In Spanish ad, Debbie Mucarsel-Powell misleads on Rick Scott’s position on abortion exceptions

Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Debbie Mucarsel-Powell recently launched a Spanish-language radio ad across Florida that accused incumbent Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., of supporting limits on abortion without exceptions.

The ad said Scott "wants to take away women’s reproductive rights with no exceptions." (In Spanish, the ad says, Rick Scott "quiere quitarles los derechos reproductivos a las mujeres sin excepciones.")

Laws that govern abortion come with different exceptions, which vary by state. Some of the strictest state laws, such as in Texas and Louisiana, ban abortion at any point in pregnancy, and provide few exceptions. Other states provide more exceptions and later cutoffs.

Does Scott, a former two-term Florida governor, support restrictions "with no exceptions?" No.

Scott has defined himself as "pro-life" and supports limits on abortion, but with exceptions. He has said that if he were still Florida’s governor he would have signed the state’s current six-week abortion ban, which includes some exceptions. 

Scott has also said he prefers abortion limits at 15 weeks of pregnancy, with exceptions for rape, incest and the life of the pregnant woman, because he believes that’s what most Americans support.

Seven in 10 Americans think abortion should be legal in all or most cases, a July AP-NORC poll found. About one quarter of the respondents who said women should be able to get abortions for any reason also said states shouldn’t allow abortion after 15 weeks, The Associated Press reported.

Jonathan Turcotte, a spokesperson for Scott’s reelection campaign, told PolitiFact that "Scott opposes a national abortion ban and supports the consensus at 15-weeks with exceptions for rape, incest, and life of the mother."

Scott served as Florida’s governor from 2011 to 2019 and signed many anti-abortion policies into law, including an ultrasound-viewing requirement before women can undergo abortions. 

Nothing he signed rivaled the six-week abortion ban Gov. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., signed into law.

On April 13, 2023, Scott said on X that he would sign Florida’s six-week abortion ban if he were still governor.

He reiterated his position a year later in an interview with Spectrum Bay News 9. "If I was the sitting governor and the six-week abortion ban came in front of me, I would sign it. I’d always said I would sign it," Scott said April 16.

Florida's six-week ban includes exceptions in cases of rape, incest and human trafficking through 15 weeks of pregnancy, and if the pregnant woman’s health or life is "at serious risk of substantial and irreversible physical impairment."

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Scott has also repeated that, while he would have signed the law, he prefers a 15-week abortion limit, with exceptions for rape, incest and the life of the pregnant woman.

"So if I was writing a bill, I’d think that 15 weeks with the limitations (for rape, incest and to protect the life of the pregnant woman) is where the state’s at. I think it’s important we do what there’s consensus" for, Scott told The Hill in an April interview. 

Mucarsel-Powell’s campaign pointed to Scott’s support of Florida’s six-week law, saying it didn’t have mental health exceptions or exceptions for rape, incest and human trafficking. Florida had to clarify the exceptions in its law shortly after it took effect May 1, but it does have rape, incest and human trafficking exceptions, up to 15 weeks, and exceptions for the pregnant woman’s health.

PolitiFact reviewed news archives from Scott’s tenure as Florida governor and found no evidence he has ever supported zero exceptions for abortions.

Reproductive health experts say abortion exceptions are vague or require complicated steps that often don’t work in practice. Doctors say they wrestle with legal language that makes it difficult to determine whether a patient’s case qualifies.

For example, Alabama outlaws abortion except when there are serious health risks to the pregnant woman. Its health exception includes mental health, but requires a psychiatrist to diagnose the pregnant woman with a "serious mental illness" and document that it’s likely the woman will engage in behavior that could result in her death or the fetus’s death, KFF reported. The law doesn’t define "serious mental illness" and doesn’t allow physicians to determine what illnesses qualify for the exception. 

In complicated cases, physicians find themselves weighing patients’ medical conditions against concerns about their legal liability. The penalties for mistakes can be severe: In some states, violating abortion laws is considered a felony, and can be punishable by large fines and from a  decade to life in prison. 

Mucarsel-Powell said Scott does not support abortion exceptions.

This is inaccurate. 

Scott supports some exceptions. He has said that, if he were Florida’s governor, he would have signed the state’s current six-week abortion ban, which includes exceptions for rape and incest through 15 weeks of pregnancy and the pregnant woman’s health and life.

Scott says he prefers abortion limits at 15 weeks of pregnancy with those three exceptions, because he believes that’s what most Americans support. 

We found no examples of Scott saying exceptions should not be allowed.

We rate this claim False.

RELATED: All abortion bans include exceptions for a mother’s life. But are they working? 

PolitiFact Researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report.