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Speaker 1: Good morning, peeps, and welcome to WOKF Daily with me

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Speaker 1: your girl, Danielle Moody pre recording from the home Bunker, Folks.

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Speaker 1: I am away for a few days, but I have

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Speaker 1: done some amazing interviews, so I hope that you are

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Speaker 1: engaged and have been informed over the last couple of days.

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Speaker 1: And I'm excited today to bring to you my conversation

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Speaker 1: with Lauren Brenzel, who is the campaign director for Yes

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Speaker 1: on four Floridians Protecting Freedom. You know that we have

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Speaker 1: spent a lot of time on WOKAF speaking about the

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Speaker 1: Petri dish of hate that is the state of Florida

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Speaker 1: and what Ron DeSantis has done to roll back the

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Speaker 1: clock on women, on queer people, on black people, and

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Speaker 1: essentially turn that state into an abyss. And in this

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Speaker 1: conversation with Lauren, she talks about the on the ground

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Speaker 1: organizing effort to get an initiative on the ballot that

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Speaker 1: would grant Floridians access to abortion in the state's constitution.

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Speaker 1: At the time of our conversation, she had received over

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Speaker 1: nine hundred thousand signatures, which is what is needed to

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Speaker 1: put this referendum on the ballot. It is going to

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Speaker 1: be voted on in November in the state of Florida.

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Speaker 1: I cannot express to how just excited I was to

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Speaker 1: talk to Lauren, to hear about the work that she's

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Speaker 1: doing on the ground in Florida, to be reminded right

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Speaker 1: that there are people who are in Florida that are

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Speaker 1: fighting back against the fascist ron de Santis. And while

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Speaker 1: I continue to talk about the dangers and the existential

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Speaker 1: threat that Project twenty twenty five has in store in

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Speaker 1: a Trump two point zero never ending regime, people are

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Speaker 1: already experiencing that in states like Florida. Project twenty twenty

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Speaker 1: five is already underway in places like Florida, and so

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Speaker 1: Lauren gives us some insight into what is going on

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Speaker 1: there and also provides opportunities for you, even if you

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Speaker 1: do not live in the state, how you can support

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Speaker 1: their efforts. So that conversation is coming up next, folks.

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Speaker 1: I am very happy to welcome to OKF Daily for

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Speaker 1: the first time Lauren Brenzel, who is the campaign director

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Speaker 1: for Yes on four for Laardians Protecting Freedom, which is

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Speaker 1: a ballot initiative to you essentially protect or enshrine I

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Speaker 1: should say, abortion rights in Florida Lauren, give us the

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Speaker 1: rundown on where things are in Florida right now. We

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Speaker 1: talk about it on the show all the time. You're

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Speaker 1: horrific Governor. Every single proposal that he has put out

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Speaker 1: that just brings Florida into the depths of hell. So

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Speaker 1: talk to us on about your organization and where things

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Speaker 1: stand now with abortion rights and protections.

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Speaker 2: Florida is in a really scary place with regards to

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Speaker 2: abortion rights and protection. Florida historically was not only one

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Speaker 2: of the most expansive states for access in the Southeast,

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Speaker 2: but actually nationally so we used to have pretty limited

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Speaker 2: regulations around access to care, and we actually used to

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Speaker 2: be able to offer abortion leader in pregnancy, which is

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Speaker 2: I think there's less than five providers nationally that do

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Speaker 2: that kind of work nout. I don't want to go

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Speaker 2: too deep into it because I know that this is

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Speaker 2: not the question, but it's something that I feel incredibly

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Speaker 2: passionate about, because if you think of being in the

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Speaker 2: position where you have built a nursery, you have chosen

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Speaker 2: a name, you have imagined a life for a child,

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Speaker 2: and you find out that you have a non viable

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Speaker 2: pregnancy or you've gotten a terminal diagnosis and you have

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Speaker 2: to access later in pregnancy care. I just as an aside,

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Speaker 2: want to say, I think one of the most equal

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Speaker 2: things that the anti abortion movement has done is villainize

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Speaker 2: those women.

