While some states require a simple majority vote, Florida requires at least 60 percent of the vote to pass a constitutional amendment.
TAMPA—Floridians will be joining voters from nine other states to decide if deregulated abortion access should be enshrined in their state constitution this election. Voters in seven other states have already said yes.
Amendment 4, known as the “Amendment to Limit Government Interference with Abortion,” the ballot initiative has been touted as either an act of liberation or a measure based on disinformation, depending on which side is describing it.
Kelsey Pritchard, director of state public affairs for Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, said “It’s all deception.”
“When you look at the way they have intentionally crafted and worded this amendment, you understand what it will actually do,” Pritchard told The Epoch Times.
Meanwhile, Floridians Protecting Freedoms has been encouraging the state to “Vote Yes On 4,” promoting it as the only way to overturn the current restrictions.
“As of May 1, 2024, Floridians are living under a near-total abortion ban before most women even realize they are pregnant, with no real exceptions for rape, incest, or the health of the woman,” the organization stated in a press release.
Current Florida law, which took effect May 1, states that abortion is illegal once a pregnancy passes the six-week mark. The law includes limited exceptions for situations involving rape, incest, human trafficking, or a serious threat to the mother’s physical health.
While other states require a simple majority vote to pass a ballot measure, proposed amendments on Florida’s ballots require a 60 percent popular vote to pass, and recent polls suggest that might not happen.
Securing 60 Percent of the Vote
A statewide poll conducted by local polling organization StPetePolls found that 54 percent of the voters surveyed were in favor of Amendment 4. The poll included more than 1,200 likely Florida voters between Oct. 23 and Oct. 25.
Voters against the amendment accounted for 38 percent, and nearly 8 percent said they were either undecided or would not say their opinion. StPetePolls declared a 2.8 percent margin of error.
Florida Atlantic University’s recent poll also suggests that support for the abortion amendment is below the minimum threshold.
Out of a group of more than 900 likely Florida voters surveyed in late October, 58 percent said they were in support of the amendment, with 32 percent declaring opposition and 11 percent saying they still did not know. Florida Atlantic’s margin of error was set at 3.2 percent.
An earlier poll conducted by the University of North Florida suggested that the support to pass the Amendment existed. More than 970 likely Florida voters were polled from Oct. 7 to Oct. 18 by the school’s Public Opinion Research Lab (PORL), and approval was clocked at the necessary 60 percent, with 32 percent saying they would vote no and 8 percent saying they did not know.
However, PORL faculty director and professor of political science, Michael Binder, said the 60 percent represented a decline in voter support for Amendment 4.
“Since campaigning has picked up against the amendment, support for abortion protection has dropped from 69 percent of likely voters back in July,” Binder said in a press release. “Now, just barely reaching the 60 percent it needs to pass, it looks like the fate of abortion in Florida will come down to turnout on Election Day.”
Pritchard told The Epoch Times that her organization is also noticing a drop in the polls as more people are educated on the amendment.
“We’re finding that the more people are educated on what the amendment actually does, the kinds of things that Gov. DeSantis is bringing awareness on, the more they say they’re going to vote no on this issue,” she said.
In order to even be considered for a spot on the ballot, though, an amendment’s sponsors have to acquire a certain number of petition signatures from registered voters across the state. Florida residents have filed a lawsuit arguing the requisite number wasn’t reached and request the ballot initiative vote be ruled null and void.
Their argument is based on a petition fraud investigation by the Florida Office of Election Crimes and Security, which projected that 16.4 percent of the signatures were either mistakenly verified or likely fraudulent, putting the initiative 163,514 signatures short of the required minimum.
Amendment Language
Voters will see a summary of the amendment on their ballots, which states the following:
“No law shall 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. This amendment does not change the Legislature’s constitutional authority to require notification to a parent or guardian before a minor has an abortion.”
What voters won’t see on the ballot is the state’s financial and budget impact statement, which calls attention to potential ambiguity in the amendment.
“The increase in abortions could be even greater if the amendment invalidates laws requiring parental consent before minors undergo abortions and those ensuring only licensed physicians perform abortions,” the statement reads. ”There is also uncertainty about whether the amendment will require the state to subsidize abortions with public funds.”
The amendment’s “uncertainties” are expected to be resolved in the courts if passed.
The argued lack of clarity and transparency on the part of the amendment’s authors and out-of-state activist groups has been criticized by Florida’s Gov. Ron DeSantis for the past several months. The Florida governor has spoken out along with several doctors, including Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo.
Former President Donald Trump, who will be voting as a Florida resident, also came out against Amendment 4, calling it “radical.” However he also spoke against the current six-week abortion window.
“And when you talk about radical … doing an abortion in the ninth month is unacceptable to anybody,” Trump said on Aug. 30. “There’s something in between, but the six [weeks] is too short, it’s just too short a period, and the nine months is unacceptable.”
“But for that reason, for the radicalization on the Democrat side, we’re voting no,” Trump said.
Amendment 4 creates too many problems, Pritchard said, when asked what to say to pro-choice voters, who may be unhappy with Florida’s current law but who are not extreme in their abortion stance.
Under Amendment 4, a minor who isn’t old enough to get her ears pierced on her own, will be able to get an abortion at any stage of her pregnancy, without her parents’ knowledge, Pritchard said.
The amendment would deregulate the abortion industry to a point it will put women in danger, she said. And Floridians who are “personally pro-life” are still going to have to pay for someone’s abortion through their taxes.
Floridians Protecting Freedom spoke out against the amendment’s financial impact statement, saying, “the state of Florida weaponized this process to add deceptive and confusing language to the ballot.” It has dedicated an entire webpage to denying the claims made by its opposition.
Advocating for the amendment are more than 850 Florida doctors, who published a letter voicing their endorsement.
“As physicians, we have sworn an oath to do no harm and to provide effective, evidence-based treatment to our patients,” they state in the letter. The doctors say under Florida’s current abortion law, they have been forced to ”make decisions counter to that oath.”
“We must choose between following an unyielding law and denying our patients essential medical care, or providing that care while risking loss of our licenses and even facing criminal charges,” the latter states.
The Epoch Times reached out to Floridians Protecting Freedoms for further comment.
Steven Kovac, Caden Pearson, and the Associated Press contributed to this report.