DeSantis predicts Florida will buck trend of voters supporting access to abortions
.jpg "Gov. Ron DeSantis says Florida voters won’t approve a November ballot question to enshrine abortion access in the state constitution.")
After the Miami presidential debate last November, Gov. Ron DeSantis said in an interview that anti-abortion activists have been getting their “clock cleaned” on referendums across the country securing access to the procedure.
But on Thursday during a press conference in Davie, DeSantis predicted Florida would buck that trend. He said voters would reject both Amendment 3 to legalize recreational marijuana and Amendment 4 to protect access to abortions.
“Once voters figure out how radical both of those are, they’re going to fail,” DeSantis said. “They are very, very extreme.”
DeSantis went on to compare Florida’s abortion ballot initiative to one approved by voters in 2022 in Democratic-stronghold California following the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that year overturning Roe v. Wade.
“And I think Florida voters over the past four or five cycles have developed a skepticism on these amendments, generally, because they’re always written in ways that are confusing,” said DeSantis, making an argument that Florida Supreme Court justices rejected when they voted to put abortion on the ballot. “You don’t necessarily know what the intent’s going to be.”
Florida’s abortion amendment will have the ballot title, “Amendment to Limit Government Interference with Abortion.”
Voters will see the following summary language for it: “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. This amendment does not change the Legislature’s constitutional authority to require notification to a parent or guardian before a minor has an abortion.”
A Higher Threshold in Florida to Pass
To date, there have been four ballot referendums that have put the question of securing access to abortions directly to voters. The proposals passed in all four states, including Ohio in 2023, where Republicans control both the House and Senate and governorship, just like in Florida.
The abortion and marijuana referendums would amend Florida’s constitution and require a 60% majority to pass. DeSantis’ office didn’t return a request for comment by the time of publication, but this higher-than-a-simple-majority threshold may be one reason why he is optimistic about Florida voters rejecting the amendments.
In Republican-controlled Ohio, the state to secure abortion access that is most politically similar to Florida, the referendum passed with 56.78% support.
Still, in DeSantis’ interview following the GOP debate last November – the day after Ohio voters approved access to abortions – he expressed concern about that vote.
“If you look at Ohio, a chunk of those voters would vote for Republican candidates, but if the issue is presented the way it is, they’re willing to vote for what, from a pro-life perspective, was a very extreme, very expansive pro-abortion amendment,” DeSantis said.
In Vermont, which has a Republican governor and a Democratically-controlled Legislature, the amendment enshrining a “right to personal reproductive autonomy” passed in 2022 with 76.77% support. The fourth referendum was in Michigan, another Democratically-controlled state, and passed with 56.66% support in 2022.
Voters also rejected anti-abortion referendums in 2022 in Kansas and Kentucky. Both states have Democratic governors and Republican-controlled Legislatures.
There have been efforts in 12 states in addition to Florida to put constitutional abortion amendments in front of voters in the 2024 election, according to the non-partisan non-profit health policy group KFF.
So far, only Florida’s and Maryland’s have been approved, said Mabel Felix, a women’s health policy analyst for KFF by email on Thursday.
“The deadline to submit signatures in other states has not passed yet and other measures may be approved in the coming months,” Felix said. “State lawmakers may also pass other measures.”
This story was originally published April 4, 2024 at 3:07 PM.