For the second consecutive year, Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican from Florida, has vetoed millions worth of funding that would have helped make birth control affordable to low-income Floridians.
DeSantis vetoed $3 billion of the $110 million budget that the state legislature sent him last week. DeSantis slashed $2 million to provide low-income individuals with $3 billion. the opportunity to obtain long-acting, reversible forms of contraception, including intrauterine device (IUDs), that are effective for up 10 years, and Depo Provera shots, which last for about three months, among other things.
DeSantis also vetoed a similar motion last year when the legislature tried funding long-acting contraceptives in its state budget.
The state is only a month away to implementing a 15-week ban against abortion. This is why the state has decided to veto such funding.
The rare bipartisan measure of funding long-acting methods to birth control is one that both Democrats and Republicans support in the state legislature. The effort to include it in this year’s budget was promoted and supported by state Senate President Wilton Simpson, an anti-abortion Republican lawmaker who supports the expansion of birth control access, particularly when it benefits who would not ordinarily be able to afford it.
“If you give those young women an opportunity not to get pregnant, then they have an opportunity to go to college or start a career,” Simpson said at the start of this legislative term.
Reproductive rights leaders in the state decried DeSantis’s action last week, noting that it is particularly callous because it will harm people with modest to low incomes.
“To take away health care from vulnerable people is just another example of his ongoing cruelty to Floridians,” said Stephanie FraimIn an email, he was the president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Southwest Florida and Central Florida. The Tampa Bay Times.
The contraceptives that could be covered by the funding were more expensive than other forms. This makes them difficult to access for those with low incomes or who cannot afford regular insurance. Florida is also one of 12 states across the U.S. that hasn’t expanded Medicaid coverageThe Affordable Care Act has been in effect since it was passed more than a decade back.
Americans support expanding access for birth control for all, including those with lower incomes. However, if the Supreme Court upholds the long-held right of abortion access in the U.S., Americans will be more supportive of the expansion. As it has repeatedly stated, it will. According to an Economist/YouGov poll published in May91% of voters believe that birth control should not be cost-free for anyone who wishes it, even though abortion protections in the U.S. are adequate. These will be overturned in the coming summer.
