Can DeSantis convince pro-choice voters that Florida’s abortion amendment is ‘extreme’?

The opposition to Amendment 4 is getting organized, and Gov. Ron DeSantis is leading the resistance.

At an event at Jesuit High School on Thursday, DeSantis galvanized opposition to the amendment, which would end most abortion restrictions in Florida. In front of a packed auditorium crowd of a few hundred, Florida’s Republican governor laid out what he said are the stakes in November.

“If you care about building a culture of life in this state or this country, them winning in Florida I think really represents the end of the pro-life movement,” DeSantis said.

Amendment 4 would bar lawmakers from banning abortion before a fetus is viable — undoing the current six-week ban on the books. The amendment would also allow for abortions in cases when the mother’s health is threatened “as determined by the patient’s healthcare provider.” It needs 60% voter approval to pass.

While the group supporting abortion access has raised nearly $40 million, opposition to the amendment has struggled to gain traction. But the Tampa event Thursday showed how that could be changing.

READ MORE: The entire country is getting involved in the campaign in Florida over abortion

At a minimum, anti-abortion opponents of the amendment have found their talking points. A brief video shown to the crowd before DeSantis’ appearance criticized Amendment 4 for leaving certain terms undefined. For example, it said the text does not say what a “healthcare provider” is. The video criticized the amendment for requiring parental “notification” for abortion and not parental consent.

“They didn’t have to write Amendment 4 this way. But they did. Why?” A voice-over told the crowd as the video played. “Because they want to deceive you — to make their extreme amendment seem reasonable.”

Floridians Protecting Freedom, the group opposed to abortion restrictions that is sponsoring the push for the amendment, declined to comment for this story. However, supporters of Amendment 4 have noted that should it pass, health care providers would still be limited to their scope of practice. They’ve also said the amendment wouldn’t interfere with the parental notification requirement for abortion that’s already in Florida’s Constitution.

In making the case for a no vote on 4, DeSantis gave a stark assessment of the state’s politics.

“If you look at the state of Florida, we do not have a pro-life majority,” DeSantis said. “We’ve got a big chunk, but we don’t have a majority. If only people that are pro-life oppose it, it very well might pass.”

The opposition’s real work will be convincing Floridians who generally support abortion rights that the amendment is too extreme, DeSantis said.

To that end, DeSantis pointed to a financial impact statement that will accompany the summary of the amendment on the ballot. In part, the statement, written by a state panel with a DeSantis representative on it, warns that Amendment 4, if passed, would be the subject of litigation that would be funded by taxpayers.

Supporters of Amendment 4 have called the impact statement “deceptive” and said its aim is to politicize the amendment. The financial impact statement itself has been subject to lawsuits.

DeSantis also said he will work to tie Amendment 4 to figures that Republican voters perceive to be far-left, such as Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris and the billionaire financier George Soros. DeSantis noted that if every Republican voted against the abortion amendment, it would fail. He asked opponents of the amendment in the audience to consider donating to the Florida Freedom Fund, a group championing conservative causes led by DeSantis’ chief of staff, James Uthmeier.

The governor also reserved some criticism for his fellow conservatives. He bashed the Florida Supreme Court — including two of his own appointees — for letting the amendment appear on the ballot in the first place.

“We’re here because the majority of the Florida Supreme Court was derelict in their duties. They did not have the courage to do what was right, because they would have been criticized for nixing this,” DeSantis said. “They caved.”

This story was originally published August 16, 2024 at 8:27 AM with the headline "Can DeSantis convince pro-choice voters that Florida’s abortion amendment is ‘extreme’?."