An effort to change the Florida state constitution to enshrine access to abortion has raised nearly $5 million in donations and amassed 147,524 petition signatures in just four months.
Floridians Protecting Freedom Inc. seeks to reverse that. And pro-life activists worry that the group could be successful, especially because the strategy seems to target conservatives, who might misunderstand the intent of the petition.
Advocates for unrestricted access to abortions are critical of Florida’s six-week ban, citing a study from the University of California San Francisco that found one in three women do not discover they are pregnant until after six weeks of gestation. Longitudinal data from the National Survey of Family Growth that spans from 1995 to 2013 indicate that the average time frame for pregnancy awareness is 5.5 weeks.
Research from the Institute of Anatomy and Embryology UMG at Georg-August-University Goettingen showed that the heartbeat is detectable after 42-44 days of gestation or just over six weeks.
The pro-abortion Floridians Protecting Freedom group began what’s known as a citizen’s initiative on May 8, less than a month after Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the legislation restricting abortions further in the state. The group hopes to meet the requirements to put a proposed constitutional amendment on the ballot in November 2024.
To be able to pose the question on the ballot, Floridians Protecting Freedom must collect 891,589 petitions signed by registered voters in the state by February 1, 2024. Then, the proposed wording of the constitutional amendment would need to be approved by the Florida Supreme Court.
Battle Over Abortion in Florida
Andrew Shirvell is the founder of Florida Voice for the Unborn, a statewide, grassroots, pro-life lobbying organization. He fears that some conservatives might be too complacent after perceived “wins” to limit abortion.In 2022, the Republican-led legislature delivered a 15-week ban to the desk of Gov. Ron DeSantis, who signed it into law. In 2023, the Republican governor—currently running for president—signed legislation limiting most abortions beyond six weeks of pregnancy.
Those were celebrated as big victories by many conservatives, even though the new six-week ban isn’t in effect yet.
In September, the Florida Supreme Court will hear arguments in a case challenging the 15-week abortion ban. Due to court rules, the six-week ban will not go into effect until 30 days following the court’s ruling on the 15-week ban.
Meanwhile, the well-funded effort to block legislation restricting abortion in the state is gaining momentum.
By contrast, the Florida recreational cannabis initiative proposed by Smart & Safe Florida has just one company—Trulieve, a medical marijuana dispensary chain—as its primary financial backer. The effort raised almost $40 million by August.
The possibility of having pro-abortion and pro-recreational cannabis initiatives on the 2024 ballot could have wide-reaching implications for the Republican Party, Mr. Shirvell told The Epoch Times.
“This is dangerous because it will motivate the pro-abortion side to come out,” Mr. Shirvell said.
And even if the proposed constitutional amendment doesn’t pass, having its supporters show up en masse to vote for it could hurt all Republican candidates, he said.
Over the past year, the number of registered Republicans in Florida has exceeded Democrats for the first time in the state’s history. As of Sept. 1, state records showed there were more than 5.2 million Republicans, almost 4.7 million Democrats, and almost 3.9 million voters with no party affiliation.
Mr. Shirvell frets that Democratic and Independent voters who would typically sit out other elections could be driven to the polls by these two voter initiatives sitting side-by-side on the ballot. He also sees a lack of unity on the political Right and worries the proposed amendment could win over voters who are still undecided on abortion rules.
“If the Republican Party doesn’t answer that with either ads or mobilizing their base to vote against it, they’re going to be hurt down-ballot,” Mr. Shirvell said. “They need to mobilize.”
Christian Ziegler, the chairman of the Republican Party of Florida, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Mr. Shirvell is trying to raise conservative awareness by promoting a “Decline to Sign” campaign. With it, he hopes to inform voters of the implications of a pro-abortion constitutional amendment, that it’s meant to “expand abortion” in Florida.
“I think here in Florida, what we need to do as the pro-life movement is communicate this to the Republican Party and our conservative allies, as well,” Mr. Shirvell said.
Approaching Conservatives on Their ‘Turf’
Tom Reilly, a real estate agent in Newberry, Florida, almost signed the petition to further the pro-abortion effort because he misunderstood the mission of Floridians Protecting Freedom.Intrigued by the name, he approached the group’s booth at a gun show in Alachua County. It was the only booth he saw, other than the event’s sign-in table, he said.
