DeSantis Campaign Press Release - Ron DeSantis Fights for Life

No leader in the country has done more to protect innocent life than Ron DeSantis. While other candidates talk, DeSantis delivers. He has enacted some of the nation's strongest protections for unborn babies – and in the face of attacks from Democrats and Republicans alike, DeSantis has stood strong and never backed down on fighting for life.

The Facts

• DeSantis signed the Heartbeat Protection Act despite opposition from donors and harsh criticism from the media. This legislation mirrors those also passed in the states of Iowa and South Carolina.
• States have led the way on protecting the unborn thanks to leaders like Ron DeSantis, Kim Reynolds, and other governors who have championed the sanctity of life. While many D.C. Republican politicians espouse pro-life talking points, and some have attempted to move pro-life legislation through Congress over the years, those attempts have failed to result in federal laws that limit abortion after any number of weeks.
• DeSantis has defended Florida's Heartbeat Protection Act from Donald Trump's attacks that the law is "too harsh" and "a terrible thing."
  • After Trump's interview with NBC News earlier this month, in which he called Florida's law protecting unborn babies with heartbeats "a terrible thing and a terrible mistake," DeSantis warned pro-life Americans that Trump would "sell you out."
  • DeSantis also predicted that Democrats will "weaponize" Trump's criticism of pro-life legislation, in order to undo the protections for the unborn that states like Florida have enacted.
  • In the same NBC interview, Trump vowed to "compromise" with Democrats on abortion – and acknowledged that national Democrats oppose all restrictions on abortion. What kind of "compromise" could Trump possibly reach with D.C. Democrats who uncompromisingly support taxpayer-funded abortion, for any reason, at any stage of pregnancy?
  • Trump has a long history of flip-flopping on life.
  • This week on the Doug Wagner Show, DeSantis was asked "What would have to happen to make you abandon your pro-life stances, like other candidates have done?" He responded: "Nothing — it's just who I am."
• DeSantis has said that he will be a pro-life president and wants to sign pro-life legislation. He told Tucker Carlson at the Family Leadership Summit:
  • "I'm proud to have been a pro-life governor, and I will be a pro-life president. So I mean, of course, I want to sign pro-life legislation. I think it's something that we need to develop a culture of life in this country. If you look over the last 50 years, we allowed practices that were barbaric, post birth abortion, abortion, when you have a fully formed baby six, seven months in, and I don't think Rome is built in a day, I think it's going to take time to make progress in some parts of the country. But as President, I will be somebody who will use the bully pulpit to support governors like Kim Reynolds, when she's got a bill, other states as they advance the cause of life. It is a critical issue. And it's one I'm happy to have done it. Oh, by the way, this is an issue where I had a lot of supporters who were averse to me on this. Donors saying they didn't want to support me. If I stood for life, it's been written about how I lost a lot of really big supporters. Some of them just aren't pro-life. Some of them think it's a political liability. And at the end of the day, you get into office to be able to do what's right. And you've got to stand on principle. And you've got to say, why am I here? If you're here to contort yourself into a pretzel, to try to not have to take on big issues to take the political road that's easier to travel, then you're not somebody that's dependable. So we stood up. We did what was right. Yeah, we lost some support as a result of that. But if I had a chance to do it again, I would do it every day of the week and twice on Sunday."