HOLLYWOOD, Florida (LifeSiteNews) – Over the weekend, Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis thanked Sunshine State officials who have joined the fight to defeat a radical amendment to enshrine abortion-on-demand in the Florida Constitution while berating Republicans who continue to abstain from the cause.
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 heartbeat-based abortion ban.
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 DeSantis has warned that “there’s a difference between consent 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.”
While addressing the Republican Party of Florida’s 2024 Victory Dinner at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino on Saturday evening, DeSantis thanked by name state Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson, state Attorney General Ashley Moody, state Chief Financial Officer and Fire Marshal Jimmy Patronis, state Sen. Ben Albritton, state Rep. Daniel Perez, state Rep. Paul Renner, U.S. Rep. Aaron Bean, U.S. Rep. Kat Cammack, U.S. Rep. Mario Díaz-Balart, U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz, U.S. Rep. Neal Dunn, U.S. Rep. Carlos Gimenez, U.S. Rep. Cory Mills, U.S. Rep. John Rutherford, U.S. Rep. Michael Waltz, U.S. Rep. Daniel Webster, U.S. Rep. Gus Bilirakis, U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan, U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds, U.S. Rep. Scott Franklin, U.S. Rep. María Elvira Salazar, and U.S. Rep. Greg Steube.
BREAKING: @GovRonDeSantis SLAMS the Florida Congressional Republicans tonight who have not publicly opposed Amendment 4:
“They have not taken a position against Amendment 4 and to me that’s untenable to just sit here and let George Soros run amendments in our state and not be… pic.twitter.com/cBflWXct31
— Jenna Ellis (@realJennaEllis) September 8, 2024
The governor then had a strong message for those he did not name. “To me, that’s untenable, to just sit here and let George Soros run amendments in our state, and not be willing to stand up and say ‘no, not on our watch,” he said.
“All these people that have run have all run saying they’re pro-life, right? And so now you have an amendment that is the most extreme in the other direction you can go, and some are not saying anything or offering to help us defeat this,” DeSantis declared.
Among those who have not publicly condemned Amendment 4 are Florida’s two sitting U.S. senators, Marco Rubio and Rick Scott, as well as U.S. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna. Rubio, Scott, and Luna have both presented themselves as strongly pro-life in the past, although in April Scott abandoned his support for Florida’ heartbeat law, and in July Rubio endorsed former President Trump’s removal of strong pro-life language from the Republican Party platform.
Last week, representatives for Scott and Luna declined to answer to Fox News how they planned to vote on Amendment 4. A Rubio spokesperson confirmed he would be voting against it but declined to offer any comment criticizing the amendment or urging others to vote the same, instead referring Fox to generic pro-life comments the senator made in April.
Congresswoman @realannapaulina describes herself as a “pro life extremist.” But she was extremely reluctant to discuss Amendment 4. We urge @realannapaulina to just publicly SAY NO to Amendment 4. https://t.co/MuJLAcBtrN
— NoTo4 (@SayNoTo4FL) September 3, 2024
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 enshrining “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’ activism against the amendment (including the launch of a political committee dedicated to defeating it among other conservative goals), 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.
Former President Donald Trump, who has been distancing himself from the pro-life cause throughout his latest election bid, came out against Amendment 4 last week after briefly implying he would vote for it.
Last week, Florida deputy secretary of state for legal affairs and elections integrity Brad McVay announced that his office is reviewing 36,000 signatures submitted in support of Amendment 4 on the grounds that “most” of the circulators listed on its petition “represent known or suspected fraudsters,” and that “several” other petition circulators “have very concerning invalidity rates.”