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Speaker 1: Yes, yep.

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Speaker 2: But after the overturn of Roe v. Wade, that same

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Speaker 2: year twenty twenty two, we saw the passage of a

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Speaker 2: fifteen week abortion ban here in Florida, and it was

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Speaker 2: a moment of realizing that our politicians here were not

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Speaker 2: going to stop at fifteen weeks. They We're going to

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Speaker 2: push as hard as they could to do a six

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Speaker 2: week ban or a near total ban, and that's exactly

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Speaker 2: what we saw. So in twenty twenty three we saw

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Speaker 2: the passage of a near total abortion ban. It is

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Speaker 2: a ban at six weeks and zero days, and that

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Speaker 2: is since last monstrel period. I've been trying to contextualize

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Speaker 2: this for people by noting that most women find out

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Speaker 2: they're pregnant at five weeks in five days. If you

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Speaker 2: research studies that show when when women find out, it's

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Speaker 2: five weeks five days, and you have to be in

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Speaker 2: a health center starting your appointment because of our twenty

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Speaker 2: four hour waiting period at five weeks and six days,

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Speaker 2: So the average Floridian finding out at the average time

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Speaker 2: women find out they're pregnant who wants to access an

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Speaker 2: abortion has twenty four hours in order to find care.

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Speaker 2: We are having people come into health centers who are

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Speaker 2: so early that they can't even see their ultra They

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Speaker 2: can't even see a pregnancy and ultrasound, so they can't

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Speaker 2: be delivered care. We are having people come in at

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Speaker 2: six weeks and one day who can't have care delivered

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Speaker 2: to them. We are having to turn patients away in

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Speaker 2: this state who are experiencing mental health crisises because they

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Speaker 2: cannot believe that this is a law in place, and

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Speaker 2: because they don't feel like they can fly to DC

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Speaker 2: or New York or Illinois to access care. The South

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Speaker 2: is in a crisis with regards to abortion access. So

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Speaker 2: there are right now who states in our entire region

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Speaker 2: that have care past six weeks, North Carolina and Virginia,

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Speaker 2: and in totality, those states see less than fifty thousand

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Speaker 2: patients per year. By context, Florida used to see eighty

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Speaker 2: four thousand patients. So you try to imagine jamming in

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Speaker 2: additional tens of thousands of patients into these states that

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Speaker 2: are already over capacity because care has been all throughout

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Speaker 2: the South, and we are already seeing devastating stories from

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Speaker 2: patients who have been denied access to care. I can't

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Speaker 2: imagine the continued magnitude of that over the upcoming years

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Speaker 2: if we don't figure out how to get constitutionally protected

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Speaker 2: access in the Southeast.

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Speaker 1: The picture that you have just painted of needing to

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Speaker 1: decide within twenty four hours what you are doing with

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Speaker 1: a pregnancy, knowing that the moment that you step inside

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Speaker 1: of a health clinic that the clock has started, is

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Speaker 1: just extraordinary. I think that unless you are a woman

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Speaker 1: or a pregnant person in that position, you can't imagine

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Speaker 1: the fear that you can't like they are, because I'm

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Speaker 1: just trying to wrap my mind around the state of

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Speaker 1: fear that you must be in, and I just, you know,

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Speaker 1: for folks to have some more context too. I always

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Speaker 1: offer this statistic, which is that a majority of Americans,

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Speaker 1: if a four hundred dollars bill came up, can't pay it. Right,

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Speaker 1: a four hundred dollar bill outside of the norm of

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Speaker 1: what you are dealing with, can't pay that bill. So

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Speaker 1: you're saying that at five weeks and six days, if

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Speaker 1: I'm in Florida, and I am now pregnant. I have

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Speaker 1: to decide if I can fly drive train to only

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Speaker 1: two states that are relatively close to Floorlorida, Virginia or

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Speaker 1: North Carolina, and then when I get there, what you're

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Speaker 1: saying to me is that then I'm also competing with

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Speaker 1: the tens of thousands of people that were already receiving

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Speaker 1: care in that state, and now the tens and tens

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Speaker 1: of thousands coming in from around the area that this

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Speaker 1: is the closest refuge that they have.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, So talk.

