“This significant rollback and restriction is cruel and will prove costly to Florida families. Women, families and their doctors – not politicians – should determine the timing of childbirth, make their own personal reproductive health decisions and choose their pathways in life. Florida’s extreme abortion ban is also illegal under Roe v. Wade and the right to privacy under our state constitution. The GOP abortion ban is so extreme that even women who are raped or are the victims of incest are forced to give birth. Banning access to health care is more than unconstitutional, it’s callous and will harm people and families all across Florida – our neighbors deserve better. This fight is not over.”

U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor, a member of the House Pro-Choice Caucus, has been a longtime champion for a woman’s right to choose. This Congress, she cosponsored the House-passed Women’s Health Protection Act which would protect a person’s ability to determine whether to continue or end a pregnancy, and to protect a health care provider’s ability to provide abortion services. Castor has railed against efforts nationwide to ban abortion over the years, including joining a bicameral group of Congressmembers in filing an amicus brief to uphold women’s constitutionally protected reproductive freedom on the 2016 Supreme Court case, Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt.