Speaker 1: Good morning, peeps, and welcome to WOKF Daily with me
Speaker 1: your girl, Danielle Moody pre recording from the home Bunker, Folks.
Speaker 1: I am away for a few days, but I have
Speaker 1: done some amazing interviews, so I hope that you are
Speaker 1: engaged and have been informed over the last couple of days.
Speaker 1: And I'm excited today to bring to you my conversation
Speaker 1: with Lauren Brenzel, who is the campaign director for Yes
Speaker 1: on four Floridians Protecting Freedom. You know that we have
Speaker 1: spent a lot of time on WOKAF speaking about the
Speaker 1: Petri dish of hate that is the state of Florida
Speaker 1: and what Ron DeSantis has done to roll back the
Speaker 1: clock on women, on queer people, on black people, and
Speaker 1: essentially turn that state into an abyss. And in this
Speaker 1: conversation with Lauren, she talks about the on the ground
Speaker 1: organizing effort to get an initiative on the ballot that
Speaker 1: would grant Floridians access to abortion in the state's constitution.
Speaker 1: At the time of our conversation, she had received over
Speaker 1: nine hundred thousand signatures, which is what is needed to
Speaker 1: put this referendum on the ballot. It is going to
Speaker 1: be voted on in November in the state of Florida.
Speaker 1: I cannot express to how just excited I was to
Speaker 1: talk to Lauren, to hear about the work that she's
Speaker 1: doing on the ground in Florida, to be reminded right
Speaker 1: that there are people who are in Florida that are
Speaker 1: fighting back against the fascist ron de Santis. And while
Speaker 1: I continue to talk about the dangers and the existential
Speaker 1: threat that Project twenty twenty five has in store in
Speaker 1: a Trump two point zero never ending regime, people are
Speaker 1: already experiencing that in states like Florida. Project twenty twenty
Speaker 1: five is already underway in places like Florida, and so
Speaker 1: Lauren gives us some insight into what is going on
Speaker 1: there and also provides opportunities for you, even if you
Speaker 1: do not live in the state, how you can support
Speaker 1: their efforts. So that conversation is coming up next, folks.
Speaker 1: I am very happy to welcome to OKF Daily for
Speaker 1: the first time Lauren Brenzel, who is the campaign director
Speaker 1: for Yes on four for Laardians Protecting Freedom, which is
Speaker 1: a ballot initiative to you essentially protect or enshrine I
Speaker 1: should say, abortion rights in Florida Lauren, give us the
Speaker 1: rundown on where things are in Florida right now. We
Speaker 1: talk about it on the show all the time. You're
Speaker 1: horrific Governor. Every single proposal that he has put out
Speaker 1: that just brings Florida into the depths of hell. So
Speaker 1: talk to us on about your organization and where things
Speaker 1: stand now with abortion rights and protections.
Speaker 2: Florida is in a really scary place with regards to
Speaker 2: abortion rights and protection. Florida historically was not only one
Speaker 2: of the most expansive states for access in the Southeast,
Speaker 2: but actually nationally so we used to have pretty limited
Speaker 2: regulations around access to care, and we actually used to
Speaker 2: be able to offer abortion leader in pregnancy, which is
Speaker 2: I think there's less than five providers nationally that do
Speaker 2: that kind of work nout. I don't want to go
Speaker 2: too deep into it because I know that this is
Speaker 2: not the question, but it's something that I feel incredibly
Speaker 2: passionate about, because if you think of being in the
Speaker 2: position where you have built a nursery, you have chosen
Speaker 2: a name, you have imagined a life for a child,
Speaker 2: and you find out that you have a non viable
Speaker 2: pregnancy or you've gotten a terminal diagnosis and you have
Speaker 2: to access later in pregnancy care. I just as an aside,
Speaker 2: want to say, I think one of the most equal
Speaker 2: things that the anti abortion movement has done is villainize
Speaker 2: those women.
Speaker 1: Yes, yep.
Speaker 2: But after the overturn of Roe v. Wade, that same
Speaker 2: year twenty twenty two, we saw the passage of a
Speaker 2: fifteen week abortion ban here in Florida, and it was
Speaker 2: a moment of realizing that our politicians here were not
Speaker 2: going to stop at fifteen weeks. They We're going to
Speaker 2: push as hard as they could to do a six
Speaker 2: week ban or a near total ban, and that's exactly
Speaker 2: what we saw. So in twenty twenty three we saw
Speaker 2: the passage of a near total abortion ban. It is
Speaker 2: a ban at six weeks and zero days, and that
Speaker 2: is since last monstrel period. I've been trying to contextualize
Speaker 2: this for people by noting that most women find out
Speaker 2: they're pregnant at five weeks in five days. If you
Speaker 2: research studies that show when when women find out, it's
Speaker 2: five weeks five days, and you have to be in
Speaker 2: a health center starting your appointment because of our twenty
Speaker 2: four hour waiting period at five weeks and six days,
Speaker 2: So the average Floridian finding out at the average time
Speaker 2: women find out they're pregnant who wants to access an
Speaker 2: abortion has twenty four hours in order to find care.
