‘The Stakes Are High’: How Florida Became The Abortion Battle Ground of 2024

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and his administration are waging war on a pro-abortion ballot amendment backed by radical leftist groups. If they win, they’ll have proven that Republicans really can defeat the Left’s new abortion mechanisms, if only they fight hard enough.

If they lose, Florida will become what DeSantis calls the “abortion mecca” of the South.

“Because all of the Southeast has various forms of pro-life legislation, Florida would become the abortion mecca of this region — and maybe one of the abortion meccas of the entire world, because it would be one of the most liberal abortion regimes anywhere in the world,” DeSantis told hundreds of faith leaders this summer.

That call was one of many efforts that DeSantis and his team have undertaken, including partnering with over 600 doctors and doing statewide events to educate Floridians about what Amendment 4 actually entails. That’s important, they argue, because the amendment is confusingly worded.

“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,” the amendment reads. “This amendment does not change the Legislature’s constitutional authority to require notification to a parent or guardian before a minor has an abortion.”

What does that mean? Amendment 4 would massively increase abortions in the state, superseding Florida’s law protecting unborn babies with a heartbeat by establishing a “constitutional right to abortion before fetal viability.” For abortion activists to successfully amend the state’s constitution, they need to gain at least 60% support on November 5.

A new survey conducted for Florida Politics by St. Pete Polls found this week that only about 54% of voters will support the amendment. This comes after a poll from the University of North Florida’s Public Opinion Research Lab (PORL), released last week, found the amendment had the bare minimum 60% support.

“Florida is at a crossroads,” said DeSantis spokeswoman Taryn Fenske. “Amendment 4 doesn’t just repeal existing abortion laws; it overturns all regulations, including parental consent, taxpayer funding restrictions, and opens the door for non-doctors to perform abortions. Funded by dark money from liberal out-of-state billionaires, Amendment 4 paves the way for unrestricted access to abortion up until viability — and beyond — through numerous loopholes.”

“The stakes are high,” she warned. “Floridians could be forced to pay for abortions, fundamentally altering both healthcare practices and the ethical landscape of our state.”

(Photo by Paul Hennessy/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

The initiative is backed by members of the national leftist organizations, the American Civil Liberties Union, and Planned Parenthood, the latter of which would profit from increased abortions in Florida. It is also heavily backed by the Soros family and out-of-state, Democrat-aligned dark money networks pouring millions of dollars into Floridians Protecting Freedom (FPF), the pro-abortion group pushing the amendment.

Critics argue that Amendment 4 would funnel dollars straight into Planned Parenthood’s coffers, encouraging women from neighboring states to drive to Florida to abort their babies — or encouraging pimps or cartel members to take advantage of Florida’s abortion laws and force women to undergo abortions.

Florida law currently protects babies with heartbeats after six weeks. Though politicos increasingly argue that abortion is a losing issue for Republicans, DeSantis won his re-election in 2022 in a landslide, mere months before signing the heartbeat bill, by aggressively pointing out Democratic abortion extremism.

His office maintains that Amendment 4 is not only too extreme for Florida, but also manipulative and duplicitous, purposefully worded in a way that will trick pro-life activists into supporting it.

“It disregards the critical point in pregnancy when it becomes too late for an abortion, even as science indicates that a baby can feel pain during late-term procedures,” Fenske said. “Amendment 4 would make abortion the only medical procedure a minor can undergo without parental consent and permanently block any future laws aimed at reasonable limitations.”

They’re fighting back by running ads through the Republican Party of Florida — a route that enables them to get their messages as far as Planned Parenthood’s, but at a lower cost.

While Planned Parenthood and affiliated groups have poured $100 million into the abortion amendment fight, the governor endorsed PAC “No On 4 Florida” and the Republican Party of Florida have spent upwards of $20 million, a spokeswoman for DeSantis told The Daily Wire. But Planned Parenthood and the ACLU have recently copied their strategy, she said, and have begun running their ads through the Democrat Party of Florida.

????URGENT???? The government is doing everything they can to stop the people of Florida from voting on Amendment 4. We need to show that the overwhelming majority of Floridians are ready to vote YES on 4 no matter what.

Share this to show you’re ready to fight and then sign up to… pic.twitter.com/ESCzk9GA6f

— Yes on 4 Florida (@yes4florida) October 17, 2024

Pro-abortion groups behind the amendment “Yes On 4 Florida” argue that Florida’s pro-life laws put women’s lives in danger, but have failed to provide concrete evidence of such claims. The group’s latest ad depicts a cancer patient inaccurately claiming that pregnant women diagnosed with cancer cannot get abortions in Florida.

