Rep. Anna Paulina Luna is the lone Republican member of the Florida House delegation who won’t say how she’ll vote on the state’s abortion ballot referendum — even when pressed about it by POLITICO.
“I think it’s a state’s rights issue,” she said in a brief interview on Capitol Hill in Washington on Thursday. “I don’t think that questions of policy should be placed on the ballot, and I think that there’s some things that are up for debate within the medical community alone.” Pressed again, she said, “The Supreme Court said, as a federal legislator, that my opinion on the matter doesn’t really matter.”
Pressure is mounting from the right for Luna to state a position. Gov. Ron DeSantis last weekend called out elected officials who hadn’t publicly shared how they’d vote on the ballot measure, known as Amendment 4, which he has been working to defeat through a political committee, media appearances, his state health agency and discussions with Christian groups. If passed, the referendum would make abortion legal until viability, which is around 22 to 24 weeks of pregnancy, and then after when a provider determines it’s needed for health reasons.