September 2, 2021

Florida Lawmakers Pledge to Pass Abortion Ban Following Texas’ Model

Well, that didn’t take long.

Abortion rights supporters gather to protest Texas SB 8.Joel Martinez/The Monitor/AP

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It’s already happening. Just hours after the Supreme Court refused to block an extreme Texas abortion law, Florida Senate President Wilton Simpson said state Republicans are “already working on” an abortion ban to present in the 2022 legislative session, according to local news reports. Republican State Rep. Anthony Sabatini has echoed the pledge, saying there’s “no question” such legislation will be considered. 

The Texas law bans abortion after six weeks (before most people know they are pregnant) and allows any private citizen to sue both abortion providers and anyone who “aids and abets” patients. Now, with SCOTUS’s move last night, it appears that conservative state legislatures have taken this as a signal to follow Texas’ example. “I sit in Alabama terrified that we’re next because that makes sense,” Robin Marty, director of operations at the West Alabama Women’s Center and author of the Handbook for a Post-Roe America, told Mother Jones on Wednesday, before Florida legislators shared their plans. “Like maybe Florida will stay intact—I really hope so, because that’s all we’ve got. And when Florida’s all you got, you got problems.”

If Florida were to pass such legislation, it would obliterate access to abortion care in the Southeast, as the state has the largest number of clinics in the region. The Guttmacher Institute clocks it at 65 clinics as of 2017. 

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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