“The progress in Florida and the progress in nearly 20 other states is part of a new beginning for life,” Pence said. “I’m going to continue to be a voice for advancing the cause of the unborn on principle and compassion.”
Pence added that he trusts Republicans to choose a different leader other than former President Donald Trump for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination. Pence has not declared a 2024 presidential bid yet but is expected to do so in the coming weeks.
“With the challenges we’re facing at home and abroad, I have a sense the American people are looking for different leadership to take us back to the conservative agenda,” Pence said. “I believe different times call for different leadership, and I trust Republican voters to bring us to victory in 2024.”
The dig comes hours before Pence and Trump are both slated to speak at the National Rifle Association’s annual leadership summit in Indianapolis Friday afternoon.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
The American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Medical Association support gender-affirming care for adults and adolescents. But medical experts said gender-affirming care for children rarely, if ever, includes surgery. Instead, doctors are more likely to recommend counseling, social transitioning and hormone replacement therapy.
“The transgender medical bans also violate the guarantees of equal protection by banning essential medical treatments needed by the adolescent Plaintiffs because they are transgender,” the lawsuit states. The suit doesn’t not identify the plaintiffs out of safety concerns.
The two medical boards approved the new standards for gender dysphoria treatment in November at the request of Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo, who said over the summer that the risks associated with the surgeries and prescription treatment for kids is largely untested and that the risks outweigh medical benefits.
Florida Department of Health Spokesperson Nikki Whiting said the agency does not comment on pending litigation.
The National Center for Lesbian Rights, one of the groups suing the state, said the bans contradict guidelines supported by medical organizations such as the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Medical Association, and the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.
“The policy unlawfully strips parents of the right to make informed decisions about their children’s medical treatment and violates the equal protection rights of transgender youth by denying them medically necessary, doctor-recommended healthcare to treat their gender dysphoria,” the group said in a press release.
The plaintiffs plan to file a motion seeking a preliminary injunction that would halt the case until it goes through trial.
The state’s bans on transgender treatments for children followed separate rulemaking by the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration in August that banned the state’s Medicaid program from covering surgeries and hormone blockers.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
“We’re talking about thousands of people whose care will be delayed or new travel plans have to be made,” Florida Rep. Anna Eskamani, a Democrat who previously worked at Planned Parenthood, said. “It shows this is truly a bill to be cruel just to be cruel.”
Florida last year banned people from getting abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, with no exceptions for victims of rape or incest. But that law is still much less restrictive than other states across the South.
Florida’s proposal signals that the battle over reproductive rights will continue long after the high court’s decision and will be a major factor in the 2024 election cycle , especially as DeSantis eyes a likely presidential bid. DeSantis’ support for the bill shows he’s eager to continue courting the right wing of the GOP, regardless of how further restricting abortion will be received during a general election.
But Florida’s legislation also highlights how a network of providers in the state, who created an infrastructure to help patients from Georgia, Mississippi and elsewhere get abortions in the state, will need to change tactics if the six-week ban is approved.
Monthly reports obtained from the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration show that 6,708 people came from outside the state to get an abortion last year, a more than 37 percent increase compared to 2021. The sharpest increase in visitors began after the Supreme Court ruling was handed down. There were 3,917 out-of-state abortions last year between June 1 and Dec. 31, a more than 140-percent increase compared to the same time period in 2021.
More than 82,000 people total received abortions in 2022.
Clara Trullenque, a spokesperson for Planned Parenthood of South, East and North Florida, said caseloads at clinics along the state’s northern border quadrupled after the high court ruling.
“Our health centers in Tallahassee and Jacksonville receive more patients from other states where abortion access is even more restricted than it is in Florida,” Trullenque said in an email. “We are continuing to hire additional staff, extend hours and make every accommodation we can to ensure we can serve all of our patients.”
Amber Gavin, a vice president for A Woman’s Choice, an abortion clinic in Jacksonville, Fla., said a patchwork of national funding organizations, regional abortion support groups and local clinics emerged to help manage the skyrocketing number of patients.
