Gov. Ron DeSantis is making his case to pro-choice voters to reject Amendment 4, as he argues the abortion rights initiative is written vaguely.
DeSantis spoke at an Orlando press conference and addressed the upcoming constitutional amendment that seeks to enshrine abortion rights — a regular conversation topic for the Governor ahead of the November election.
“Look if you’re pro-life, obviously you’re going to vote against this once you figure out what’s in it,” DeSantis said. “But there’s other people, maybe they’re not pro-life, but their view is like, ‘OK, let the mother talk to the physician.’ … The physician doesn’t have to be a part of it under this amendment, how crazy is that?”
“The whole thing is built on fraud,” he add. “If you read that amendment, they don’t define any of the terms that are in the amendment.”
It’s become a war of words — as well as lawsuits and criminal complaints, too — between DeSantis and Floridians Protecting Freedom, the political committee behind Amendment 4.
“Don’t be fooled. We’ve seen this time and time again,” Yes on 4 spokeswoman Lauren Brenzel said in a press call last week. “Government doesn’t want to talk about their abortion ban, so they’re trying to distract you. They’re doing everything they can to suppress the votes and the will of the people.”
Reproductive freedom advocates call Florida’s six-week abortion ban one of the strictest in the country.
Meanwhile, DeSantis continued his attacks against Amendment 4, saying it will deregulate abortion so that doctors are not required to perform the medical procedures.
Amendment 4 backers argue that’s not true and stand by the ballot question’s wording which says, “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.”
“We don’t want people who aren’t doctors trying to provide medical guidance. That’s the entire point of this initiative,” Brenzel said. “We’re talking about ending an extreme ban that’s putting women in medically dangerous situations, and we’re guiding the people of Florida to trust doctors over politicians with no medical degrees to tell them what medical care looks like.”
DeSantis has repeatedly voiced concern that out-of-state pregnant women will travel to Florida to get abortions if the amendment passes with at least 60% of the vote on Nov. 5.
“What’s going to happen is that will create a lot of bootleg abortion clinics around the state,” DeSantis said Monday. “Remember, we’re in a region of the country where almost every state that borders us has very strong pro-life legislation. You’re going to have people coming, and there’s going to be a lot of people convinced, and people are going to make money off of this.”
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