that the policy also led to forced sterilizations. It was abandoned in 2015, but news reports have indicated the use of forced birth control, including abortion and sterilization, against minority groups such as the Uighurs. Information about North Korea is limited. The Center for Reproductive Rights reports that abortion is permitted with no official mention of a gestational limit. A 2021 report by the U.S. Department of State cites nongovernment organization and defector reports that “state security officials subjected women to forced abortions for political purposes, to cover up human rights abuses and rape, and to ‘protect’ ethnic purity, and not for population control. Cases of infanticide were also reported.” Second trimester By contrast, In 1989, in In re T.W., the Florida Supreme Court ruled that the state Constitution’s privacy clause protects access to abortion completely through the first trimester, allowing state intervention in advance of fetal viability, around the close of the second trimester, only to protect the mothers’ health. That’s changed now because of HB 5, the new ban on abortions after 15 weeks’ gestational age. A state trial judge cited In re T.W. in blocking its enforcement as unconstitutional, but the ruling has been put on hold pending proceedings before the state First District Court of Appeal. Attorneys for the state have asked that court to refer the case directly to the Florida Supreme Court, where conservatives now wield a supermajority. DeSantis, running for reelection this year and building his national profile, was confident the Florida Supreme Court will reverse that ruling. “We have not heard from the appellate court yet, but I think we probably will pretty soon, and then the question will be: Does the Florida Supreme Court take that case. And I think they probably will, because this is a really important thing for them to decide,” the governor said. Transgender joke DeSantis also took a shot at transgender people during his appearance, called to announce a $3.5 million grant to overhaul a waste-water treatment facility. “Some of the people in Washington — like, can we actually agree that women get pregnant and not men? Because they don’t seem to say that,” he said to applause from a crowd of supporters. “I mean, it’s just unbelievable some of the stuff you’re hearing about that,” he said. He may have referred to U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee testimony by Khiara Bridges, a law professor at the University of California at Berkeley, who referred to about “people with a capacity for pregnancy.” Under questioning by Republican Josh Hawley of Missouri, who made the same line that DeSantis did, Bridges defended the reference. The exchange has been making the rounds on social media. “Many cis women have the capacity for pregnancy. Many cis women do not have the capacity for pregnancy,” Bridges said. “There are also trans men who are capable of pregnancy as well as nonbinary people who are capable of pregnancy.” “Cisgender” refers to men and woman whose gender identities correspond to their birth sex. Bridges labeled Hawley’s questions “transphobic, and it opens up trans people to violence” by “Denying trans people exist.” [END] --- [1] Url: https://floridaphoenix.com/2022/07/14/desantis-view-of-fl-abortion-precedents-closer-to-china-and-north-korea/ Published and (C) by Florida Phoenix Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/floridaphoenix/