According to NBC News, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has appointed state Attorney General Ashley Moody to the U.S. Senate to fill the seat vacated by Senator Marco Rubio. Rubio will soon take a position as Secretary of State in the Trump administration.
Moody was first elected as state AG in 2018 and was re-elected in 2022. She is unable to run again due to term limits. As senator, she will be required to run in a 2026 special election in order to hold Rubio’s seat for the final two years of his term. According to data from the Center for American Women in Politics, Moody’s presence in the Senate will set a new record for Republican women. After she takes her seat, there will be a total of 10 female Republican senators in office. Three of these senators — Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) — typically vote in favor of abortion instead of against it.
Moody, however, has a strong pro-life track record. In 2022, she pursued civil action against four pro-abortion activists for vandalizing and intimidating pro-life pregnancy resource centers in the state, in violation of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act. According to attorneys with First Liberty Institute and Lawson Huck Gonzalez, PLLC, Moody’s lawsuit was the first instance of a state AG using the FACE Act to prosecute pro-abortion assailants since the fall of Roe v. Wade in June 2022. A settlement was reached in that case.
“We will not allow radicals to threaten and intimidate women seeking help from crisis pregnancy centers or the counselors and health care professionals serving these women and their babies,” Moody said at the time. “In Florida, illegal actions have consequences, and I am proud of the work our attorneys did in this case to make sure these extremists were held accountable.”
In 2023, lawmakers in Florida first considered legislation to protect preborn children from abortion beginning at first detectable heartbeat (around six weeks gestation), though the heart first beats by 22 days post-fertilization. At the same time, the state Supreme Court was reviewing the state’s 15-week abortion law. Moody’s office filed a 67-page brief, arguing that the justices should rule that a privacy clause in the Florida Constitution does not protect abortion rights — and they did.
READ: Florida pregnancy center vandals face fines and possible prison time after AG’s civil action
In April 2024, Moody joined a 17-state coalition of attorneys in filing a lawsuit against the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) for instituting a new rule that required both state and private employers to accommodate abortion through the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act of 2022. Any employer who failed to provide accommodations for any abortion as a “related medical condition” in pregnancy would be in jeopardy of facing a federal suit — a move not authorized by Congress.
“Unelected commissioners under the Biden administration are seeking to hijack protections for pregnant workers by twisting language into an illegal interpretation of the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act of 2022,” Moody said. “We are fighting back against the unprecedented, attempted mutation of these laws.”
Also in 2024, Moody opposed Florida’s pro-abortion constitutional Amendment 4, asking the state Supreme Court not to accept the ballot initiative, due to the measure’s misleading and deceptive language. Moody had previously filed a brief arguing that the Amendment’s language was unclear, particularly because it failed to define terms such as viability, health, and healthcare provider.
“It hides behind an uninformative parroting of the text of the amendment to veil from voters its potentially expansive scope,” she said. “The ballot summary thus contravenes one of the important prerequisites for an amendment initiative to go on the ballot: that the ballot summary explains to voters ‘the chief purpose of the measure’ in ‘clear and unambiguous language.’” Ultimately, Amendment 4 failed to pass, as it fell short of receiving 60% of the votes in the November 2024 elections.
Governor DeSantis’ chief of staff, James Uthmeier, is expected to replace Moody as attorney general.
Tell President Trump, RFK, Jr., Elon, and Vivek:
Stop killing America’s future. Defund Planned Parenthood NOW!
