Ashley Moody on Abortion and Reproductive Health: Defending Florida's 15-Week Ban That Opened the Way to the Six-Week Ban, the Planned Parenthood Medicaid Cutoff, and the Abortion Pill

As Florida attorney general, Ashley Moody kept Florida's 15-week abortion ban in force: on July 5, 2022, hours after a judge blocked it, the Attorney General of Florida filed an appeal that automatically put the ban back into effect, and her office then argued that a new law preventing abortions after 15 weeks should stay in effect during the case. The Florida Supreme Court upheld the 15-week ban on April 1, 2024, a ruling that means a subsequently passed six-week ban can soon take effect. In 2024, the year the six-week ban took effect, abortions in Florida were down 28%.

Moody also signed the states' brief in Dobbs asking the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn Roe, and in 2023 she asked the Florida Supreme Court to keep an abortion-rights amendment off the 2024 ballot. 57.17% of Florida voters later voted for it, short of the 60% needed.

As a senator, on July 1, 2025, Moody cast one of the 50 votes that passed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which barred federal Medicaid payments to Planned Parenthood for a year, after voting against removing that provision; a Planned Parenthood clinic in Lakeland closed and isn’t expected to reopen. On March 25, 2026, she voted against taking up a resolution to overturn the Veterans Affairs rule that ended abortion care for veterans, and in October 2025 she signed a letter with 50 other Republican senators asking the FDA to restrict the abortion pill mifepristone.