“We’re working really closely with local and national abortion funds to make sure people who reach out to us can get care they need and that we get the care we need,” Gavin said. “There’s specialized funding to make sure they are able to get the funds to get their care.”
A Woman’s Choice’s clinic also provides information to patients from outside Florida who are looking to the Sunshine State for help. Its website states: “Need Help? We help with feeds, travel, and more. We provide abortion care from everywhere. In fact, your abortion could be fully covered if your State has banned or Severely Restricted Abortion Care, including: AL, AK, GA, KY, LA, MS, MO, OK, TN, and WV.”
Another complication is Florida’s 24-hour wait period law. A state circuit court ruling threw out a lawsuit challenging a requirement that people wait a day between an initial clinic visit and receiving an abortion. Gavin said that rule requires most out-of-state patients to make a two-day trip to Florida, and the subsequent costs of airfare, lodging, and child care quickly pile up.
“It’s already a barrier to have to come here,” Gavin said. “We’re talking about folks who are having to take off one to two days at work, the cost of travel and lodging.”
Data provided by AHCA, the state health agency, shows that most people who came to the state for an abortion over the past few years hailed from Alabama and Georgia but the number of clinics in North Florida has since dropped. In May of last year, AHCA shut down the only clinic in Pensacola after at least three patients suffered complications that were investigated for malpractice. With the Pensacola clinic closed, people were forced to seek access in already overwhelmed offices in Tallahassee and Jacksonville.
“They’ve just been coming from all over,” Gavin said.
The June Supreme Court ruling that led to the explosion of out-of-state visitors prompted regional support and logistics organizations, such as the Atlanta-based ARC Southeast, to reallocate the dollars it receives from much larger abortion fundraising groups to switch from covering doctor’s bills to paying for travel and lodging.
ARC Southeast Healthline Manager Elsie Vazquez said before the Roe ruling, only a small fraction of the money her group received went to those logistical costs. Now, at least half of that money goes toward those ancillary costs, which she called “practical support.”
“Due to the bans in many of the [southeast] states, hundreds of folks are having to travel long distances to get care,” Vazquez said. “And it’s one of the biggest barriers they face apart from paying for their abortion.”
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
Tuesday’s rally was the latest chapter in a continuing saga over whether Florida will ultimately allow students to enroll in the College Board’s upcoming class on African American history.
The Florida Department of Education first raised public concerns about the course in January by rejecting a pilot version on the grounds that it “significantly lacks educational value” and violates the state’s “anti-woke” law. State officials later elaborated that the course denial was prompted by lessons that delve too far into political agendas, broaching topics such as queer studies and abolishing prisons.
Those topics, however, are not mandatory in the official framework of the African American history course that was released Feb. 1, a turn of events that led Democrats to criticize the College Board for allegedly caving to conservatives. Officials with the College Board, however, maintain that Florida, nor any other state, influenced the course that has been under development for nearly a decade and will debut in the 2024-2025 school year.
In wake of the tense back-and-forth between the organization and Florida, DeSantis this week suggested that the state could turn away from the College Board and seek a different vendor for students to take college-level courses. He hinted that the Florida House could propose legislation to tackle just that, but nothing has been filed as of Wednesday.
The Florida Department of Education, for its part, said Wednesday the College Board has yet to submit the African American Studies course to the state for its review.
“Florida students are going to have that ability (to earn college credit) — that is not going to be diminished,” DeSantis said Tuesday at an event in Jacksonville. “In fact, we’re going to continue to expand it. But it’s not clear to me that this particular operator is the one that’s going to need to be used in the future.”
Democratic lawmakers contend that the DeSantis administration picked the fight with the College Board to help the governor’s case as a potential 2024 GOP nominee.
“That’s the rub with this guy: if you dare to speak out against him, he will come after you,” state Rep. Fentrice Driskell (D-Tampa), the House Minority Leader, said at the rally Wednesday. “That is his MO, he wants us to be intimidated and afraid.”
