Planned Parenthood and other abortion advocates have launched a multi-million dollar initiative in Florida to put a constitutional right to abortion on the state’s ballot next year.
First reported by POLITICO last week, organizers formally announced the initiative during a news conference in Tallahassee on Monday. Their aim is to limit “government interference with abortion” up to the time of fetal viability. This is an arbitrary timeline often considered around 24 weeks (though babies as young as 21 weeks have survived outside the womb).
“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 ballot summary will say. “This amendment does not change the Legislature’s constitutional authority to require notification to a parent or guardian before a minor has an abortion.”
The coalition, composed of abortion organizations including Planned Parenthood affiliates, the ACLU of Florida, Florida Rising, and Women’s Voices of Southwest Florida, will need to gather and submit 891,523 valid petition signatures to the state by February 1, 2024. They will also need the Florida Supreme Court to sign off on the proposed ballot wording.
The ballot initiative aims to undo the state’s current preborn protections. Governor Ron DeSantis recently signed legislation that would protect the preborn from abortion after six weeks, though that law cannot go into effect until the court rules on the legality of the state’s 15-week abortion restrictions.
“Floridians want the freedom to make their own personal health care decisions without interference from politicians, but the Legislature recently passed, and Gov. Ron DeSantis signed, a six-week abortion ban. That’s before many people even know they’re pregnant,” a media advisory for the proposal told NBC News. “The decision to have an abortion belongs to Floridians, their families, and those they trust — this campaign is an opportunity to ensure those protections remain in our state constitution,”
“Floridians know what is best for their own bodies and their own lives,” Sarah Standiford, national campaigns director for Planned Parenthood Action Fund, told POLITICO. “People are ready to vote for reproductive freedom and to take back power from lawmakers who have literally gone against the will of the people.”
In fact, recent polling suggests that most Americans continue to favor some abortion restrictions. An NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist National Poll found that 66% of Americans want abortion to be limited to the first three months of pregnancy at most, which is well before the “viability” timeframe of 24 weeks.
NBC News reports that should the campaign successfully score a spot on next year’s ballot, it will need 60% of the votes to pass.
