Florida’s ballot proposal to enshrine the right to abortion in the state constitution has failed. A law that bans most abortions after six weeks will remain in place. While a majority—about 57%—of Floridians voted in favor of the amendment, the measure did not meet the needed 60% threshold to pass.
Abortion access supporters say the message from Floridians is clear—they don’t support the state’s current law.
Lauren Brenzel is the campaign director for Floridians Protecting Freedom, the organization that drove the push for the amendment. Brenzel spoke at an amendment watch party Tuesday night after the results of the vote became clear, and told lawmakers who have spoken out in support of the proposal, that voters will hold them to their campaign promises.
“We are mandating you to end Florida’s extreme abortion ban this legislative session,” Brenzel said.
Abortion access opponents are thinking ahead to the legislative session as well. In a statement, Florida Voice for the Unborn founder Andrew Shirvell calls on Governor Ron DeSantis to pursue a total ban on abortion access during the next session.
“With the Florida abortion industry in full retreat, now is the time to build upon Florida’s Heartbeat Protection Law and end the killing of Florida’s preborn children once and for all,” Shirvell says.
The vote means the state’s current law that bans most abortions after six weeks will stay in place, which abortion access supporters worry will delay care and endanger the lives of women.
Florida’s ban does include exceptions for rape until 15 weeks and after that for fatal fetal abnormalities and to protect the life of the mother. But abortion access advocates say the exceptions don’t work well.
“A simple exception clause written by a politician without a medical background does not take into account how medically complex patients can be and how clinically nuanced situations can be,” says Dr. Chelsea Daniels, a physician at Planned Parenthood in Miami.
Daniels said she’s had patients with what she believed were life threatening conditions who were turned away by other providers because of concerns about whether that patient’s care would fall under the state’s exceptions.
The proposed amendment faced tough push back from Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis who has argued the amendment would make Florida a “radical abortion regime.”
The DeSantis administration was behind a series of efforts to thwart the amendment, such as, an investigation into investigation into alleged petition fraud—including police knocking on the doors of some people who signed to get the proposal on the ballot, and an ad and website published by the state’s Agency for Healthcare Administration that says the amendment “threatens women’s safety.”
