Backers say abortion initiative ‘clear and precise’
Photo by St. Clair Murraine
NSF Staff Report
A political committee leading efforts to pass a constitutional amendment that would ensure abortion rights in Florida pushed back after Attorney General Ashley Moody said she would try to block the measure from reaching the 2024 ballot.
In a filing last Monday at the Florida Supreme Court and in an opinion piece published last Friday, Moody argued that the proposed amendment does not meet legal requirements to go on the ballot.
Those requirements include making sure the proposal’s wording is clear and limited to a single subject.
In an opinion piece published on the Florida’s Voice website, Moody pointed to part of the proposed amendment that says it would prevent restrictions on abortion before “viability.”
Moody wrote in the opinion piece that “viability” can have more than one meaning. But the political committee Floridians Protecting Freedom released a statement last Tuesday disputing Moody’s argument.
“The proposed amendment is clear and precise in limiting government interference with abortion ‘before viability,’” Floridians Protecting Freedom Campaign Director Lauren Brenzel said in the statement. “Viability in the abortion context has always meant the stage of fetal development when the life of a fetus is sustainable outside the womb through standard medical measures.
“This is how the state of Florida itself defines viability. This is how the United States Supreme Court and Florida Supreme Court still define viability. Dictionaries and doctors also define viability this way in the abortion context. This is a disingenuous argument by a politician desperate to block Floridians from voting on this amendment.”
The Supreme Court needs to sign off on the wording of the amendment before it could go before voters next year. The proposal would bar laws that restrict abortion “before viability or when necessary to protect the patient’s health, as determined by the patient’s healthcare provider.”
