Florida's fight over abortion rights goes beyond the ballot
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Gov. Ron DeSantis has led the charge against Amendment 4, using state resources. Photo: Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda/Orlando Sentinel/Tribune News Service via Getty Images
With less than a week before Election Day, an effort to enshrine the right to an abortion in Florida's Constitution is tangled in lawsuits and facing an unprecedented barrage by top state officials.
Why it matters: At least one of those legal challenges puts the validity of Amendment 4 in jeopardy — even if voters approve it Tuesday.
- All stem from Gov. Ron DeSantis' ongoing campaign to sow doubt over the initiative and underscore how far he's willing to go to defeat it.
The big picture: In the weeks leading up to the election, the DeSantis Administration has funneled state resources into combatting the amendment, from a state-run website with debunked criticisms to state police visits to Floridians who signed petitions supporting the measure.
The latest: On Tuesday, DeSantis told reporters that doctors who have said the state's six-week abortion ban puts women's health at risk should lose their medical licenses.
- Also on Tuesday, U.S. District Court Judge Mark Walker extended an order through Nov. 12 banning state officials from threatening criminal prosecution against TV stations that ran a pro-Amendment 4 advertisement.
Catch up quick: A lawyer for the Florida Department of Health this month sent letters to stations warning them to pull the ad, saying it was false and could put women in danger if it continues to air, the Miami Herald reported.
- It featured a woman named Caroline who said the state's six-week abortion ban would have blocked her from getting a life-saving abortion even after she had been diagnosed with brain cancer while pregnant.
- Floridians Protecting Freedom, the coalition behind the abortion initiative, sued surgeon general Joseph Ladapo this month asking a judge to block his agency from making any more threats.
- Amid the controversy, the Department of Health lawyer who sent the cease-and-desist letters quit, writing in his resignation letter that, "a man is nothing without his conscience."
On the same day Floridians Protecting Freedom filed that complaint, a group of anti-abortion advocates submitted their own set of lawsuits seeking to invalidate the amendment.
- That case stems from a report from the Department of State alleging "widespread fraud" in the petition-gathering effort to get Amendment 4 on the ballot, per the Tampa Bay Times.
- The lawsuits, filed in multiple counties by former Florida Supreme Court Justice Alan Lawson, argue that, when factoring in fraudulent petitions, Amendment 4 didn't meet the signature threshold to make it to the ballot.
Between the lines: The highly unusual state report was heavy on generalizations and light on data, the Times reported.
- It also comes months after the February deadline to challenge petition signatures.
The bottom line: Even if Amendment 4 crosses the 60% threshold to pass at the polls, the fight over abortion rights in Florida will be far from over.