Seven pro-life states are being targeted by the abortion lobby for all-trimester abortion ballot measures this year. Signatures in Arizona, Arkansas, Missouri, and Nebraska are being processed by their secretaries of state and litigation is challenging the measures in South Dakota and Montana. Following an April state Supreme Court decision, Florida is the only pro-life state thus far where it is certain that abortion will be on the ballot.
Since the overturn of Roe, pro-abortion activists have won every ballot measure fight by majorly out funding the pro-life side and running ads to divert attention away from abortion and the actual outcomes the measure will cause. They have reason to feel much less confident about Florida, however. According to Politico, White House staff warned early on that “the ballot initiative wouldn’t survive Florida’s conservative climate.”
Once the measure was placed on the ballot, the campaign began to overtly keep Democrats at arm’s length. “I’m not trying to suggest that Democrats shouldn’t talk about abortion. I think Democrats should talk about abortion all day long. You just don’t need to talk about the specific ballot initiatives all day long,” one anonymous consultant advising pro-abortion ballot initiative campaigns told Politico.
Four months out from Election Day, the abortion lobby knows they may lose Florida. Here are five reasons they’re losing sleep:
In a world where pro-abortion forces have hold of all of the major institutions from academia and many C-Suites to Hollywood and the media, Gov. Ron DeSantis’ vocal opposition could be a game changer. Since the Supreme Court ruled to place Amendment 4 on the ballot, Gov. DeSantis has been clear about the ways the abortion amendment is too extreme for Florida. The governor has used his platform to shed light on how the measure allows brutal abortions in all-trimesters and removes parental rights by taking away parental consent. These two points are crucial given the deceptive wording of the ballot measure and the prevailing media narrative that Amendment 4 has a viability limit.
In a video recently posted on X, DeSantis says, “It guarantees abortion all the way until the moment of birth and it’s written in a way to try to massage that but basically if you have a ‘healthcare provider’ who says that there should be an abortion, then you can do it. It doesn’t even require a physician.”
The governor is not only creating awareness of the deception at play but is helping fund the fight. In June, it was reported that DeSantis had launched the Freedom Fund to defeat the abortion and marijuana ballot measures. His involvement in raising money will help turn the tide on the financial status of the opposition, which had previously been exponentially out funded. In April and May the pro-abortion campaign raised more than $12 million while Florida Voters Against Extremism raised $104,000.
Florida is unique in that it requires constitutional amendments to meet a threshold of 60% approval in order to pass. This is a tall order that couldn’t even be achieved in the purple states of Michigan and Ohio. Both states’ abortion measures passed with 56% of the vote.
Polls that have been released thus far on Amendment 4 have yielded mixed results. Some show the amendment doesn’t have the support needed, while others have indicated favorable results for the abortion industry. With the DeSantis-led opposition just starting to engage in the fight, the Amendment’s numbers might have already peaked.
As “the state where woke goes to die,” Florida is the place where the red wave actually materialized in 2022. After passing a 15-week protection earlier in the year, Gov. DeSantis won in a landslide and Republicans picked up seats in the legislature. Pro-life Attorney General Ashley Moody was also elected with 60% of the vote.
Despite a flurry of headlines after Florida’s heartbeat went into effect about the state being in play for Biden, Democrats know Florida is a pipe dream. Biden’s re-election campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon admitted as much in a recent interview with John Heilemann. When asked if Florida was a battleground state, O’Malley Dillon said no. Heilemann responded saying: “Thank you. I was afraid you were going to lie.”
The day Florida’s heartbeat law went into effect, the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration announced a rule clarifying that women who experience an emergency during pregnancy will continue to have access to lifesaving care in the state. AHCA Secretary Jason Weida’s agency issued the guidance immediately to protect women from harmful abortion misinformation. “The attempts to demonize standard healthcare for women make a physician’s job more difficult and can put a pregnant woman’s life at risk,” Secretary Weida stated on X.
The rule addresses the misinformation used to fuel the abortion amendments in Ohio and Michigan that women will die without all-trimester abortion in the constitution. Before the law took effect, this misinformation was a key talking point for the pro-abortion side. Laura Goodhue, a Planned Parenthood employee called the heartbeat law “a public health crisis.” State Sen. Lauren Book said on TV prior to the law taking effect “women and girls will die.” And Democrats put up billboards claiming that women cannot get the care they need in Florida ERs.
AHCA’s guidance that protects women stops abortion misinformation right it in its tracks.
Pro-life groups are united to stop Amendment 4. On July 1, Vote No On 4 Florida officially launched with strong grassroots support. The group is supported by Protect Women Florida Action, a partner of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, and other major pro-life organizations is mobilizing thousands of Floridians across the state, with county organizers assembling a network capable of reaching nearly 80% of the Florida electorate.
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