The Florida Supreme Court ruled this week to allow a deceptive abortion amendment that calls for the codification of unlimited abortion through birth in the state’s constitution on the ballot in November.
Attorney General Ashley Moody asked the state court last year to weigh in on the amendment touted by baby-killing ballot measure advocates like the ACLU and abortion giant Planned Parenthood.
The amendment titled “Limit Government Interference with Abortion” states, “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.” A ballot summary claims, “This amendment does not change the Legislature’s constitutional authority to require notification to a parent or guardian before a minor has an abortion.”
Moody, however, warned the amendment’s vague reference to viability and undefined use of the terms “health” and “healthcare provider” could easily deceive voters who overwhelmingly oppose the legalization of killing unborn babies throughout all nine months of gestation.
“The ballot summary here is part of a … design to lay ticking time bombs that will enable abortion proponents later to argue that the amendment has a much broader meaning than voters would ever have thought,” Moody wrote in her brief.
Several local and national pro-life groups — including Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, the National Center for Life and Liberty, Florida Voters Against Extremism, and the Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops — filed support briefs expressing similar concerns.
“The ballot language incorrectly implies that the amendment will not impact parental rights when their children seek abortions. Currently, Florida requires parental consent, with limited
exceptions, before a physician can perform an abortion on a minor,” SBA Pro-Life America wrote in its brief. “If the proposed amendment passes, this statute will likely be another casualty. The loss of parental consent is obscured in the ballot language, which highlights that the proposed amendment will not change the constitutional right to parental notification—leading voters to assume that the right to parental consent will be similarly untouched.”
In a 4 to 3 ruling split by sex, the Florida Supreme Court’s male justices ignored concerns about abortion activists’ deceptive practices, including submitting fraudulent signatures to reject Moody’s request.
Thanks to the court’s rubber stamp, a proposed amendment littered with confusing language threatens not only Floridians’ parental rights but also the state’s ability to regulate abortion will go before voters in seven months.
In her dissent, Justice Meredith Sasso, joined by Justices Jamie Grosshans and Renatha Francis, criticized the proposed amendment as “vague and ambiguous” and said sponsors failed to “‘explain’ the material legal effects of the proposed ballot amendment” per state law.
“Instead, the Sponsor has punted, leaving the legal effect to be revealed by the eye of the beholder. The Sponsor’s statutory obligation, as explained by this Court’s precedent, demands more,” she wrote.
Sasso is right. Loose terms like “viability” can easily be exploited to ensure the subjective judgment of a doctor gets the final say. If the proposed amendment passes in November, medical professionals in Florida could deem abortion at any stage of pregnancy necessary for a woman’s “health,” physical, emotional, or other.
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The state Supreme Court’s actions this week weren’t a complete loss. Justices also issued a ruling allowing Florida’s 15-week abortion limit, which a strong majority of Americans support, to stand.
A heartbeat law, which passed last year, is expected to lower that extend that limit to six weeks gestation on May 1. That law, however, will mean nothing if the proposed amendment passes in November.
“We must oppose Prop 4. Not only will this measure bring dangerous late-term abortions back to Florida, but it will allow girls who aren’t old enough to get their ears pierced on their own get an abortion without a parent’s okay,” SBA Pro-Life America’s State Policy Director Katie Daniel said in a statement. “Those girls and the women who have abortions will be put at risk when this measure eliminates every abortion health regulation on the books. In a state where 25% of abortion centers failed inspections it’s no surprise they want to be completely unregulated to increase their profits at the expense of women, girls and babies.”
