We're pro-choice Floridians — and we trust David Jolly to defend our rights
We are Floridians who are actively committed to securing reproductive rights in Florida, and we are enthusiastically supporting David Jolly for governor.
He strongly believes: 'Reproductive health care decisions should be made between women and their doctors, not politicians.' He wants to bring back the protections of Roe v. Wade, as do the over 57% of Florida voters who voted for Amendment 4 last November.
David Jolly told us: 'I voted for Amendment 4. As governor, I would work to enact Amendment 4 into law. I support Roe. I am pro-choice. And as your governor I would veto any legislation that would restrict reproductive healthcare in the state of Florida.'
Roe is the United States Supreme Court case that originally established the right to an abortion and was overruled by a 2023 Supreme Court decision. Jolly was not always a supporter of abortion rights. When he was in Congress many years ago, he did support anti-abortion positions. But since then, he has changed his mind.
After all, he was raised in a culture that deplored abortion. However, when faced with the tangible and tragic harms resulting from restrictive abortion policies, his view changed. Informed by empathy, ethical considerations and his views on the appropriate role of government, he is now solidly pro-choice.
What? A politician who changes his mind to do the right thing? Is that not what we all want? Well, it certainly is what we want.
Jolly's positions track exactly the language of Amendment 4: 'No law shall prohibit, penalize, delay, or restrict abortion before viability or when necessary to protect the patient's health, as determined by the patient's healthcare provider.' That language is the same codification of Roe v. Wade that Jolly supports.
We find it admirable that Jolly is someone who was willing to change his mind after being confronted with the realities of the anti-abortion movement and its devastating impact on those who need abortions but cannot get them. None of us would be supporting him today unless he had realized his past stance on reproductive choice was wrong.
Jolly pledges that he will govern according to his values, which are based on 'love, kindness, respect and dignity.' He says that there are three basic principles that govern his decisions:
▪ Florida's economy should work for everyone in the state.
▪ Florida's laws and policies should apply equally to all.
▪ The personal freedoms of all Floridians must be protected.
Those values and principles point only to support for reproductive rights.
We trust David Jolly on reproductive rights. But this is not a one-issue race. We also support his positions on other issues that he and we consider critical to Florida: addressing the affordability of housing, property insurance and health care, strengthening and improving public education and allowing our public universities to thrive without government interference.
If we cannot accept that politicians can change their minds when they realize they were wrong, we are in for governance that none of us want. Jolly is a person who will live and govern by the same values and principles we all support.
That's why dedicated pro-choice women leaders across Miami-Dade like Maribel Balbin, Cindy Lerner and Jennifer Stearns Buttrick are joining reproductive freedom champions throughout our state like Mona Reis, Susan Windmiller, former member of Congress Gwen Graham and former Florida Supreme Court Chief Justice Barbara Pariente in saying: We trust David Jolly on reproductive rights.
Ellen Freidin is a lawyer and sponsor of Florida's Constitutional Equal Protection Clause and leader of the Fair Districts Florida movement. Jane Moscowitz is a former federal prosecutor. Donna Shalala is a former member of Congress and former president of the University of Miami. Barbara Zdravecky is the retired CEO of Planned Parenthood of Southwest and Central Florida.
Solve the daily Crossword
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
25 minutes ago
- Yahoo
White House presses Fed for ‘dramatically lower' rates as meeting looms
The White House on Sunday demanded 'dramatically lower' interest rates as it raised pressure on US Federal Reserve chair Jay Powell for a Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
25 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Fact check: Trump calls to prosecute Beyoncé based on a nonexistent $11 million payment
President Donald Trump over the weekend called for the prosecution of music superstar Beyoncé – based on something that did not actually happen. Trump claimed in a social media post that Beyoncé broke the law by supposedly getting paid $11 million for her endorsement of Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris during an October 2024 event in Houston. But there is simply no basis for Trump's claim that Beyoncé received an $11 million payment related to the Harris campaign, let alone for the endorsement in particular. Federal campaign spending records show a $165,000 payment from the Harris campaign to Beyoncé's production company, which the campaign listed as a 'campaign event production' expense. A Harris campaign spokesperson told Deadline last year that they didn't pay celebrity endorsers, but were required by law to cover the costs connected to their appearances. Regardless of the merits of this particular $165,000 expenditure, it's far from an $11 million one. Nobody has ever produced any evidence for the claim of an eight-figure endorsement payment to Beyoncé since the claim that it was '$10 million' began spreading last year among Trump supporters on social media. Fact-check websites and PolitiFact looked into the '$10 million' claim during the campaign and did not find any basis for it. The White House did not immediately respond to a CNN request late Saturday for any evidence of Trump's $11 million figure. When Trump previously invoked the baseless figure, during an interview in February, he described his source in the vaguest of terms: 'Somebody just showed me something. They gave her $11 million.' A Harris spokesperson referred CNN on Saturday to a November social media post by Beyoncé's mother Tina Knowles, who called the claim of a $10 million payment a 'lie' and noted it was taken down by Instagram as 'False Information.' 'When In Fact: Beyonce did not receive a penny for speaking at a Presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harrris's (sic) Rally in Houston,' Knowles wrote. A spokesperson for Beyoncé told PolitiFact in November that the claim about a $10 million payment is 'beyond ridiculous.' What Trump wrote Sunday Trump revived the false claim in a social media post published after midnight early Sunday morning in Scotland, where he is visiting. He wrote that he is looking at 'the fact' that Democrats 'admit to paying, probably illegally, Eleven Million Dollars to singer Beyoncé for an ENDORSEMENT.' Democratic officials actually reject the claim of an $11 million payment. The White House did not immediately respond to CNN's request for any evidence of a Democratic admission of such a payment. Trump went on to criticize other payments from the Harris campaign to organizations connected to prominent endorsers. He asserted without evidence that these payments were inaccurately described in spending records. And he wrongly asserted that it is 'TOTALLY ILLEGAL' to pay for political endorsements, though no federal law forbids endorsement payments. Trump concluded: 'Kamala, and all of those that received Endorsement money, BROKE THE LAW. They should all be prosecuted! Thank you for your attention to this matter.' Trump has repeatedly called for the prosecution of political opponents. His Saturday post about Harris and celebrity endorsements was an escalation from a post in May, when he said he would call for a 'major investigation' on the subject but did not explicitly mention prosecutions.
Yahoo
25 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Trump says he would ‘like' to strike a trade deal with the EU
US President Donald Trump said on Sunday he would 'like' to strike a trade deal with the EU, adding there was a '50-50 chance'.Trump said Sign in to access your portfolio
