Anna Paulina Luna takes heat for staying quiet on abortion amendment

At a gathering of Florida Republicans over the weekend, Gov. Ron DeSantis thanked nearly two dozen elected Republicans for publicly opposing a constitutional amendment that would expand abortion access in the state.

Not among the politicians mentioned by DeSantis: U.S. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna.

“The others that I have not named have not taken a position against Amendment 4,” DeSantis said. “To me, that’s untenable.”

The pressure on Luna, who represents much of Pinellas County, is notable as she faces Democrat Whitney Fox in what is widely predicted to be one of Florida’s closest congressional races. Fox, the former communications director for the Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority, has made abortion a centerpiece of her campaign. She’s a vocal supporter of Amendment 4.

In an Instagram post earlier this month, Fox criticized Luna for “hiding from voters on Amendment 4.”

When asked how she’d be voting on the amendment, Luna’s campaign did not respond. Fox News didn’t get a response from Luna’s team when it asked the same question last month.

The relative quiet from Luna is notable given how aggressively DeSantis has campaigned against the abortion amendment — and how outspoken Luna has been on other issues.

DeSantis has marshaled his political power and the power of Florida’s government against the amendment. His chief of staff, James Uthmeier, is leading a group opposing the amendment. A representative from the governor’s office pushed to include a financial impact statement on the ballot that warns the Amendment could lead to taxpayer-funded abortions. The group behind Amendment 4 called the impact statement a “dirty trick.”

DeSantis has also said his election police force is looking into already validated petitions for Amendment 4 for potential fraud. And DeSantis’ Agency for Health Care Administration last week launched a webpage warning Floridians about what it describes as the dangers of the amendment. Supporters of the amendment, including Fox, have decried these moves as extreme attempts to inject politics into the state’s official business.

Amendment 4 would stop lawmakers from enacting measures that “prohibit, penalize, delay, or restrict abortion before viability or when necessary to protect the patient’s health, as determined by the patient’s healthcare provider.” It would undo the state’s ban on most abortions after six weeks.

Although Luna has not weighed in on these controversies, she did praise the six-week bill, drawing fire from Fox.

It’s not the first time the conservative U.S. representative has been criticized for her stance on the topic. In 2022, Democrat Eric Lynn ran ads in which Luna called herself a “pro-life extremist.” Earlier this year, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee criticized Luna for supporting abortion bans that come with no exceptions for rape or incest.

And this summer, Fox slammed Luna for insisting her name be removed from a Democrat-sponsored bill that would have protected access to in vitro fertilization. Luna later introduced her own bill on IVF and said her name was added to the first measure without her knowledge.