CLEARWATER, Florida (LifeSiteNews) — Former Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach Tony Dungy continues to lend his support to the fight to keep a “right” to abortion out of the Florida Constitution, joining Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis at a press conference to argue that human lives are not “choices.”
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 many such as 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.”
Speaking at a press conference at Clearwater Central Catholic High School, Dungy connected the issue to his own experience as a parent. “When I look at those kids, I don’t see eight choices, I’m sorry. Those are eight lives,” he said.
WATCH: Former NFL Coach @TonyDungy, who has 8 adopted kids, emotionally speaks against pro-abortion Amendment 4
“When I look at those kids, I don’t see 8 choices, I’m sorry. Those are 8 lives.” pic.twitter.com/gwAWO8Blpe
— Florida’s Voice (@FLVoiceNews) October 29, 2024
“I happen to believe that these babies in the womb are lives, and I know everybody doesn’t believe that, but I happen to believe it,” he continued. “My Bible tells me that they are.”
The former NFL coach also disputed the false narrative that restricting abortion endangers pregnant women. “No, they’re not in danger when they’re pregnant,” he said. “We have health care. We have some of the best health care in the world here, and it’s available, and it’s not going to be withheld if this amendment doesn’t pass.”
“We need to help (children) and vote no on this, for our kids, for our moms, for our state. We need to do the right thing, please,” Dungy implored.
DeSantis has taken an aggressive lead in working to defeat the amendment, including the launch of a new PAC to fight it, investigating alleged fraud used to collect the signatures that put it on the ballot, lobbying other Florida Republicans to speak up, work by the state health department to disseminate the real facts about both current law and the amendment, and a recent statewide day of prayer for Florida’s pro-life protections.
Whether it, along with the Florida GOP’s unprecedented million-count voter registration advantage and the state’s requirement for constitutional amendments to win 60% instead of a simple majority, remains to be seen.
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.
In Florida, out-of-state leftists are vastly outspending opponents of the amendment, and polls have disagreed as to whether it can reach 60 percent support, but evidence also shows that informing voters of what the amendment does has a significant impact. Polling by 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 performs the procedure to non-physicians.