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Speaker 1: To us about this ballot initiative and what the possibility

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Speaker 1: if there are any, because I know that your ballot

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Speaker 1: initiative Floridians Protecting Freedom, This has now nine hundred and

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Speaker 1: ten thousand signatures or is it more? Are you over

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Speaker 1: a million?

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Speaker 2: We're at nine hundred and ninety seven. We missed that

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Speaker 2: one million markets. Okay, thousand signatures.

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Speaker 1: But nine hundred and ninety seven thousand Floridians have signed

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Speaker 1: this ballot measure stating that abortion should be a rite right,

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Speaker 1: not a privilege. Talk to us now about the steps

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Speaker 1: that follow this collection of signatures.

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Speaker 2: You won't believe this, but the process for getting a

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Speaker 2: citizens referred initiative on the ballot in Florida is incredibly

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Speaker 2: arduous and incredibly marred by governmental interference. So in order

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Speaker 2: for us to qualify, we had to not only collect

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Speaker 2: over eight hundred thousand signatures eight hundred and ninety one

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Speaker 2: five hundred and twenty three signatures, which is burned deeply

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Speaker 2: into my brain at this point, but we also had

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Speaker 2: to have Supreme Court review, which happened after we had

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Speaker 2: collected all the signatures, So we had to be done

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Speaker 2: with signatures December thirty first, they all had to be

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Speaker 2: turned in. We did not get approval to be on

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Speaker 2: the constitution or excuse me, on the ballot until April first.

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Speaker 2: So I just feel a deep appreciation for everybody who

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Speaker 2: contributed to this campaign in phase one because they were

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Speaker 2: taking a huge risk and it's so telling that word

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Speaker 2: on whether or not we would be on the ballot

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Speaker 2: was held for that long. They don't have to hold

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Speaker 2: it until April first. The decision was made to hold

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Speaker 2: until April first. We also had to do a financial

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Speaker 2: impact estimating conference where they decide what the financial impact

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Speaker 2: of this initiative would be. That has now happened twice

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Speaker 2: it happened once in a way that was correct, but

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Speaker 2: then became outdated when the six week ban was put

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Speaker 2: into effect, when the near total band was put into effect,

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Speaker 2: and then we just had one again where they wrote

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Speaker 2: deceptive and confusing language that reads more like an opposition

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Speaker 2: advertisement than it does like battle language. And that's their playbook.

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Speaker 2: They did it in Ohio, they did it in Michigan,

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Speaker 2: they're doing it in Arizona right now. There are politicians

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Speaker 2: who are so afraid of this issue that they tried

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Speaker 2: to at every step make the initiative process as hard

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Speaker 2: as possible. I want to note too, just going back,

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Speaker 2: we only had eight months to collect all of the

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Speaker 2: signatures that we needed. If we didn't have the right

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Speaker 2: amount of signatures by December thirty, first, they don't roll

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Speaker 2: over like we were going to have to restart.

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Speaker 1: To start again. Yep.

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Speaker 2: And now we have a sixty percent threshold, So Florida

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Speaker 2: has one of the highest thresholds for constitutional initiatives. For

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Speaker 2: citizens referred initiative, we have to get sixty percent of

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Speaker 2: the vote here in Florida. So our work right now

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Speaker 2: is letting every Florida impossible know that Yes on four

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Speaker 2: is the only way to end Florida's extreme abortion ban

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Speaker 2: and to limit government interference with abortion.

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Speaker 1: Here's a question that I have, which is, Okay, the

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Speaker 1: ballot initiative is now going to be voted on in November, right,

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Speaker 1: very clearly it will be You've made that happen. Can

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Speaker 1: DeSantis veto it?