Speaker 2: We are having people come into health centers who are
Speaker 2: so early that they can't even see their ultra They
Speaker 2: can't even see a pregnancy and ultrasound, so they can't
Speaker 2: be delivered care. We are having people come in at
Speaker 2: six weeks and one day who can't have care delivered
Speaker 2: to them. We are having to turn patients away in
Speaker 2: this state who are experiencing mental health crisises because they
Speaker 2: cannot believe that this is a law in place, and
Speaker 2: because they don't feel like they can fly to DC
Speaker 2: or New York or Illinois to access care. The South
Speaker 2: is in a crisis with regards to abortion access. So
Speaker 2: there are right now who states in our entire region
Speaker 2: that have care past six weeks, North Carolina and Virginia,
Speaker 2: and in totality, those states see less than fifty thousand
Speaker 2: patients per year. By context, Florida used to see eighty
Speaker 2: four thousand patients. So you try to imagine jamming in
Speaker 2: additional tens of thousands of patients into these states that
Speaker 2: are already over capacity because care has been all throughout
Speaker 2: the South, and we are already seeing devastating stories from
Speaker 2: patients who have been denied access to care. I can't
Speaker 2: imagine the continued magnitude of that over the upcoming years
Speaker 2: if we don't figure out how to get constitutionally protected
Speaker 2: access in the Southeast.
Speaker 1: The picture that you have just painted of needing to
Speaker 1: decide within twenty four hours what you are doing with
Speaker 1: a pregnancy, knowing that the moment that you step inside
Speaker 1: of a health clinic that the clock has started, is
Speaker 1: just extraordinary. I think that unless you are a woman
Speaker 1: or a pregnant person in that position, you can't imagine
Speaker 1: the fear that you can't like they are, because I'm
Speaker 1: just trying to wrap my mind around the state of
Speaker 1: fear that you must be in, and I just, you know,
Speaker 1: for folks to have some more context too. I always
Speaker 1: offer this statistic, which is that a majority of Americans,
Speaker 1: if a four hundred dollars bill came up, can't pay it. Right,
Speaker 1: a four hundred dollar bill outside of the norm of
Speaker 1: what you are dealing with, can't pay that bill. So
Speaker 1: you're saying that at five weeks and six days, if
Speaker 1: I'm in Florida, and I am now pregnant. I have
Speaker 1: to decide if I can fly drive train to only
Speaker 1: two states that are relatively close to Floorlorida, Virginia or
Speaker 1: North Carolina, and then when I get there, what you're
Speaker 1: saying to me is that then I'm also competing with
Speaker 1: the tens of thousands of people that were already receiving
Speaker 1: care in that state, and now the tens and tens
Speaker 1: of thousands coming in from around the area that this
Speaker 1: is the closest refuge that they have.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So talk.
Speaker 1: To us about this ballot initiative and what the possibility
Speaker 1: if there are any, because I know that your ballot
Speaker 1: initiative Floridians Protecting Freedom, This has now nine hundred and
Speaker 1: ten thousand signatures or is it more? Are you over
Speaker 1: a million?
Speaker 2: We're at nine hundred and ninety seven. We missed that
Speaker 2: one million markets. Okay, thousand signatures.
Speaker 1: But nine hundred and ninety seven thousand Floridians have signed
Speaker 1: this ballot measure stating that abortion should be a rite right,
Speaker 1: not a privilege. Talk to us now about the steps
Speaker 1: that follow this collection of signatures.
Speaker 2: You won't believe this, but the process for getting a
Speaker 2: citizens referred initiative on the ballot in Florida is incredibly
Speaker 2: arduous and incredibly marred by governmental interference. So in order
Speaker 2: for us to qualify, we had to not only collect
Speaker 2: over eight hundred thousand signatures eight hundred and ninety one
Speaker 2: five hundred and twenty three signatures, which is burned deeply
Speaker 2: into my brain at this point, but we also had
Speaker 2: to have Supreme Court review, which happened after we had
Speaker 2: collected all the signatures, So we had to be done
Speaker 2: with signatures December thirty first, they all had to be
Speaker 2: turned in. We did not get approval to be on
Speaker 2: the constitution or excuse me, on the ballot until April first.
