FLORIDA (SNN TV) – Activists fundraise to get a constitutional amendment on the ballot to restore abortion rights in Florida.
The Herald-Tribune reports one fundraiser Tuesday raised $230,000 dollars in over two hours. It’s part of an effort for a petition to place a ballot item “to limit government interference with abortion” on the ballot November 2024.
The ballot item has one concession: the measure wouldn’t impact the Florida legislature’s ability to “require notification to a parent or guardian before a minor has an abortion.”
The volunteer executive director of Florida Women’s Freedom Coalition says the campaign for the amendment is led by 10 groups and enjoys support of Democrats, Republicans, no-party voters, and libertarians. They’ve raised around $5 million so far.
This comes one year after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade, which guaranteed the right for women to choose to have an abortion. Governor Ron DeSantis signed a 6-week ban into law last spring. Florida Republicans celebrated the one-year anniversary of the Dobbs decision.
To get the amendment on the ballot, the coalition of groups needs 891,589 signatures on petitions by February 1, 2024. Since that’s the date all the supervisors of elections in Florida have to verify signatures, the coalition wants to gather all signatures by December 31.
They have 250,000 signatures so far.
If it gets on the ballot, the amendment would need 60 percent approval from voters to pass. If passed, the amendment would ban and strike down any Florida law that 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.”