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Speaker 2: No, it would be unprecedented to veto it. Which is

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Speaker 2: why I think there's so much effort being put on

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Speaker 2: the onset. We can see interference in the implementation process,

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Speaker 2: because that's what we see in Ohio, it's what we

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Speaker 2: see in Michigan, it's what we see in Kansas, It's

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Speaker 2: as we see in Kentucky. There is a playbook that

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Speaker 2: they utilize, which is try to weaponize process and weaponize

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Speaker 2: government against the people's voices at every step of the way.

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Speaker 2: But once this is pasted, it is enshrined inner state's constitution.

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Speaker 2: It exists beyond any individual person within the Florida government.

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Speaker 2: It exists beyond any administration. It is for the people,

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Speaker 2: by the people in Florida's constitution.

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Speaker 1: So, Lauren, what are you doing now to lift up

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Speaker 1: this message to educate as many people as possible. Are

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Speaker 1: you working against an opposition ballot like give us the

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Speaker 1: lay of the land, and frankly, how people that are

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Speaker 1: listening to this, whether they're inside of Florida or not,

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Speaker 1: can be helpful in getting this message out because my

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Speaker 1: thought is that you need this to be spread far

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Speaker 1: and wide across your state, across the country so people

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Speaker 1: know what they're doing on November fifth.

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Speaker 2: That is absolutely correct. We've been hitting the ground running

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Speaker 2: since May of last year when we started collecting petitions,

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Speaker 2: but we are ramping up our grassroots that are communications

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Speaker 2: efforts and direct outreach. We have a team of organizers

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Speaker 2: who are focusing on regional outreach. They're focusing on distributed outreach.

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Speaker 2: So if folks are interested in making calls, knocking doors,

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Speaker 2: sending postcards for the campaign, they should visit Floridians Protecting

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Speaker 2: Freedom dot com and we can find a way for

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Speaker 2: you to get involved. We actually structured our volunteer program

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Speaker 2: so that it not only included ways to get involved

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Speaker 2: in person. But our hope is and our belief is

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Speaker 2: that people understand how important this campaign is at a

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Speaker 2: national level for access to care and that they will

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Speaker 2: be interested in doing things like making phone calls or

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Speaker 2: sending postcards from all over the countries. So we have

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Speaker 2: organizers who are specifically focused on supporting folks who are

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Speaker 2: in more rural regions of Florida that might not have

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Speaker 2: an organizer on the ground, but there's volunteer leaders who

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Speaker 2: are organizers on the ground. And then we have folks

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Speaker 2: to help structure. If you are in Pennsylvania and you

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Speaker 2: want to have a phone bank for the US on

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Speaker 2: four campaign, we have an organizer who can support you

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Speaker 2: with that. So we're trying to create as many avenues

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Speaker 2: for everyday people to get involved in this campaign as possible.

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Speaker 2: We are also working to be in spaces like this

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Speaker 2: where we just get to share the narrative and what's important.

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Speaker 2: Florida has become a little bit of a national joke,

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Speaker 2: and it's not a joke. There are people who live

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Speaker 2: here and who survive here, and we deserve to all

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Speaker 2: live in an America where we have protected rights and

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Speaker 2: protected access. We can't have an entirely bifurcated nation. And

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Speaker 2: abortion is healthcare, like normal people understand, no matter what

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Speaker 2: their political ideology is, abortion to be healthcare. Nobody goes

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Speaker 2: into their doctor's office and hands the receptionist a voter

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Speaker 2: registration card, it's not how this process works, and the

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Speaker 2: political ideology around abortion is so out of touch with

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Speaker 2: what everyday people feel that one of our main goals

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Speaker 2: is just to talk to people about this issue and

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Speaker 2: let them know so that before they get to the

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Speaker 2: voting booth in November, they already know what this issue

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Speaker 2: is and they know that they're going to vote yes

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Speaker 2: to end Florida's abortion ban. And then we are also

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Speaker 2: trying to raise a ton of money, because that is

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Speaker 2: another part of it. Florida is a huge state. We

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Speaker 2: have over twenty one million people in the state. We're

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Speaker 2: the size of multiple states. So we have to do

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Speaker 2: everything we can to raise the resources that we need