He was immediately confused by the group’s name, he said.
“Is this pro-abortion, or anti-abortion?” Mr. Reilly asked.
At first glance, he'd assumed it was a conservative effort to further restrict abortion in the state, considering the booth was at a gun show, an event that typically attracts a more conservative crowd, he said.
Instead of answering his question, the petition gatherer motioned toward the group’s sign, Mr. Reilly said.
When he inquired again for clarification regarding the group’s mission, she pointed to the sign, he said.
Ultimately, Mr. Reilly declined to sign, he said.
He then called Mark Minck, the sponsor of a proposed constitutional amendment to ban abortion in Florida. He asked if the booth represented that effort.
It was then Mr. Reilly realized he'd almost been duped into supporting an effort to expand abortion access, rather than further restrict it, he said.
Floridians Protecting Freedom did not respond to multiple requests from The Epoch Times for comment.
But the group routinely collects signatures at “big events,” such as community festivals and farmer’s markets, and in smaller venues, such as book clubs and Father’s Day gatherings, a representative said in an interview with the Orlando Sentinel.
The Floridians Protecting Freedom website describes the group as “a statewide campaign of allied organizations and concerned citizens working together to protect Floridians’ access to abortion as reproductive health care and defend the right to bodily autonomy.”
‘God-Given Right to Life’
As Floridians Protecting Freedom works to put a proposal guaranteeing access to abortions on the ballot in Florida, Mr. Minck’s group is trying to meet the requirements to be able to ask voters to approve a far different change to the state constitution.Protect Human Life Florida is collecting petition signatures, too. However, that group’s proposed amendment would restrict abortion from the point of conception.
The Human Life Protection Amendment argues for “the God-given right to life of the preborn individual.” It would protect the “preborn human at any stage of development.”
The only exceptions would be for severe threats to the mother’s health after all “reasonable steps” are taken to save the life of the developing baby.
“We believe that the right to life of the preborn is a God-given right and that it should be recognized as unalienable within the Florida constitution,” Mr. Minck, the group’s chairman, told The Epoch Times.
He’s worried about how the two initiatives—to legalize recreational marijuana and guarantee abortion access—could affect voter turnout in 2024.
“The concern that I have is that, with Republican voter registration increasing, conservatives might grow—I don’t want to say—contented,” Mr. Minck said.
“The Democrats are really focused on how can they stop Florida” from restricting abortions, Mr. Minck said.
“And there is nothing like putting abortion and marijuana on the ballot to drive people [to the polls to vote] that might not otherwise engage politically.”
Mr. Minck also is concerned about conservatives’ worries about election integrity, and how that could backfire. Wondering if their votes really count, many could stay home and not vote, he said.
“Maybe they’re just disgusted with all of it,“ he said. ”They’re like, ‘Look, I don’t even trust the election process anymore. They’re gonna steal it again, then why should I even show up?’”
He believes this is why Republicans lost two Senate run-off elections in Georgia in late 2022, after the presidential contest already had been decided amid widespread outcry that it had been rigged.
But Protect Human Life Florida is determined to push forward.
“The U.S. Constitution protects life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,“ former Florida congressman Ted Yoho said in a written statement of support for Protect Human Life Florida’s amendment proposal. ”Yet, legalized abortion has long denied these rights to the most vulnerable among us.
“The Human Life Protection Amendment would ensure that these fundamental rights are upheld for the preborn by embedding them in Florida’s Constitution. Not only would this amendment help heal the scar abortion has left on our state, it would begin to restore dignity back to these precious little ones that bear the very image of God. I stand in strong support of this amendment.”
The effort has a growing list of high-profile supporters.
But for now, Mr. Minck places some hope on an expected decision from the Florida Supreme Court.
When justices review the language of the amendment proposed by Floridians Protecting Freedom, they could decide to disqualify the initiative. A decision is expected after Feb. 1.
Constitutional amendments have an uphill battle, even if they secure a spot on the ballot. More than 60 percent of voters—a supermajority—must vote “Yes” to enshrine new wording in the state constitution.
Six ballot measures across the country addressed abortion in the 2022 election.
Michigan, California, and Vermont all voted to enshrine abortion access in their state constitutions. Similar efforts failed in Kansas, Kentucky, and Montana.
