Florida’s pro-life Gov. Rick Scott defeated pro-abortion challenger Charlie Crist Tuesday night.
Crist was teaming up with the nation’s biggest abortion company to attack Scott in Florida. Crist is pro-abortion and flip-flopped on abortion from the pro-life to the pro-abortion side years ago. Planned Parenthood was providing as much as $3 million in help for Crist, was was running an ad that sought to label Scott “extreme” over abortion and women’s issues.
Crist switched on abortion when he ran against pro-life Marco Rubio, who beat him in a primary for Senate.
But Scott compiled a strong pro-life record as governor — including signing a bill banning late term abortions. The Florida governor is no stranger to signing pro-life legislation, and he put a bill into law previously to stop taxpayer-funding of abortions under Obamacare.
The Florida legislature approved legislation that prohibits the state exchanges created under Obamacare from paying for elective abortions unless in cases of rape or incest or the woman’s life is in danger. The bill would have Florida join a list of other states to use the provision in Obamacare to opt out of abortion funding, allowed by numerous loopholes and a lack of an abortion funding ban in the legislation.
Scott also signed two pro-life bills that would help stop abortions — including one that calls for tightening parental involvement laws on teen abortions and another that allows women to see an ultrasound of their baby before the abortion.
In an interview with the Wall St. Journal on Sunday, Scott says he’s more concerned with standing on principle than whether a certain measure is popular or not with the public — though polling data has shown a majority of Americans and Florida residents support such laws.
“I don’t look at polls. That’s not what I ran on. I don’t think this job is a popularity contest. This job is how do we make this the best place to do business,” he said. The signing of the ultrasound measure came one year after Crist vetoed a similar proposal.
Sen. Ronda Storms, a Republican who sponsored the bill after pro-abortion former Gov. Charlie Crist vetoed a bill last year, said the measure is designed to give women more information.
“A doctor has an obligation to go over every procedure with a woman,” she said.
Crist had said in his veto message last year that personal views about abortion shouldn’t be used to “expand the role of government and coerce people to obtain medical tests or procedures that are not medically necessary.”
But Scott, a businessman, ran as a pro-life candidate and Florida Right to Life gave him an “A” grade and recommended him to voters.“I am pro-life. I believe strongly in the sanctity of human life. I believe Roe v. Wade should be overturned, and as governor, would appoint judges who apply law and not impose their political agenda on the people, which was what was done in 1973 when Roe was wrongly decided,” he said on his web site during the campaign.
Scott also said during the gubernatorial campaign that he disagreed with Crist’s veto.
“As governor, I would have signed the pro-life ultrasound legislation that has passed both house of the Florida legislature and was vetoed by Charlie Crist for political reasons,” he said. “This important legislation not only demonstrates that abortion is the taking of an innocent human life but also prevents Florida taxpayers from funding abortion through the federal health care plan that recently passed Congress.”