Alongside Democrats, Black clergy and Sharpton called for voter registration efforts as a way to stand up to the DeSantis administration for allegedly whitewashing history by opposing the African American Studies course. They also criticized DeSantis’ efforts to end diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, programs at colleges across the state.
Sharpton called DeSantis a “baby Trump” and claimed his messaging will bring together voters in opposition, citing the 2020 election when President Biden defeated former President Donald Trump.
“After Disney one day, after Blacks the next day,” Sharpton said Wednesday. “Just like a baby — give him a pacifier and let some grown folk run the state of Florida.”
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — The newly-installed conservative board of trustees at New College of Florida ousted its current president in favor of former state education commissioner Richard Corcoran Tuesday, launching the initial move in reshaping the campus under the vision of Gov. Ron DeSantis.
The decision came at the first board meeting since DeSantis appointed six new trustees with the idea of overhauling the liberal arts college in Sarasota into a more conservative-leaning institution. That track was accelerated Tuesday when the board paved the way for new leadership as students and parents protested the major changes that appear bound for New College.
“Some have said these recent appointments amount to a partisan takeover of the college. This is not correct,” said trustee Matthew Spalding, a constitutional government professor and vice president at Hillsdale College’s D.C. campus who was appointed by DeSantis. “It’s not a takeover — it’s a renewal.”
A leadership switch from President Patricia Okker to Corcoran as interim leader is one of several moves made Tuesday by the board, which also signaled its intent to abolish diversity, equity and inclusion programs on campus — all policies pushed by DeSantis. The changes are major developments at the school spurred by the new appointees, including Christopher Rufo, a conservative activist who has advised DeSantis on critical race theory, and Eddie Speir, the co-founder of Inspiration Academy, a Christian charter school in Bradenton, Fla.
Tuesday’s meeting was met with apprehension from dozens of students and parents who protested what they called a “hostile takeover” at New College. They urged Okker to stay on as president and push back against the new mandates from the DeSantis administration to model the school as a “Hillsdale of the South” in reference to the private conservative religious “classical“ college in Michigan.
Okker in an emotional address told the board — and the campus — that she couldn’t continue to serve as president amid accusations that the students are being inundated with liberal indoctrination.
“The reality is, and it’s a hard reality and it’s a sad reality, but the vision that we created together is not the vision I have been given as a mandate here,” Okker said.
In remaking the board at New College, the DeSantis administration said the school was “completely captured by a political ideology that puts trendy, truth-relative concepts above learning” and in need of change following downward enrollment trends. To move on from Okker, trustees agreed to a “generous” exit package that includes at least 12 months of paid professional development leave and benefits. Corcoran is unable to begin serving until March, leaving Okker’s chief of staff Bradley Thiessen in charge until then.
“New leadership is the expectation and I think it makes sense,” Rufo said at the meeting. “I don’t think it’s a condemnation of Dr. Okker, scholarship or skills or character.”
DeSantis’ changes at New College follow other efforts to reshape higher education in Florida. Earlier Tuesday, the GOP governor proposed several changes to Florida’s university system, including pressing the GOP-led Legislature to cut all funding for diversity, equity and inclusion programs and to allow university leaders to launch tenure review of professors. Last year, DeSantis and state Republicans placed GOP allies in top university posts and pushed legislation that could limit how professors teach race.
New College is also now set to review its Office of Outreach & Inclusive Excellence at the request of Rufo as part of the state’s stance against diversity, equity and inclusion programs in schools. Rufo originally pushed to abolish the office outright, including four positions, and take other actions tied to diversity and equity, but decided to request further details on the program for a discussion in February.
Tuesday’s meeting was tense at times, with audience members frequently shouting over and at the new trustees as they spoke. Several parents and students addressed the board before they huddled, often criticizing their plans to retool the university and asking them to leave the college alone.
Some faculty said students felt “hopeless” about what could happen at the school, which is a unique college of under 700 undergraduates where students craft personalized education plans and don’t receive letter grades.
