Abortion Measure Nears Requirement

By The News Service of Florida

Supporters of a proposed constitutional amendment aimed at ensuring abortion rights in Florida continue to get closer to meeting a signature requirement to reach the 2024 ballot. The Florida Division of Elections website Friday showed 833,743 valid petition signatures for the proposal, up from 753,306 a week earlier and 687,700 two weeks earlier.

The political committee Floridians Protecting Freedom, which is sponsoring the measure, will need to submit at least 891,523 valid signatures statewide and meet signature requirements in at least half of the state’s congressional districts to get on the November ballot. The committee faces a Feb. 1 deadline for meeting the requirements. It also needs the Florida Supreme Court to sign off on the proposed ballot wording.

Attorney General Ashley Moody has argued the Supreme Court should keep the proposed constitutional amendment off the ballot, saying its wording would mislead voters — a contention that amendment supporters dispute. The ballot summary of the proposal says, in part: “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.”

Floridians Protecting Freedom announced the initiative in May after the Republican-controlled Legislature and Gov. Ron DeSantis approved a law that could prevent abortions after six weeks of pregnancy. The six-week limit is contingent on the outcome of a legal battle about a 15-week abortion limit that DeSantis and lawmakers passed in 2022. If the proposed constitutional amendment reaches the ballot, it would need support from 60 percent of voters to pass.