Florida Supreme Court Allows Abortion Amendment on Ballot

Monday was a bit of an up-and-down day for pro-life Floridians.

The Florida Supreme Court upheld the Florida 15-week abortion ban, putting the wheels in motion for DeSantis’ 6-week abortion law to go into effect.

However, the court also ruled that an abortion amendment will be permitted to be placed on the ballot, raising some concerns for conservatives and Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody.

Win or Lose

My personal belief is that to settle this issue, every state should put an abortion amendment on the ballot in the general election to allow voters to have their say.

That is what is about to happen in Florida, but the wording of the ballot measure is what has conservatives in Florida worried.

The court, however, ruled in favor of the current wording, which will read, "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."

The court defended the wording of the ballot measure, stating, “The singular goal of the proposed amendment here is to limit government interference with the termination of pregnancy. It involves one subject and addresses the related ability of State and local governments to ‘interfere[]with’ that subject."

Katie Daniel, the Florida policy director for Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, had filed a brief with the court on the matter, is concerned about that wording, explaining, "Not only will this measure bring dangerous late-term abortions back to Florida, but it will allow girls who aren’t old enough to get their ears pierced on their own get an abortion without a parent’s okay.

"Those girls and the women who have abortions will be put at risk when this measure eliminates every abortion health regulation on the books."

The bottom line is that it will now be up to DeSantis and Republicans in the state to spread the word about the ballot measure and fully explain it to voters.

This issue will be more important to younger voters, a demographic with whom Republicans have struggled in the past, so they have to communicate with a voter demographic they are not usually reaching.

There is plenty of time for this, with the election being more than seven months away, but having said that, they don’t have a single second to waste because they simply cannot afford to have abortion impact this election as it has done in the past.