Battleground House Republican dodges how she'll vote on Florida's abortion amendment

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.

Luna occupies one of just two districts in Florida that the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has targeted to flip in November. She’s a close ally to former President Donald Trump, having campaigned with him in battleground states and sat in the VIP box with him during the Republican National Convention. In November, she’ll be going up against Democrat Whitney Fox, a former transportation official who has made reproductive rights central to her campaign.

Luna hasn’t always been evasive on abortion. She expressed her opposition during her first run for Congress in 2019 , then regularly described herself as “pro-life ” and praised the overturning of Roe v. Wade . In an interview last year with EWTN , Luna recalled being in a science lab in college where she dissected a chicken embryo, and said it showed her that “life does begin at conception.” She also implied she didn’t support rape exceptions for abortion, sharing that her husband was conceived during a rape, and adding that she supported a six-week restriction in Florida.

But when asked at the Capitol how she will vote on Florida’s abortion amendment, given that “you said you’re pro-life, but haven’t said how you’d vote on this,” she replied, “that’s not true,” and added that, “I actually have spoken on it to my constituents” but didn’t elaborate on her vote or her current stance on abortion. “I answered your question,” she said after POLITICO pressed her twice more. Luna’s campaign didn’t respond to a follow-up list of questions.

In recent months, Luna has turned the reproductive health conversation toward IVF. After a brief controversy over her name being incorrectly added to a Democratic-led IVF bill, she introduced her own bill, which would cut off federal funding from states that ban IVF. She told POLITICO in March this was because she was not allowed to amend the other bill and had issues with some of the language.

Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, an influential anti-abortion group, gave Luna an A+ rating in January. Asked about her latest comments, Autumn Christensen, vice president of public policy for the organization, said it was “confident that the entire Florida delegation will unite to defeat Amendment 4.” Taryn Fenske, political spokesperson for DeSantis, praised lawmakers “who have stepped up” and added that “we hope those that haven't, will still do so,” citing the broad language of the amendment .

Meanwhile, Democrats have used Luna’s avoidance against her. “Floridians already know the truth,” Lauryn Fanguen, spokesperson for the DCCC, said of Luna. “She’s an overzealous, anti-abortion rights extremist who votes to take away women’s rights and drag Florida backwards.” Fox, her Democratic opponent who supports the abortion amendment, accused Luna of “hiding from voters,” saying that they “deserve to know where their representatives stand” on Amendment 4 and said it “proves she knows her extreme anti-choice views are out of step with Florida voters.”

But Luna also indicated Thursday that she doesn’t think abortion rights will be the deciding issue for voters. Democrats are “trying to pivot on that because the No. 1 issue for people right now is inflation and immigration,” she told reporters. “ Roe v. Wade has been overturned. That's a state's rights issue. The fact that they're even trying to dupe voters into thinking otherwise is a complete farce.”

This story first appeared in Florida Playbook. Sign up now to get all the top news on the Sunshine State, every weekday morning.