ORLANDO, Florida (LifeSiteNews) — More than 300 Florida physicians spanning multiple disciplines are banding together to oppose the ballot initiative to add abortion-on-demand to the Florida Constitution, using their expertise to strengthen the case that Amendment 4 is bad medicine.
Amendment 4, the so-called “Amendment to Limit Government Interference with Abortion,” states that “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.” If enacted, it would require abortion to be allowed for any reason before fetal “viability” and render post-“viability” bans effectively meaningless by exempting any abortion that an abortionist claims is for “health” reasons. If successful, it would overturn Florida’s six-week abortion ban.
Abortion, which always destroys an innocent unborn child, is always gravely immoral and is never needed nor justifiable for reasons of “health.”
The amendment ostensibly says that it “does not change the Legislature’s constitutional authority to require notification to a parent or guardian before a minor has an abortion.” But many, such as Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, have warned that “there’s a difference between consent,” which is what current law requires, “and notification. Notification is after the fact. The consent is obviously a condition precedent. They did that because they know going after parents’ rights is a vulnerability.”
NPR affiliate WUWF reports that 19 members of Physicians Against Amendment 4 gathered at a press conference in downtown Orlando to explain problems with the proposal not captured by mainstream media coverage.
Among them is that the amendment has no objective definition of medically “necessary” or precise definition of “viability,” which state law calls the point “when the life of [an unborn child] is sustainable outside the womb through standard medical measures,” rather than a set number of weeks. The amendment also leaves determinations up to a “healthcare provider,” which the group fears would open the door to nurses, midwives, or physicians’ assistants committing abortions.
The prospect of non-physician abortions is a potent one to Floridians; earlier this month, public opinion firm NextGen Polling found that while 57 percent supported the amendment overall, 64 percent of Republican respondents, 34 percent of Democrats, and 43 percent of Independents were less likely to support it when informed it could relax standards of who actually commits the abortion.
The abortion lobby has had great success using false claims that pro-life laws are dangerous to stoke fear about the issue among the general public, most visibly in the area of state constitutional amendments embedding “rights” to abortion immune from future legislation.
Pro-lifers have either failed to enact pro-life amendments or stop pro-abortion ones in California, Kentucky, Michigan, Montana, Vermont, and Ohio, prompting much conversation among pro-lifers about the need to develop new strategies to protect life at the ballot box, as well as a debate among Republicans over the political ramifications of continuing to take a clear pro-life position.
Constitutional amendments require 60 percent of the vote in Florida (as opposed to the simple-majority threshold in states such as Michigan and Ohio), and polls have disagreed as to whether the amendment can reach it.
Between that, DeSantis’s work against the amendment (including the launch of a political committee dedicated to defeating it, lobbying other Florida Republicans to speak up, and investigating potential fraudulent petition signatures used to advance it), and the GOP’s unprecedented million-count voter registration advantage in the Sunshine State, both sides are deeply invested in the outcome of Florida’s abortion battle this fall, which will either continue or break that trend.