Florida Attorney General Moody Mum On Abortion At ‘Moms' Summit, As Pro-Choice Protesters Shout Outside

Florida Phoenix

July 16, 2022

TAMPA — Republican Attorney General Ashley Moody railed Saturday in Tampa about radical “programming of our children,” COVID lockdowns, censorship by Big Tech, lack of enforcement of border laws, and her work to oppose a COVID vaccine mandate in federal government.

But with pro-choice demonstrators gathered on a corner near the Marriott Water Street, where the conservative activist group “Moms For Liberty” is holding a national summit, Moody did not mention abortion, which has sparked demonstrations across the nation following the U.S. Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade last month.

Moody’s team in the Office of Attorney General on July 7 asked the Florida First District Court of Appeal to send the legal dispute over Florida’s 15-week abortion ban directly to the Florida Supreme Court, where a supermajority of conservative justices would either uphold the appellate court’s stay, which was immediately appealed by the state, or let the law remain in effect, as it is now.

Demonstrators hoisted signs with slogans such as “We won’t go back, we will fight back” and “Keep your rosaries off my ovaries.” In a neighboring hotel, the JW Marriott, Florida Democrats distributed signs saying “My body, my choice.”

Never mentioning abortion in her address to a Moms For Liberty crowd estimated at 500, most of them white women, Moody said their rapid ascendence to the national stage was impressive.

“’Mom’ is a powerful word,” Moody said, in a campaign-style address that prompted cheers from the audience. “The power in this room is beginning to threaten some folks.”

Moody is campaigning for reelection in 2022 and is unopposed in the Republican primary.

Indeed, the summit features not only prominent Republican keynote speakers including members of former President Donald Trump’s Cabinet, U.S. senator and former Florida Gov. Rick Scott, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and First Lady Casey DeSantis, but also offered dozens of training sessions instructing the conservative participants how to seize majorities on local school boards around the nation.

Event organizers said the summit attracted Moms For Liberty members from 30 states, including New York, Washington and Hawaii.

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