This November, voters will decide whether to enshrine abortion rights into the state constitution through Amendment Four.
But not if Gov. Ron DeSantis has anything to say about it.
The governor railed against the ballot measure during a press conference in Jacksonville on Tuesday. He was joined by doctors who told personal stories and shared anecdotes about why they do not support the measure.
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.
DeSantis called the measure a “bait and switch.”
“If it were to pass, that would take away people’s rights because this eliminates the right for parents to consent for a minor to have an abortion,” the governor said. “That’s current law in Florida, that you have parental consent.”
However, Floridians Protecting Freedom, the group responsible for getting the initiative on the ballot, said that is not the case.
They say parents would maintain their existing rights under the law.
In addition, the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida says the measure would continue to uphold the legislature’s constitutional authority to require a parent or guardian to be notified before a minor had the procedure.
The amendment’s language reads “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.”
But DeSantis says the term viability is “ill-defined” and “deceptive.”
“If you read the way the amendment’s written, they create even an exception to that that effectively swallows the rule because they say any health care provider can greenlight an abortion up until the moment of birth, to, quote, protect the patient’s health,” the governor said.
But Floridians Protecting Freedom maintains that viability is different in every pregnancy and said the amendment uses the terminology and its meaning provided within Florida’s statutes.
The group adds abortions that far into pregnancy are extremely rare, and are typically the result of either fetal abnormalities or serious risks to the mother.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the average number of abortions performed after 21 weeks nationally was less than 1 percent, according to the most recent data from 2021 provided by 46 states.
“These are things you don’t get a mulligan on,” DeSantis said. “Once it’s in the Constitution, there really is no going back.”
