ORLANDO – Representative and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Charlie Crist says he would sign an executive order barring state agencies from closing safely operating abortion clinics if he’s elected.
He said the order would also bar the state from cooperating with the federal government or other states in prosecuting women who have abortions. He cited a right to privacy guaranteed in Florida’s constitution.
One of his opponents in the Democratic primary, Florida Commissioner of Agriculture Nikki Fried, has hit Crist on his pro-life positions when he was Florida’s Republican governor from 2007 to 2011 and for appointing an “anti-choice extremist” to the state Supreme Court.
POLITIFACT says Crist has been “consistently inconsistent” on the issue.
However, a former Planned Parenthood CEO of Southwest and Central Florida endorsed him this past week.