Florida’s Department of Health responded by sending a cease and desist letter to TV stations airing the dishonest ad, threatening legal action. And earlier this year, the Florida Department of State announced that it was investigating evidence of fraudulent petition gathering related to the amendment.

And in a new ad obtained exclusively by The Daily Wire, “Vote No on 4” accuses the activists behind Amendment 4 of promoting a radical and illegal agenda. The ad depicts Alisa LaPolt Snow, a former lobbyist for the Florida Alliance of Planned Parenthood, discussing whether she supports saving a baby born alive in a botched abortion. At the time, Florida was considering a bill to protect babies born alive through botched abortions.

“At that point, what do they do with the baby who is struggling to live?” a state lawmaker asked her in 2013.

“I don’t know,” Snow responds. “We don’t even know how prevalent this situation is.”

He pushed again: “You stated that a baby born on a table as a result of a botched abortion, that that decision should be left to the doctor and family. Is that what you’re saying?”

“That decision should be between the patient and the healthcare provider,” she said.

“At that point, the patient would be the child struggling on the table,” her questioner argued. “Wouldn’t you agree?”

“That’s a very good question,” she responded. “I really don’t know how to answer that.”

Snow’s remarks sparked a backlash in 2013 as Americans reacted with horror to her remarks, which suggested support for infanticide. Her comments bore remarkable similarities to those of former Virginia Governor Ralph Northam, who infamously expressed support for allowing parents and doctors to decide whether a baby lived or died after it survived an abortion.

The “Vote No on 4” ad emphasizes that “the authors of Amendment 4” argued that “a baby who survives an abortion should be left to die.”

“It’s barbaric, it’s cruel, and it shows what they really want,” the ad argues. “Unlimited abortion, for any reason, at any time in the pregnancy. Voters would never approve that, unless they were deceived. That is why Amendment 4 never defines a single term.”

Earlier in the hearing, Fox News reported at the time, Snow had said Planned Parenthood’s main issue with the Florida legislation was that it did not include a “neutrality clause” clarifying that the law does not change the baby’s legal status before he or she was born alive.

Planned Parenthood did not immediately respond to requests for comment for this story. In May, when the organization officially endorsed the legislation, Executive Director of the Florida Alliance of Planned Parenthood Affiliates Lauren Goodhue argued: “The opportunity for Floridians to end this government-manufactured public health crisis and get politicians out of our personal, private decisions once and for all by passing Amendment 4 couldn’t come at a more pressing time.”

These abortion amendments are left-wing activists’ latest strategy to circumvent pro-life laws and lawmakers. After the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in May 2022, pro-abortion groups began ramping up efforts to craft ballot measures that enshrine a “right” to abortion into state constitutions — even in red states — and the efforts have been very effective.

The Democrat-linked dark money donations have helped pass abortion amendments in the past, particularly in Ohio and Michigan, where pro-life efforts to combat the initiatives failed.

“Florida regularly rejects the dark money D.C. establishment, and unsurprisingly, these groups are spending tens of millions in an attempt to turn Florida into California and buy influence,” a spokesman for the “No On 4” campaign told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

“But no amount of money will convince Floridians that non-doctors should be able to perform abortions up until the moment of birth, that a child can undergo an abortion without parental consent, or that taxpayers should pay for abortions, which Amendment 4 would allow,” the spokesman added.

All high-profile Florida Republicans have expressed their opposition to Amendment 4, with one exception: Anna Paulina Luna, who represents Florida’s 13th congressional district. In September, she repeatedly dodged addressing where she stood on the ballot amendment, first telling POLITICO that abortion is a “state’s rights issue,” then saying that “there’s some things that are up for debate within the medical community alone,” and then saying: “The Supreme Court said, as a federal legislator, that my opinion on the matter doesn’t really matter.”

She did not respond to multiple requests for comment from The Daily Wire for this story.

In #Florida Vote NO on 4! pic.twitter.com/rw5UGk7Cky

— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) October 23, 2024

Her evasiveness came after former President Donald Trump said he will vote “no” on the radical amendment, though he disagrees with Florida’s heartbeat law.

“I disagreed with [the six-week limitation] right from the early primaries when I heard about it. I disagreed with it,” Trump told a reporter in August. “At the same time, the Democrats are radical because the nine months is just a ridiculous situation, where you can do an abortion in the ninth month.”

“You know, some of the states, like Minnesota and other states, have it where you can actually execute the baby after birth, and all of that stuff is unacceptable,” Trump added. “So, I’ll be voting ‘no’ for that reason.”