An Open Letter to Senator Marco Rubio

Senator, as I am sure you are aware, it was forty years ago that the landmark court case of Roe v. Wade legalized abortion in the United States. But as I see my fellow low-income women, women of color, and queer women repeatedly denied not only abortion care access under the Hyde Amendment but also access to comprehensive sex education across our state I am personally reminded of the absolute worthlessness that Roe has to us because of you and other anti-choice politicians.

I understand that you “feel very strongly about this issue”, Senator. But I must admit it’s rather curious to me that you wish to lead a 20 week abortion ban when less than two percent of abortions take place after 20 weeks, according to a study released by Guttmacher Institute this past July.

It’s curious to me, Senator Rubio, that you “understand a woman’s right to an abortion is law” but you are so very passionate in your opposition of federal funding for abortions, which disproportionally effects low-income women whose procedures would not be covered under Medicare. If a woman’s right to an abortion is law, as you say, it simply does not make sense to me that you would support any piece of legislation that attempts to undermine that right.

It’s curious to me, Senator Rubio, that you support organizations like Faith2Action, which favors giving legal protection to unborn children. It’s especially curious considering your support of Florida’s Stand Your Ground Law which played a pivotal role in the murder of seventeen year old child and the acquittal of his assailant.

With respect, Senator, it’s complete horse shit and absolutely unacceptable that you would strip a woman of her most basic right, the right to bodily autonomy. It is pretentious misogyny at its finest to assume that people having these late term procedures are doing so out of blasé last-minute decision making rather than necessity.

How, in good conscious, can you and your fellow anti-choice politicians across this nation push forward bills to ban late term abortions while simultaneously signing bills that require waiting periods, bills that close abortion providing clinics and cause women to take off work and gather the funds needed to travel across the state or even to a different state to receive their procedures?

These introductions of bans on late term abortions are just the beginning of your attempt to eradicate abortion access across the state of Florida, of this I am sure. And you will not proceed with this bill without meeting great push back from pro-choice supporters. Of this I am also sure.

I understand that you are a shoe-in for presidential candidacy in the 2016 election, so I leave you with a word of caution, Senator: when women vote, Florida wins.