Speaker 2: So I just feel a deep appreciation for everybody who
Speaker 2: contributed to this campaign in phase one because they were
Speaker 2: taking a huge risk and it's so telling that word
Speaker 2: on whether or not we would be on the ballot
Speaker 2: was held for that long. They don't have to hold
Speaker 2: it until April first. The decision was made to hold
Speaker 2: until April first. We also had to do a financial
Speaker 2: impact estimating conference where they decide what the financial impact
Speaker 2: of this initiative would be. That has now happened twice
Speaker 2: it happened once in a way that was correct, but
Speaker 2: then became outdated when the six week ban was put
Speaker 2: into effect, when the near total band was put into effect,
Speaker 2: and then we just had one again where they wrote
Speaker 2: deceptive and confusing language that reads more like an opposition
Speaker 2: advertisement than it does like battle language. And that's their playbook.
Speaker 2: They did it in Ohio, they did it in Michigan,
Speaker 2: they're doing it in Arizona right now. There are politicians
Speaker 2: who are so afraid of this issue that they tried
Speaker 2: to at every step make the initiative process as hard
Speaker 2: as possible. I want to note too, just going back,
Speaker 2: we only had eight months to collect all of the
Speaker 2: signatures that we needed. If we didn't have the right
Speaker 2: amount of signatures by December thirty, first, they don't roll
Speaker 2: over like we were going to have to restart.
Speaker 1: To start again. Yep.
Speaker 2: And now we have a sixty percent threshold, So Florida
Speaker 2: has one of the highest thresholds for constitutional initiatives. For
Speaker 2: citizens referred initiative, we have to get sixty percent of
Speaker 2: the vote here in Florida. So our work right now
Speaker 2: is letting every Florida impossible know that Yes on four
Speaker 2: is the only way to end Florida's extreme abortion ban
Speaker 2: and to limit government interference with abortion.
Speaker 1: Here's a question that I have, which is, Okay, the
Speaker 1: ballot initiative is now going to be voted on in November, right,
Speaker 1: very clearly it will be You've made that happen. Can
Speaker 1: DeSantis veto it?
Speaker 2: No, it would be unprecedented to veto it. Which is
Speaker 2: why I think there's so much effort being put on
Speaker 2: the onset. We can see interference in the implementation process,
Speaker 2: because that's what we see in Ohio, it's what we
Speaker 2: see in Michigan, it's what we see in Kansas, It's
Speaker 2: as we see in Kentucky. There is a playbook that
Speaker 2: they utilize, which is try to weaponize process and weaponize
Speaker 2: government against the people's voices at every step of the way.
Speaker 2: But once this is pasted, it is enshrined inner state's constitution.
Speaker 2: It exists beyond any individual person within the Florida government.
Speaker 2: It exists beyond any administration. It is for the people,
Speaker 2: by the people in Florida's constitution.
Speaker 1: So, Lauren, what are you doing now to lift up
Speaker 1: this message to educate as many people as possible. Are
Speaker 1: you working against an opposition ballot like give us the
Speaker 1: lay of the land, and frankly, how people that are
Speaker 1: listening to this, whether they're inside of Florida or not,
Speaker 1: can be helpful in getting this message out because my
Speaker 1: thought is that you need this to be spread far
Speaker 1: and wide across your state, across the country so people
Speaker 1: know what they're doing on November fifth.
Speaker 2: That is absolutely correct. We've been hitting the ground running
Speaker 2: since May of last year when we started collecting petitions,
Speaker 2: but we are ramping up our grassroots that are communications
Speaker 2: efforts and direct outreach. We have a team of organizers
Speaker 2: who are focusing on regional outreach. They're focusing on distributed outreach.
Speaker 2: So if folks are interested in making calls, knocking doors,
Speaker 2: sending postcards for the campaign, they should visit Floridians Protecting
Speaker 2: Freedom dot com and we can find a way for
Speaker 2: you to get involved. We actually structured our volunteer program
Speaker 2: so that it not only included ways to get involved
Speaker 2: in person. But our hope is and our belief is
Speaker 2: that people understand how important this campaign is at a
Speaker 2: national level for access to care and that they will
Speaker 2: be interested in doing things like making phone calls or
Speaker 2: sending postcards from all over the countries. So we have
Speaker 2: organizers who are specifically focused on supporting folks who are
Speaker 2: in more rural regions of Florida that might not have
Speaker 2: an organizer on the ground, but there's volunteer leaders who
Speaker 2: are organizers on the ground. And then we have folks
Speaker 2: to help structure. If you are in Pennsylvania and you
Speaker 2: want to have a phone bank for the US on
Speaker 2: four campaign, we have an organizer who can support you
Speaker 2: with that. So we're trying to create as many avenues
Speaker 2: for everyday people to get involved in this campaign as possible.
