The Push to Put Abortion on Florida’s 2024 Ballots
Bottom Line: The Heartbeat Protection Act, limiting abortions to six weeks with exceptions, was signed into law by Governor DeSantis in April. The law was set to take effect July 1st, but it hasn’t, and not specifically because of legal challenges brought against that law, but because of outstanding legal challenges to last year’s law limiting abortions in Florida to 15 weeks – largely without exceptions. While the legal wranglings over both laws play out in Florida’s court system, an effort is underway to combat them by passing a constitutional amendment in Florida to grant essentially unfettered access to abortions within the state.
In May, the Political Action Committee called Floridians Protecting Freedom filed with the Florida Division of Elections and began collecting money and signatures for a proposed constitutional amendment. Here’s what they’ve proposed:
Title: Amendment to Limit Government Interference with Abortion
Ballot Summary: 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. This amendment does not change the Legislature’s constitutional authority to require notification to a parent or guardian before a minor has an abortion.
Obviously if successful this effort would supersede any law passed within the state of Florida. And as for where the effort stands... The PAC has quickly raised nearly $5 million and has aggressively begun collecting signatures necessary to have the proposal considered by the Florida Supreme Court (likely the same body which will decide the fate of the abortion laws). 891,523 verified signatures are needed for the proposal to be considered. As of today, 222,881 signatures have been collected, about a tenth of which have been legally verified. With the speed with which they’re collecting signatures – provided they prove to be verified signatures – the PAC is now on track to potentially qualify for inclusion on next year’s ballot. To be continued...