A proposed amendment to Florida’s state constitution that would expand abortion rights in Florida is getting closer to making its way onto the statewide ballot for voters in 2024.
New numbers released by the state Division of Elections Office on Friday show the group spearheading the effort, Floridians Protecting Freedom, has gathered 621,690 verified signatures from Floridians in support of getting the measure onto the November 2024 ballot — which is nearly 70% of the total signatures needed. Nearly one-third of signatures gathered so far have been gathered by volunteers, according to FPF.
Floridians Protecting Freedom, a coalition of advocacy groups that support abortion rights, needs a minimum of 891,523 signatures verified by the state by Feb. 1, 2024, to meet signature requirements under state law.
“Today’s update shows that thanks to the amazing work of our partners, allies, staff and volunteers from throughout the state, we are poised to meet the threshold necessary to make the ballot in 2024,” said Floridians Protecting Freedom campaign director Lauren Brenzel in a statement.
“Even with the updated total of verified signatures, our internal count is still significantly higher than what you’re seeing on the Division of Elections website,” Brenzel added. “We are very confident we will meet the deadline to have the required number of verified petitions to qualify for next year’s ballot.”
But the fight to expand abortion rights in Florida, where abortion is currently banned after 15 weeks of pregnancy, is not over yet.
Other ballot measure requirements, such as ballot language approval from the state Supreme Court — a process Florida’s Republican Attorney General Ashley Moody is seeking to thwart — must also be met.
Attorney General Ashley Moody, like elected public officials in some other Republican-controlled states that are seeing similar citizen–led initiatives, is on a mission to prevent the abortion rights amendment from making it onto the ballot.
The proposed amendment, as submitted by Floridians Protecting Freedom, 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.”
Moody, who has described herself as “pro-life,” argued in a November brief filed with the state Supreme Court — which is packed with conservatives — that the term “viability” should be clearly defined because otherwise voters might get confused.
Viability is generally understood (and already defined under Florida state law) to mean the point in a person’s pregnancy when a fetus can survive outside of the womb — at roughly 24 weeks. Another definition, which Moody lays out in her argument, is when a pregnancy is deemed viable, which is much earlier on.
Amendment supporters argue that “viability” as it’s defined under state law is the common understanding of the term, and Moody’s argument is a case of inserting her own politics into the process.
“This is a disingenuous argument by a politician desperate to block Floridians from voting on this amendment,” said Brenzel. Voters know what the term means, Brenzel adds, “and they will see right through this effort to silence their voice.”
Others agree. A group of former Republican elected officials and OB-GYNs filed two briefs in support of the amendment’s placement on the ballot earlier this month.
“In fact, the ballot summary contains clear and unambiguous language,” the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists wrote in a brief. “Both the U.S. Supreme Court and the State of Florida have used the term in connection with abortion for more than five decades in a way that is widely understood by clinicians, courts and the public to mean the point in a pregnancy where a fetus may be expected to survive outside of the uterus.”
“Unfortunately,” the brief adds, “the term viability is increasingly misrepresented in the current battles on abortion based on ideological principles rather than sound science or accurate medicine.”
A new poll from the University of North Florida’s Public Opinion Lab found over 60% support for the proposed ballot measure in a survey of Florida voters. From the poll, 62% of voters indicated they would vote “yes” on the measure, including a majority (53%) of Republican respondents.
Voters in a over a half-dozen other states, including red states like Kansas and Kentucky, have already voted in favor of protecting rights at the ballot box in the year and a half since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the federal constitutional right to abortion in June 2022.
Most recently, Ohio residents voted to protect access to abortion earlier this month, continuing a winning streak for abortion-rights groups.
Abortion in Florida is currently legal up to 15 weeks of pregnancy. But a six-week abortion ban signed into law by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis could be on the way, pending the outcome of a legal battle over the 15-week ban, which currently rests with the Florida Supreme Court.
Brenzel, with Floridians Protecting Freedom, celebrated the abortion rights campaign’s latest milestone, but acknowledges there’s more work still to be done.
The group is encouraging Floridians to visit their website to download, sign and submit a petition indicating support for the initiative so they can submit it to the state Division of Elections Office for verification.
If placed on the ballot, the initiative would need at least 60% support from voters in order for it to pass.
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