Speaker 2: We are also working to be in spaces like this
Speaker 2: where we just get to share the narrative and what's important.
Speaker 2: Florida has become a little bit of a national joke,
Speaker 2: and it's not a joke. There are people who live
Speaker 2: here and who survive here, and we deserve to all
Speaker 2: live in an America where we have protected rights and
Speaker 2: protected access. We can't have an entirely bifurcated nation. And
Speaker 2: abortion is healthcare, like normal people understand, no matter what
Speaker 2: their political ideology is, abortion to be healthcare. Nobody goes
Speaker 2: into their doctor's office and hands the receptionist a voter
Speaker 2: registration card, it's not how this process works, and the
Speaker 2: political ideology around abortion is so out of touch with
Speaker 2: what everyday people feel that one of our main goals
Speaker 2: is just to talk to people about this issue and
Speaker 2: let them know so that before they get to the
Speaker 2: voting booth in November, they already know what this issue
Speaker 2: is and they know that they're going to vote yes
Speaker 2: to end Florida's abortion ban. And then we are also
Speaker 2: trying to raise a ton of money, because that is
Speaker 2: another part of it. Florida is a huge state. We
Speaker 2: have over twenty one million people in the state. We're
Speaker 2: the size of multiple states. So we have to do
Speaker 2: everything we can to raise the resources that we need
Speaker 2: to share the stories of Floridians who have been harmed
Speaker 2: by these abortion bans in a way that reaches people
Speaker 2: on radio, on TV, in their mailboxes. One of the
Speaker 2: things that I worry the most about at night is
Speaker 2: we have all of these brave and powerful storytellers who
Speaker 2: are willing to share their incredibly harrowing experiences of what
Speaker 2: Florida's bands have meant for them, and we at the
Speaker 2: campaign want to do everything we can to make sure
Speaker 2: that those stories get the treatment and the due diligence
Speaker 2: that they need to be with voters across the state.
Speaker 1: The thing is is that, yes, I think that you're
Speaker 1: right in some ways of Florida has become a joke,
Speaker 1: but it's also not the people right. Your governor has
Speaker 1: become a joke. But I think that what is really
Speaker 1: important about what you just lifted up is that real
Speaker 1: people live there. Yeah, real people are struggling on a
Speaker 1: day to day basis with how to exists inside of
Speaker 1: a tyrannical state, right, And I think that what I
Speaker 1: try and do on this show is also lift up
Speaker 1: that what is happening in Florida is what the Republican
Speaker 1: Party wants to do nationwide. Right where there is no
Speaker 1: place to go, there will be no safe space where
Speaker 1: you are targeted as a woman, as a pregnant person.
Speaker 1: You know, there are so many things that have been
Speaker 1: passed in that state that just have turned it into
Speaker 1: a dystopian nightmare. I mean, that motherfucker just just blocked
Speaker 1: arts programming, Like who does that? Like what kind of
Speaker 1: cartoon villain does that?
Speaker 2: You know?
Speaker 1: And so when I think about an issue like abortion,
Speaker 1: that I think that because of the overturning of Dobbs,
Speaker 1: and because of the bravery of people to speak up
Speaker 1: about their harrowing stories that people do now see it
Speaker 1: not as a political issue but as a health issue,
Speaker 1: because there are too many people that are becoming infertile
Speaker 1: because of the inability to get the care that they
Speaker 1: need with a pregnancy that has gone south. Right. Other
Speaker 1: question for you is tell us what happens if people
Speaker 1: don't vote.
Speaker 2: I think that this is the one shot that we
Speaker 2: get at this campaign. We have seen not just in Florida,
Speaker 2: but in every state that has a citizen's initiative process
Speaker 2: that the powers that be will push back on that
Speaker 2: because they don't. It is intimidating to politicians to have
Speaker 2: a system of direct democracy. Is so much of being
Speaker 2: a politician is your vote gets me this, and my
Speaker 2: vote gets you this, And it's the wheeling and dealing
Speaker 2: in the trades that politicians do. So much of it is.
