If Florida voters pass an abortion amendment in November, it could mean “the end of the pro-life movement” in the state, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) warned at an event at Jesuit High School in Tampa on Thursday.
“If you care about building a culture of life in this state or this country, them winning in Florida I think really represents the end of the pro-life movement,” DeSantis said to a packed auditorium, the Tampa Bay Times reported.
The proposed abortion measure, which will appear as Amendment 4 on the ballot, would bar the state from restricting abortion before viability (approximately 24 weeks) or later in pregnancy “when necessary to protect the patient’s health, as determined by the patient’s healthcare provider.”
If Florida voters pass the measure with at least 60 percent support in November, the abortion amendment would undo the state’s six-week limit and basically create a permanent right to abortion in the state that could only be undone with another ballot measure or an uphill legal battle.
DeSantis made a case for voting against the amendment, and assessed the current landscape of Florida politics.
“If you look at the state of Florida, we do not have a pro-life majority,” DeSantis said. “We’ve got a big chunk, but we don’t have a majority. If only people that are pro-life oppose it, it very well might pass.”
He added that the real challenge for pro-life voters will be convincing Floridians who generally consider themselves to be “pro-choice” that the amendment is too extreme.
Six years ago, registered Democrats outnumbered registered Republicans by almost 300,000 — and Florida had never had more registered Republicans than Democrats in its history.
Now, Republicans outnumber Democrats by 1 million voters, which is a sea change that few thought… https://t.co/MZ7m96s5TW
— Ron DeSantis (@RonDeSantis) August 11, 2024
The Republican Party of Florida has also formally opposed the amendment, arguing that Amendment 4, along with Amendment 3 related to recreational marijuana, are too extreme for the state. Party Chairman Evan Power said:
Floridians are confident that their legislature has been passing laws that reflect the priorities of our state. Amendments 3 and 4 are unnecessary attempts by an increasingly shrinking minority who know the only way to win support for their radical agenda is to confuse and mislead the electorate.
In addition, the Republican Party of Florida supports the legislature’s desire to make school board races partisan, create a constitutional right to hunt and fish, and eliminate the taxpayer burden of public campaign financing.
The Florida Democrats are a dead carcass on the side of the road, but outside dark money groups are looking to promote their far-left ideology by attempting to confuse Florida voters. The Florida GOP stands ready to correct the record and defeat the radical left while enshrining in our Constitution more rights for our citizens.
DeSantis has previously spoken out against the radical abortion amendment.
Various polling within the past few months has shown the amendment narrowly failing or passing, often with the margin of error (see here, here, here, here, here, and here).
Katherine Hamilton is a political reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on X @thekat_hamilton.