Ashley Moody's Court Filings, Votes, Confirmations and Letter on Abortion

• Moody Put Florida's 15-Week Abortion Ban Back in Force Within Hours of a Court Order Blocking It, and Defended It Until the Six-Week Ban Took Effect. On July 5, 2022, a Leon County judge temporarily blocked HB 5, Florida's ban on most abortions after 15 weeks, and hours later, as Clearinghouse records, the Attorney General of Florida filed an appeal, which automatically stayed the trial court’s injunction and reinstated HB 5. The News Service of Florida reported that Attorney General Ashley Moody’s office Thursday argued that a new law preventing abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy should remain in effect during the legal fight. At the Florida Supreme Court's September 8, 2023 argument, which she attended, Moody told reporters: "I happen to believe, very passionately, that life needs to be protected" and that lawmakers should be able to do that. On April 1, 2024, the Florida Supreme Court upheld the 15-week ban, a ruling that means a subsequently passed six-week ban can soon take effect, and legal challenges held up its implementation until last May, Jacksonville Today reported in 2025. Under the six-week ban, Florida's statewide total of 60,755 abortions in 2024 was down 28% from 84,052 in 2023.
• Moody Signed the States' Brief Asking the Supreme Court to Overturn Roe in 2021. On July 29, 2021, as Florida attorney general, Moody signed the states' amicus brief in Dobbs, which asked the Supreme Court to overrule Roe and Casey, and the signature block lists ASHLEY MOODY among the state attorneys general. On June 24, 2022, the Court ruled: The Constitution does not confer a right to abortion; Roe and Casey are overruled. Florida's 15-week ban began in 2022 after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, and the six-week ban followed in 2024.
• Moody Asked the Florida Supreme Court to Keep the Abortion-Rights Amendment Off the 2024 Ballot. On October 31, 2023, Moody urged the Florida Supreme Court to reject the proposed abortion-rights amendment, and WMNF and the News Service of Florida reported that Moody filed a 39-page brief contending that the proposal should be kept off the 2024 ballot because, she argued, the ballot summary would mislead voters, and she described the measure as an effort to “hoodwink” voters. The court let the measure go to voters, and in November 2024 Amendment 4 received Yes 57.17% 6,070,758 votes, a majority of Florida voters, but short of the 60% a constitutional amendment needs, so the six-week ban her office had defended stayed in force.
• Moody Cast One of the 50 Votes for the Law That Cut Off Planned Parenthood's Medicaid Payments for a Year. On July 1, 2025, Ashley Moody voted yes on H.R. 1, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which passed 50-50 with the Vice President's vote, so it would have failed without her vote. Section 71113 barred federal Medicaid payments to large nonprofit family planning providers that also offer abortions for the 1-year period beginning on the date of the enactment, July 4, 2025. Medicaid patients could no longer use their coverage at those clinics for birth control, STI tests or cancer screening. Planned Parenthood said Nearly 30 health centers, which served roughly 41,000 birth control patients, have been forced to close in that year, and that almost 25% fewer birth control pill packs were dispensed. The ban expired in July 2026, but a Planned Parenthood clinic in Lakeland, Florida isn’t expected to reopen (AP). The same law's Medicaid work requirements, starting in 2027, threaten to eliminate Medicaid coverage for 2.1 million women aged 19-49, the Guttmacher Institute estimates.
• Moody Voted Against Removing the Planned Parenthood Cutoff in June 2025. On June 30, 2025, Moody voted no on Senator Patty Murray's motion to waive the Budget Act for Amendment 2771, which would have struck the Planned Parenthood provision from the bill. The motion failed 49-51. Had it passed, Medicaid patients would have kept their coverage at the clinics where, according to Planned Parenthood, two-thirds (66%) of health center closures occurred in rural areas or places short of doctors in the following year.
• Moody Voted to Keep the Rule Ending Abortion Care for Veterans in March 2026. On March 25, 2026, Moody voted no on taking up S.J.Res. 103, a resolution to overturn the Department of Veterans Affairs rule on reproductive health services. The motion to proceed failed 48-50, so the resolution never reached a vote. As Florida attorney general, she had joined a November 2022 letter of Republican attorneys general warning the VA against its abortion rule, whose signers included Ashley Moody of Florida. The new rule, effective January 30, 2026, was issued to reinstate the exclusions on abortions and abortion counseling from the medical benefits package, including for CHAMPVA family members. It ended a 2022 policy that allowed VA medical personnel to conduct abortions in cases of rape or incest, and the VA now prohibits the procedure at VA medical facilities unless the life of the mother is endangered (Military Times). Senator Mazie Hirono said the rule limits care for 460,000 women veterans of reproductive age.
• Moody Voted to Confirm Doug Collins, Whose Department Wrote the Rule Ending Abortion Care for Veterans. On February 4, 2025, Moody voted to confirm Doug Collins as Secretary of Veterans Affairs. Collins's department issued the final rule that took effect in January 2026, under which a veteran who becomes pregnant after rape or incest can no longer get an abortion, or counseling about one, through the VA.
• Moody Voted to Confirm Mehmet Oz, Whose Agency Withdrew Federal Guidance on Emergency Abortion Care. On April 3, 2025, Moody voted to confirm Mehmet Oz as Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Two months later, Healio reported that CMS is rescinding a Biden administration-era policy on abortion care for women in medical emergencies, guidance that had told emergency room doctors that when an abortion is the treatment needed to stabilize a patient, the physician must provide that treatment. In Texas, a state with a ban, ProPublica found that blood transfusions during emergency room visits for first-trimester miscarriage shot up by 54%.
• Moody Cast a Deciding Vote to Confirm Pete Hegseth, Whose Pentagon Stopped Paying for Troops to Travel for Abortion Care. On January 24, 2025, Moody voted to confirm Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense. The vote was 50-50 and the Vice President broke the tie, so Hegseth would not have been confirmed without Moody's vote. Days later NBC News reported that the Pentagon has rescinded a Biden administration policy that reimbursed service members and dependents for travel to states where abortion is legal. The policy had covered troops and families who had to cross state lines because they were stationed in a state where abortion care was outlawed or unavailable.
• Moody Voted to Confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Whose Department Withheld Family Planning Money for Most of 2025. On February 13, 2025, Moody voted to confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Secretary of Health and Human Services. That spring his department withheld grant payments to 144 Planned Parenthood sites in 20 states under Title X, the federal family planning program for low-income patients. The money was released in December 2025, but Planned Parenthood says dozens of clinics that closed because of the withheld money are unlikely to reopen (Michigan Advance).
• Moody Signed a Letter Asking the FDA to Restrict the Abortion Pill in October 2025. In October 2025, Moody was one of 51 Republican senators who signed a letter to Kennedy and FDA Commissioner Martin Makary, and the signer list includes Ashley Moody (R-FL). The letter asked them to reinstate the in-person dispensing requirement for mifepristone and all its generic versions and to suspend the distribution of mifepristone and all generic versions as an imminent hazard. NOTUS reported that the requests would heavily restrict access to abortion pills nationwide. In a KFF poll in June 2026, Americans said they oppose laws that would ban mifepristone nationwide (65%). The FDA's re-evaluation of the drug's safety is now underway, KFF reported.
• Moody Voted Against a Budget Pledge to Protect Medicaid Care for Mothers and Children in February 2025. On February 20, 2025, Moody voted no on an amendment to the Senate budget resolution that would have set up a reserve fund for protecting access to maternal and pediatric health care. It was rejected 49 to 51. Medicaid covers 41% of all US births, the Guttmacher Institute reports, and the budget process that followed produced the 2025 law's Medicaid cuts.

What Ashley Moody's Abortion Record Has Meant for Florida

• Six-week ban. Under the six-week ban that took effect after the 2024 ruling, the number of patients from other states who got abortions in Florida fell 51% to 3,754 in 2024, the first decline in five years.
• Lakeland clinic. Planned Parenthood's Florida affiliate said its closed clinic in Lakeland isn’t expected to reopen, partly out of concern that Medicaid payments could be cut off again, after the year-long federal ban in the 2025 law Moody voted for.
• Florida veterans. Under the VA rule Moody voted to keep, VA hospitals and clinics in Florida prohibit the procedure at VA medical facilities unless the life of the mother is endangered, with no exception for veterans who become pregnant after rape or incest.

Frequently Asked Questions About Ashley Moody on Abortion and reproductive health

Last updated: 2026-10-25

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