By Jim Saunders ©2024 The News Service of Florida
TALLAHASSEE — A ballot proposal that would have enshrined abortion rights in the Florida Constitution failed Tuesday, giving a major political victory to Gov. Ron DeSantis — and dealing a huge blow to abortion-rights supporters.
The measure, which appeared on the ballot as Amendment 4, received support from 57 percent of voters, short of the required 60 percent approval to pass.
The failure of the amendment ensures that a law largely preventing abortions after six weeks of pregnancy will remain in effect.
“The demise of pro-abortion Amendment 4 is a momentous victory for life in Florida and for our entire country,” SBA Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser said in a prepared statement. “Thanks to Gov. Ron DeSantis, when we wake up tomorrow, babies with beating hearts will still be protected in the free state of Florida.”
The proposal was spearheaded by the Floridians Protecting Freedom political committee. While the 57 percent support was short of the needed 60 percent, Lauren Brenzel, a spokeswoman for Floridians Protecting Freedom, said a “bipartisan group of voters today sent a clear message to the Florida Legislature” that it should end the six-week law.
“It is devastating that Amendment 4 has failed,” state Sen. Lori Berman, D-Boca Raton, said in a statement. “This was our opportunity to safeguard the right to choose, and now, Floridians will continue to face uncertainty and restrictions on their reproductive rights. The consequences will be most harmful to marginalized communities who already struggle to access care.”
DeSantis also helped successfully lead efforts to defeat another proposed amendment, Amendment 3, that would have allowed the recreational use of marijuana in the state. DeSantis’ chief of staff, James Uthmeier, chaired two political committees that raised more than $30 million to help defeat the measures.
“We fought the good fight, we kept the faith, and we finished the race,” Uthmeier said in a post on Tuesday night on X. “Thanks to @GovRonDeSantis and our great team for everything they sacrificed over the past months to protect our great state from amendments that sought to attack our families and way of life. To other states facing these challenges — you can win, but you must fight!”
In states across the country, abortion-rights battles have played out in ballot measures since the U.S. Supreme Court in 2022 overturned the decades-old Roe v. Wade abortion decision. But unlike other states, Florida requires support from 60 percent of voters — rather than a simple majority — to pass constitutional amendments.
The Floridians Protecting Freedom committee began working to pass the constitutional amendment last year after DeSantis and the Republican-controlled Legislature approved the six-week law. That law took effect in May after a Florida Supreme Court ruling.
The proposed amendment said, in part, that 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.”
Floridians Protecting Freedom raised $110.69 million in cash and received $7.94 million in in-kind contributions to get the measure on the ballot and to campaign for its passage. But DeSantis’ efforts to defeat the initiative included state agencies running controversial ads and taking other steps aimed at dissuading voters from supporting it.
As an example of the other steps, the state Department of Health sent threatening letters to broadcasters alleging that a Floridians Protecting Freedom television ad posed a public “health nuisance.” The political committee filed a lawsuit, and chief U.S. District Judge Mark Walker issued a temporary restraining order blocking state officials from taking action against TV stations.
Supporters of the amendment argued, in part, that the state’s six-week law jeopardizes the lives and health of women who need abortions for medical reasons. But DeSantis and his allies tried to paint the amendment as extreme.
