Florida is close to putting abortion protections on the 2024 ballot [View all]

[In It to Win It]

PRISM

Floridians are almost halfway to putting abortion rights on next year’s ballot. The citizen-led ballot initiative campaign Floridians Protecting Freedom is leading the effort to let voters decide whether to make a constitutional amendment protecting abortion rights. Their goal is to collect 1.25 million petitions. They need about 892,000 signatures by Feb. 1 to get the initiative on the ballot. The campaign had about 402,000 signatures as of Oct. 30. Advocates from Floridians Protecting Freedom say they are confident they will get the needed signatures in time for the deadline and ensure that Floridians have a say in protecting their abortion rights come November 2024.

“We know that getting a constitutional amendment in place that explicitly protects access to abortion will be the … final answer,” said Amy Weintraub, the reproductive rights program director for Progress Florida. “We know that what’s happening in Tallahassee with politicians is very much out of sync with the will and the preferences and the needs of Floridians.”

The initiative reached the signatures needed to trigger a state Supreme Court review of the ballot question’s language earlier this month. The amendment 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.” The amendment doesn’t impact requirements that parents be notified before a minor has an abortion.

“We are very, very confident that the language that has been drafted for this constitutional amendment will hold up in court,” Weintraub said. “We have had amazing legal thinkers and constitutional experts involved from the beginning. We … are very confident that we will be able to successfully defend the language that we’re using.”