DON’T COUNT ON BRIAN MAST TO SUPPORT REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS

So many times during the Trump administration when we Floridians needed our congressman to be brave he instead kept his head down and towed every line Trump wanted him to.  Now that Trump is out of office we still have to deal with the fallout of the hundreds of judges he left behind, including those on the Supreme Court.  Earlier this month we learned that SCOTUS plans to overturn Roe v. Wade right before they go on recess at the end of June.  From that point on all law regarding abortion will be decided at the state level.

UNLESS Republicans in the House and Senate put a federal level ban on abortions.  If Republicans re-take control of the House, Senate and Oval office, and if enough of those senators are as virulently anti-Choice as Trump’s justices, then Mitch McConnell has said he would pass such lethal legislation because he would have the votes for it in the Senate (https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/05/09/clear-not-unobstructed-path-toward-national-abortion-ban/).

And what of our representative in the House – would he support such disgraceful legislation?  My guess is you probably said “yeah, he would.”  Because neither you nor I believe for a second that Brian Mast would do the right and brave thing and vote with enough Democrats against his party in an effort to keep such a ban from reaching the Senate.  Simply, we cannot count on Mast to oppose a federal ban on abortion.

If instead this sensitive issue is left to the states, the 13 that have “trigger laws” in place would outlaw abortion as soon as the SCOTUS decision is official.  Those states are Arkansas, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and Wyoming.  Five other states, Alabama, Arizona, Michigan, West Virginia, and Wisconsin, could reinstate abortion bans still on their books from before Roe v. Wade.  Just as people travel to Florida to go to Disney World (or used to -- Ron DeSantis may have permanently ruined that and Mast towed that line too, see https://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/disney-boycott-conservatives-woke), many of our fellow Americans might start coming to our state seeking reproductive care.  It is especially easy to imagine this would be the case with Alabama since we share a border with them.

If Roe is overturned, Alabama’s ban on abortion -- which does not allow for any exceptions in cases of rape or incest -- will be law.  Brian Mast’s official position on abortion is that he is in favor of allowing such exceptions so will he speak out if DeSantis proposes a bill like Alabama’s?  Given his deference to DeSantis and his self-professed goal of defunding Planned Parenthood, I’d say we can’t rely on Mast to do the right thing there either (https://www.ontheissues.org/FL/Brian_Mast_Abortion.htm).

Some anti-Choice activists claim that they do not want to criminalize receiving an abortion, only providing one. They believe “women are victims of abortions” and want to help such women rather than imprison them.  How merciful.  Criminalizing the providing of abortion will have a chilling effect on healthcare: persons and groups who offer reproductive care will stop providing everything.  Planned Parenthood clinics, which are the primary care providers for many living near or below the poverty line (https://www.plannedparenthoodaction.org/pressroom/fact-check-planned-parenthood-is-essential-care-for-rural-women) would shutter rather than have their employees arrested and investigated for crimes they did not commit.  And of course, when all safe and professional means of acquiring such care are eliminated, women will inevitably resort to giving abortions to themselves and each other, meaning inevitably these laws will throw women in prison, ordinary women as well as midwives, doulas, and activists.

So that’s one very possible – and deadly -- effect of reelecting Brian Mast as our representative in Congress: the loss of healthcare to the most vulnerable among us, with the likelihood that he will look the other way when it comes to the “exceptions” he finds acceptable being eliminated in Florida should Ron DeSantis will it.

-Shannon Scott