“Many students came here to feel safe and access the education that is their right as Floridians,” Diego Villada, Assistant Professor of Theater and Performance Studies, told the board. “And the impulse to make this a place where race, intersectionality and DEI are banned indicates to them that you want everyone to be the same – to be like you.”
Trustees, though, made it clear that the New College overhaul is fully underway, a message that came the same day DeSantis pledged to invest millions of dollars into recruiting faculty to the school.
“The campus needs a deep culture change. You sat up here, you called us racists, sexists, bigots, outsiders,” said trustee Mark Bauerlein, professor emeritus of English at Emory University who was appointed by DeSantis. “We are now in a position of authority in the college. And the accusations are telling us that something is wrong here.”
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
A leadership switch from President Patricia Okker to Corcoran as interim leader is one of several moves made Tuesday by the board, which also signaled its intent to abolish diversity, equity and inclusion programs on campus — all policies pushed by DeSantis. The changes are major developments at the school spurred by the new appointees, including Christopher Rufo, a conservative activist who has advised DeSantis on critical race theory, and Eddie Speir, the co-founder of Inspiration Academy, a Christian charter school in Bradenton, Fla.
Tuesday’s meeting was met with apprehension from dozens of students and parents who protested what they called a “hostile takeover” at New College. They urged Okker to stay on as president and push back against the new mandates from the DeSantis administration to model the school as a “Hillsdale of the South” in reference to the private conservative religious “classical“ college in Michigan.
Okker in an emotional address told the board — and the campus — that she couldn’t continue to serve as president amid accusations that the students are being inundated with liberal indoctrination.
“The reality is, and it’s a hard reality and it’s a sad reality, but the vision that we created together is not the vision I have been given as a mandate here,” Okker said.
In remaking the board at New College, the DeSantis administration said the school was “completely captured by a political ideology that puts trendy, truth-relative concepts above learning” and in need of change following downward enrollment trends. To move on from Okker, trustees agreed to a “generous” exit package that includes at least 12 months of paid professional development leave and benefits. Corcoran is unable to begin serving until March, leaving Okker’s chief of staff Bradley Thiessen in charge until then.
“New leadership is the expectation and I think it makes sense,” Rufo said at the meeting. “I don’t think it’s a condemnation of Dr. Okker, scholarship or skills or character.”
DeSantis’ changes at New College follow other efforts to reshape higher education in Florida. Earlier Tuesday, the GOP governor proposed several changes to Florida’s university system, including pressing the GOP-led Legislature to cut all funding for diversity, equity and inclusion programs and to allow university leaders to launch tenure review of professors. Last year, DeSantis and state Republicans placed GOP allies in top university posts and pushed legislation that could limit how professors teach race.
New College is also now set to review its Office of Outreach & Inclusive Excellence at the request of Rufo as part of the state’s stance against diversity, equity and inclusion programs in schools. Rufo originally pushed to abolish the office outright, including four positions, and take other actions tied to diversity and equity, but decided to request further details on the program for a discussion in February.
Tuesday’s meeting was tense at times, with audience members frequently shouting over and at the new trustees as they spoke. Several parents and students addressed the board before they huddled, often criticizing their plans to retool the university and asking them to leave the college alone.
Some faculty said students felt “hopeless” about what could happen at the school, which is a unique college of under 700 undergraduates where students craft personalized education plans and don’t receive letter grades.
“Many students came here to feel safe and access the education that is their right as Floridians,” Diego Villada, Assistant Professor of Theater and Performance Studies, told the board. “And the impulse to make this a place where race, intersectionality and DEI are banned indicates to them that you want everyone to be the same – to be like you.”
Trustees, though, made it clear that the New College overhaul is fully underway, a message that came the same day DeSantis pledged to invest millions of dollars into recruiting faculty to the school.
“The campus needs a deep culture change. You sat up here, you called us racists, sexists, bigots, outsiders,” said trustee Mark Bauerlein, professor emeritus of English at Emory University who was appointed by DeSantis. “We are now in a position of authority in the college. And the accusations are telling us that something is wrong here.”
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
