The amendment that would have enshrined abortion rights in Florida did not reach the 60% threshold required to pass on election night.
Sarah Parker, Executive Director of Voices of Florida, is part of the coalition responsible for putting the measure on the ballot, Floridians Protecting Freedom.
Despite the loss, organizers are mobilizing to continue their fight to overturn the state’s 6-week abortion ban.
“Everyone is ready. They’re ready. They do not feel defeat,” Parker said. “They do not take this as a loss. Was it a win? Certainly not. But it was not a loss.”
Florida is one of the few states that requires a supermajority to amend the state’s constitution, and the measure nearly reached it with 57%.
“(A) majority of Floridians spoke last night. They do not want this ban,” Parker said. “They made it very loud and very clear. And had we been any other state we would be celebrating right now.”
More than six million Floridians voted in favor of Amendment Four – which Parker said is still a win.
Lauren Brenzel is the director for the Yes on 4! campaign.
She said the measure’s failure is the “culmination of unprecedented attacks from state actors to try to protect an extreme abortion ban.”
“We saw the utilization of tens of millions of dollars in taxpayer funding,” Brenzel said. “We saw lies told about parental consent and about later in-pregnancy abortion.”
Gov. Ron DeSantis toured the state holding press conferences bashing against Amendment 4, calling the measure a “bait and switch.”
The ballot initiative’s language has been a hotly discussed topic. DeSantis called it “ill-defined” and said the amendment was deceptive.
“They’re just simply telling lies about Florida policies and law. They are all lies. Everything you’re seeing on the TV, that has just been their way to do it,” he said at a press conference last month in Jacksonville.
Both Brenzel and Parker said organizers will do everything they can to repeal the state’s abortion ban this legislative session.
“We’re going to do it — take the movement and the power that this coalition has built, and we’re going to take that movement of power and take it right up to Tallahassee,” Parker said. “We’re going to take it to their doorsteps. We’re going to make it obvious and very clear what we want.”
“And what we want is for that near-total abortion ban to be overturned,” she added.
