Pro-abortion ballot measures could be in front of voters in six red states this November. If passed, the amendments would ensure taxpayer funding of abortion, eliminate parental rights, eviscerate health protections for women, and – worst of all – enshrine all-trimester abortion. Amendments use the word ‘viability’ to deceive people into believing there is a limit to when abortions would happen. Many in the media are playing along and failing to dig into how these amendments will be carried out in reality.
Here’s how the Washington Post explains Florida’s Amendment 4: “Conservatives are painting the referendum — which would allow abortion up until a fetus is considered ‘viable,’ a stage typically reached by 24 weeks of pregnancy — as radical. Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) calls it ‘extremist.’ A political action committee is putting out a similar message.”
The truth is that these measures are limitless. At any point in pregnancy – even in the final months – women can have elective abortions. Here’s why.
While the Washington Post and other media outlets offer their interpretation of viability, none of the measures define the term. Is it 21 weeks which is the premature birth record held by Curtis Means? Is it 24 weeks like the Washington Post says? Would it take us back to Roe times when the norm was around 28 weeks? Or 40 weeks when a baby receives a diagnosis for a disability? The abortion lobby has intentionally left viability undefined to create the illusion of a limit while allowing for unlimited abortion. meaning of viability is open to interpretation.
The measures allow abortion all throughout pregnancy under a “health” exception that is not defined. In Roe v. Wade’s companion case, Doe v. Bolton, the Supreme Court said a broad “health” exception “may be exercised in the light of all factors – physical, emotional, psychological, familial, and the woman’s age — relevant to the wellbeing of the patient. All these factors may relate to health.” Abortion can be okayed not just because of depression and anxiety, but if the woman is young, old, or doesn’t have the ideal family situation – whether it’s that the father is out of the picture or the woman already has a child to take care of.
These amendments give those with a financial stake the sole ability to decide at what point an abortion is needed by saying the life and health exception will be determined by the patient’s “healthcare provider.” Combined with the lack of definitions of “health” and “viability,” abortionists will be able to justify abortions at any time. Some abortionists like Warren Hern don’t believe there is such a thing as viability. According to The Atlantic, “Hern, though, believes that the viability of a fetus is determined not by gestational age but by a woman’s willingness to carry it.” Chief medical officer for Planned Parenthood, Dr. Colleen McNicholas, confirmed her same belief under oath stating that, “My practice includes [abortion] through the point of viability and as we previously discussed that could be at any point.”
These amendments will supersede existing pro-life protections in the states – even Arizona’s modest law that protects life at 15 weeks when science shows a baby can feel pain – and enact a new framework for all-trimester abortion. Shortly after Michigan’s Prop 3 passed in 2022, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed a law to end the state’s partial birth abortion ban.
Given these facts, the amendments would increase the number of late-term abortions in our country, where each year 50,000 unborn children are already aborted after 15 weeks and as many as 10,000 are aborted at 21 weeks or later. Most late-term abortions are elective, according to the Guttmacher Institute, and they frequently involve coercion, indecision and partner abandonment, rather than health emergencies.
Want to read the language of the amendments yourself? You can find links to the ballot measures in Arizona, Florida, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, and South Dakota at lifesavinglaws.com by clicking on the “2024 Ballot Measures” button and viewing the chart below the map.
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