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Speaker 2: to share the stories of Floridians who have been harmed

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Speaker 2: by these abortion bans in a way that reaches people

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Speaker 2: on radio, on TV, in their mailboxes. One of the

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Speaker 2: things that I worry the most about at night is

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Speaker 2: we have all of these brave and powerful storytellers who

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Speaker 2: are willing to share their incredibly harrowing experiences of what

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Speaker 2: Florida's bands have meant for them, and we at the

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Speaker 2: campaign want to do everything we can to make sure

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Speaker 2: that those stories get the treatment and the due diligence

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Speaker 2: that they need to be with voters across the state.

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Speaker 1: The thing is is that, yes, I think that you're

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Speaker 1: right in some ways of Florida has become a joke,

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Speaker 1: but it's also not the people right. Your governor has

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Speaker 1: become a joke. But I think that what is really

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Speaker 1: important about what you just lifted up is that real

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Speaker 1: people live there. Yeah, real people are struggling on a

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Speaker 1: day to day basis with how to exists inside of

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Speaker 1: a tyrannical state, right, And I think that what I

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Speaker 1: try and do on this show is also lift up

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Speaker 1: that what is happening in Florida is what the Republican

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Speaker 1: Party wants to do nationwide. Right where there is no

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Speaker 1: place to go, there will be no safe space where

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Speaker 1: you are targeted as a woman, as a pregnant person.

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Speaker 1: You know, there are so many things that have been

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Speaker 1: passed in that state that just have turned it into

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Speaker 1: a dystopian nightmare. I mean, that motherfucker just just blocked

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Speaker 1: arts programming, Like who does that? Like what kind of

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Speaker 1: cartoon villain does that?

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Speaker 2: You know?

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Speaker 1: And so when I think about an issue like abortion,

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Speaker 1: that I think that because of the overturning of Dobbs,

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Speaker 1: and because of the bravery of people to speak up

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Speaker 1: about their harrowing stories that people do now see it

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Speaker 1: not as a political issue but as a health issue,

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Speaker 1: because there are too many people that are becoming infertile

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Speaker 1: because of the inability to get the care that they

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Speaker 1: need with a pregnancy that has gone south. Right. Other

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Speaker 1: question for you is tell us what happens if people

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Speaker 1: don't vote.

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Speaker 2: I think that this is the one shot that we

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Speaker 2: get at this campaign. We have seen not just in Florida,

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Speaker 2: but in every state that has a citizen's initiative process

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Speaker 2: that the powers that be will push back on that

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Speaker 2: because they don't. It is intimidating to politicians to have

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Speaker 2: a system of direct democracy. Is so much of being

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Speaker 2: a politician is your vote gets me this, and my

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Speaker 2: vote gets you this, And it's the wheeling and dealing

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Speaker 2: in the trades that politicians do. So much of it is.

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Speaker 2: The issue of abortion is so endemic in that repro

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Speaker 2: folks have been screaming for years that Roby Waite was

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Speaker 2: going away yep. And there's so many politicians on both

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Speaker 2: sides of the aisle for whom the word abortion would

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Speaker 2: not come out of their mouth. And it is not

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Speaker 2: until a terrorizing event occurs that stripped access to care

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Speaker 2: that people are willing to say the word abortion and

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Speaker 2: are not actually throwing down in the way that we

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Speaker 2: need them to on this issue to provide people with

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Speaker 2: access to care. There are so many people who don't

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Speaker 2: experience pregnancy and who can't fully understand what a loss

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Speaker 2: of this access means, and it is campaign fodder for

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Speaker 2: many people. It is not healthcare. For many people. It

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Speaker 2: is something that they think of of like this is

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Speaker 2: a really efficient thing that I can run on on

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Speaker 2: whatever side they're on to mobilize. Turnout, that's not what's

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Speaker 2: going on here. Women will die because of this policy.

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Speaker 2: And so if people don't vote on this initiative in November,

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Speaker 2: I don't think we get a second fite to do

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Speaker 2: this in the way that we're doing it right now.

