(LifeSiteNews) — Hall of Fame football coach Tony Dungy has released a video urging his fellow Floridians to vote “no” on Amendment 4, which would codify abortion up until birth in the state.
Dungy has repeatedly raised his voice in defense of the unborn on social media this election cycle, at times pushing back against the NAACP and Planned Parenthood, both of which have defended Kamala Harris’ pro-abortion polices.
In his video, which was produced by Apologetics.org, Dungy states that the proposal was “strategically written to be vague and deceptive.”
To prove his point, Dungy notes that the measure legalizes abortion in order to “protect the patient’s health.” He then asks, “what kind of health? Physical health? Mental health? Emotional health? And how serious must that health concern be? Again, it doesn’t say.”
Early voting opens in Florida this week and I urge all Florida residents to carefully read Amendment 4 before casting your vote. If you read through all the language you’ll see this amendment would radically change the abortion landscape in Florida. We need to protect all lives… pic.twitter.com/6Pq9EJtKf6
— Tony Dungy (@TonyDungy) October 21, 2024
Dungy also recalls that the measure does not define when “viability” of a pre-born baby takes place. Nor does it “inform voters that it overturns Florida’s law that requires parental consent, making abortion the only medical procedure that can be performed on a minor without the parent’s permission.”
In April 2023, GOP Governor Ron DeSantis signed into law a 6-week heartbeat bill that prohibits abortions in Florida except in cases of rape, incest, or for the so-called health of the mother. It is worth noting that even the current law falls short of the truly ethical position, as pro-lifers point out that unborn babies are not culpable for the circumstances of their conception and that the deliberate killing of a preborn baby is morally unjustifiable and never medically necessary.
Since the heartbeat bill was signed, the Florida Supreme Court ruled 6-1 that there is no right to abortion in the Florida Constitution. That decision upheld the state’s 15-week abortion law and allowed the Heartbeat Law to go into effect.
Republican Presidential nominee Donald Trump, a Florida resident, initially told the media that the six-week ban is “too short” and that “there has to be more time” for women to decide to abort their child. He later clarified that he will be voting against the amendment, which needs 60 percent to pass.
In his video, Dungy recalled that Amendment 4 was written by the same ACLU lawyers who crafted the state of Michigan’s pro-abortion Proposal 3 in 2022, which passed 57-43. Dungy then said that “all mothers deserve healthcare and protection” and that “all babies in the womb are actual lives in God’s eyes and those babies deserve protection,” though he also praised the “exceptions” that are allowed by current Florida law.
At a GOP event in September, DeSantis rebuked congressional Republicans from Florida who had not yet come out strongly against the proposal. He also declared October 6 “Protect Life Sunday” as a day of prayer so voters will oppose Amendment 4.
Florida is one of ten states across the U.S. that will be voting on abortion-related measures next month. Citizens in Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Maryland, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New York, Nevada, and South Dakota will all vote on proposals to weaken or eliminate state pro-life laws, while Nebraska also has an amendment that would ban late-term abortion competing with the pro-abortion amendment.
As LifeSite’s Calvin Freiburger has reported, since Roe v. Wade was overturned by the Supreme Court in 2020, 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 mainstream Republicans who want to weaken the party’s stance.
Should most of the amendments succeed, particularly in red states, those advocating a more socially moderate GOP will take it as vindication, further marginalizing pro-life legislative efforts. If, however, pro-life activists can successfully thwart at least some of them, it will break the abortion lobby’s winning streak and narrative of inevitability.