Vice President Harris to visit Florida on same day 6-week abortion ban begins

Livestream FOX 35 News

ORANDO, Fla. - Vice President Kamala Harris is scheduled to travel to Jacksonville, Florida, next week for a campaign event highlighting abortion restrictions nationwide. It is billed as another stop in the "Fight for Reproductive Freedoms" tour, which the vice president kicked off in January.

The event coincides with the day Florida plans to enforce an even stricter abortion ban than the current one in effect and follows President Joe Biden's recent appearance in Tampa, which also underscored the importance of reproductive freedom.

Democrats are seeking to capitalize on the unceasing momentum against tougher abortion laws to not only buoy President Biden's reelection bid in battleground states he won in 2020 but also to go on the offensive against Former President Donald Trump in states that the presumptive Republican nominee won four years ago. One of those states is Florida, where Biden lost to Trump by 3.3 percentage points.

Across the country, there have been increased efforts to put abortion rights questions to voters since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and removed the nationwide right to abortion. Since that 2022 decision, most Republican-controlled states have had new abortion restrictions in effect, including 14 that ban it at every stage of pregnancy. Most Democrat-dominated states have laws or executive orders to protect access.

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Additionally, voters in seven states — California, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Montana, Ohio, and Vermont — have sided with abortion rights supporters on ballot measures.

Florida's Supreme Court ruled on April 1 that a ballot measure to legalize abortion until viability could go on the ballot despite a legal challenge from state Attorney General Ashley Moody, who argued that there are differing views on the meaning of "viability" and that some key terms in the proposed measure are not properly defined.

RELATED: Gov. DeSantis signs six-week abortion ban into law

Advocates collected nearly a million signatures to put a state constitutional amendment to legalize abortion until viability on the ballot, surpassing the nearly 892,000 required. Sixty percent of voters would have to agree for it to take effect.

Abortion was legal in Florida through the first 15 weeks of pregnancy, but a separate April 1 state Supreme Court ruling upholding the current law triggers a 2023 law that drops that to six weeks and takes effect on Wednesday, May 1.

The Jacksonville visit marks the 12th trip to Florida for Vice President Harris since assuming office. Her previous visit in March addressed gun violence prevention in Parkland. In January 2023, she visited Tallahassee to commemorate the anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision and discuss reproductive freedom.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.