Speaker 2: The issue of abortion is so endemic in that repro
Speaker 2: folks have been screaming for years that Roby Waite was
Speaker 2: going away yep. And there's so many politicians on both
Speaker 2: sides of the aisle for whom the word abortion would
Speaker 2: not come out of their mouth. And it is not
Speaker 2: until a terrorizing event occurs that stripped access to care
Speaker 2: that people are willing to say the word abortion and
Speaker 2: are not actually throwing down in the way that we
Speaker 2: need them to on this issue to provide people with
Speaker 2: access to care. There are so many people who don't
Speaker 2: experience pregnancy and who can't fully understand what a loss
Speaker 2: of this access means, and it is campaign fodder for
Speaker 2: many people. It is not healthcare. For many people. It
Speaker 2: is something that they think of of like this is
Speaker 2: a really efficient thing that I can run on on
Speaker 2: whatever side they're on to mobilize. Turnout, that's not what's
Speaker 2: going on here. Women will die because of this policy.
Speaker 2: And so if people don't vote on this initiative in November,
Speaker 2: I don't think we get a second fite to do
Speaker 2: this in the way that we're doing it right now.
Speaker 2: We are experts who are nationally talking about they think
Speaker 2: it is thirty years before we get a durable federal
Speaker 2: protection back for abortion, before we get something like or
Speaker 2: hopefully better than ROW. That means there are for Laridians
Speaker 2: today who are turning eighteen years old, who are registering
Speaker 2: to vote for the first time, who will be entering
Speaker 2: menopause before yeah, before, there is a durable federal protection.
Speaker 2: So this is a shot that we get for them,
Speaker 2: and we have to do everything we can to make
Speaker 2: sure that every Floridian, but also folks across the nation
Speaker 2: know that this is a shot for protected access in
Speaker 2: the Southeast. You cannot do better than a constitutional protection,
Speaker 2: and you cannot do better than an explicit constitutional protection.
Speaker 2: Word abortion is set in our initiative and it's set
Speaker 2: out loud. This is the way that we can maintain
Speaker 2: access to care in Florida, that we can get back
Speaker 2: access to care, and that we can ensure that there
Speaker 2: is a protected right for our community. We have to
Speaker 2: get people out to the polls in November. And another
Speaker 2: thing that I would just say to listeners is if
Speaker 2: you know someone in Florida, if you know someone in
Speaker 2: the Southeast, tell them about this campaign. Talk to your
Speaker 2: friends and family about this campaign, even if you don't
Speaker 2: live here. We just need the buzz around moving on
Speaker 2: because folks can't afford to stay home on this issue.
Speaker 2: I also just think there's something to be said about
Speaker 2: the party dynamic around abortion. Our path to success involves
Speaker 2: Republican voters. It involves independent voters. We have a sixty
Speaker 2: percent threshold. We're in a state that has a Republican
Speaker 2: advantage for voter registration. There is something so powerful about
Speaker 2: a message being sent that a state like Florida could
Speaker 2: enshrine access to care and their constitution could decide to
Speaker 2: limit government access to interfering with abortion. My belief truly
Speaker 2: is that if we can do this here, we can
Speaker 2: make stuffs. Definitely to put this issue to bed.
Speaker 1: Lauren, tell people again how they can get involved, regardless
Speaker 1: of if they are in Florida, because too many people
Speaker 1: ask and feel very paralyzed in this moment. I don't
Speaker 1: know what to do. I don't know what I can do.
Speaker 1: I don't know where my power is. You are giving
Speaker 1: them a concrete way right now that they can put
Speaker 1: their energy towards and feel like they are they can
Speaker 1: build hope in this way. So please tell them again
Speaker 1: how they can get involved.
Speaker 2: Our website is Floridians Protectingfreedom dot com. That's Floridians Protecting
Speaker 2: Freedom dot com and you can go on there to
Speaker 2: find information about the stories of Florida patients who have
Speaker 2: received a dial of access to care. You can donate
Speaker 2: if you feel generous. We have raised over a million
Speaker 2: dollars grassroots in this campaign, so every single dollar, penny,
Speaker 2: whatever it is, to this campaign really does matter. We're
Speaker 2: trying to build those reserves for voter communications efforts. And
Speaker 2: then we have an events page on our website where
Speaker 2: you can learn about both in person and virtual options
Speaker 2: for getting involved.
Speaker 1: Amazing, Lauren, Thank you so very much one for making
Speaker 1: the time for WOKF but for all of the work,
Speaker 1: all of the blood, sweat and tears, all of the
Speaker 1: energy that you and your group are putting together. I
Speaker 1: hope that we will talk to you again as we
Speaker 1: get closer to the election, and then you know that
Speaker 1: we've talked to you after the election and after a
Speaker 1: victory for you and for the people of Florida.
Speaker 2: Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1: That is it for me today. Dear friends on WOKEF
Speaker 1: as always, power to the people and to all the people. Power,
Speaker 1: get woke and stay woke as fuck.