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Speaker 2: We are experts who are nationally talking about they think

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Speaker 2: it is thirty years before we get a durable federal

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Speaker 2: protection back for abortion, before we get something like or

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Speaker 2: hopefully better than ROW. That means there are for Laridians

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Speaker 2: today who are turning eighteen years old, who are registering

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Speaker 2: to vote for the first time, who will be entering

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Speaker 2: menopause before yeah, before, there is a durable federal protection.

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Speaker 2: So this is a shot that we get for them,

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Speaker 2: and we have to do everything we can to make

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Speaker 2: sure that every Floridian, but also folks across the nation

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Speaker 2: know that this is a shot for protected access in

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Speaker 2: the Southeast. You cannot do better than a constitutional protection,

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Speaker 2: and you cannot do better than an explicit constitutional protection.

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Speaker 2: Word abortion is set in our initiative and it's set

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Speaker 2: out loud. This is the way that we can maintain

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Speaker 2: access to care in Florida, that we can get back

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Speaker 2: access to care, and that we can ensure that there

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Speaker 2: is a protected right for our community. We have to

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Speaker 2: get people out to the polls in November. And another

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Speaker 2: thing that I would just say to listeners is if

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Speaker 2: you know someone in Florida, if you know someone in

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Speaker 2: the Southeast, tell them about this campaign. Talk to your

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Speaker 2: friends and family about this campaign, even if you don't

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Speaker 2: live here. We just need the buzz around moving on

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Speaker 2: because folks can't afford to stay home on this issue.

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Speaker 2: I also just think there's something to be said about

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Speaker 2: the party dynamic around abortion. Our path to success involves

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Speaker 2: Republican voters. It involves independent voters. We have a sixty

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Speaker 2: percent threshold. We're in a state that has a Republican

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Speaker 2: advantage for voter registration. There is something so powerful about

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Speaker 2: a message being sent that a state like Florida could

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Speaker 2: enshrine access to care and their constitution could decide to

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Speaker 2: limit government access to interfering with abortion. My belief truly

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Speaker 2: is that if we can do this here, we can

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Speaker 2: make stuffs. Definitely to put this issue to bed.

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Speaker 1: Lauren, tell people again how they can get involved, regardless

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Speaker 1: of if they are in Florida, because too many people

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Speaker 1: ask and feel very paralyzed in this moment. I don't

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Speaker 1: know what to do. I don't know what I can do.

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Speaker 1: I don't know where my power is. You are giving

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Speaker 1: them a concrete way right now that they can put

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Speaker 1: their energy towards and feel like they are they can

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Speaker 1: build hope in this way. So please tell them again

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Speaker 1: how they can get involved.

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Speaker 2: Our website is Floridians Protectingfreedom dot com. That's Floridians Protecting

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Speaker 2: Freedom dot com and you can go on there to

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Speaker 2: find information about the stories of Florida patients who have

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Speaker 2: received a dial of access to care. You can donate

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Speaker 2: if you feel generous. We have raised over a million

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Speaker 2: dollars grassroots in this campaign, so every single dollar, penny,

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Speaker 2: whatever it is, to this campaign really does matter. We're

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Speaker 2: trying to build those reserves for voter communications efforts. And

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Speaker 2: then we have an events page on our website where

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Speaker 2: you can learn about both in person and virtual options

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Speaker 2: for getting involved.

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Speaker 1: Amazing, Lauren, Thank you so very much one for making

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Speaker 1: the time for WOKF but for all of the work,

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Speaker 1: all of the blood, sweat and tears, all of the

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Speaker 1: energy that you and your group are putting together. I

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Speaker 1: hope that we will talk to you again as we

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Speaker 1: get closer to the election, and then you know that

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Speaker 1: we've talked to you after the election and after a

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Speaker 1: victory for you and for the people of Florida.

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Speaker 2: Thank you for having me.

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Speaker 1: That is it for me today. Dear friends on WOKEF

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Speaker 1: as always, power to the people and to all the people. Power,

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Speaker 1: get woke and stay woke as fuck.