Thanks to the tireless work of abortion rights advocates in Florida, in November Floridians will vote on a constitutional amendment, known as Amendment 4, to protect abortion rights in the state — rights that essentially no longer exist thanks to the state’s current six-week abortion ban passed by the Republican-controlled legislature and signed into law by Ron DeSantis. The ban went into effect on May 1. Early polling shows robust support for Amendment 4 among Florida voters. Can it help Democrats win the state this fall?
On April 1 the Florida Supreme Court gave the go-ahead for the amendment to be on fall ballot. Amendment 4 states that “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.” A Fox News poll released last week showed that a whopping 69% of Floridians support the amendment — well above the 60% threshold required in the state for any constitutional amendment to pass. A CBS News/YouGov poll released at the end of May showed that 60% of Floridians support the Amendment, so things seem to be trending in the right direction as people start paying attention to this issue in the state and awareness of the amendment — and of the state’s current abortion ban — continues to increase.
(Note: also on the ballot in Florida this fall is an amendment — Amendment 3 — to legalize marijuana, and that same Fox News poll showed support for Amendment 3 at 66%).
Now, you would think that if more than 60% of Floridians support an abortion rights amendment, we should be able to get 50% to support Democrats Joe Biden for President and Debbie Mucarsel-Powell for US Senate, who are the only candidates that support abortion rights. As Prairiecrat has reported, a new poll shows that things are starting to trend in the right direction for Mucarsel-Powell to defeat Rick Scott — who won in 2018 by just half a percentage point — but we have a lot of work to do.
That CBS News/YouGov poll showed that even though 60% of Florida votes said they supported Amendment 4, they still preferred Trump over Biden by a 54%-45% margin and Scott over Mucarsel-Powell by a 45%-37% margin. So there’s this big chunk of Florida voters who want to vote to protect abortion rights by passing Amendment 4 but then will vote for Donald Trump and Rick Scott — who will both support a national abortion ban that would make Amendment 4 meaningless.
So Democrats will need to do a lot of work between now and November to explain to Florida voters that if you care about women having the right to control their own bodies and their own healthcare decisions, it’s not enough to vote for Amendment 4. You also have to vote for Joe Biden and Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, otherwise your votes will cancel each other out when it comes to protecting abortion rights. Although I’ve become a cynic lately about Florida, I actually think this is a doable thing to accomplish — with the right message and the right resources. And it would be delicious to force Republicans to spend a lot of time and money in a big and expensive state like Florida.
Speaking of resources, the group leading the Amendment 4 fight is Floridians Protecting Freedom. The group announced this week that it has raised more than $12.2 million from more than 16,000 donations in April and May, bringing the total raised by the group to date to more than $32 million. About 93% of all donations received by the campaign have been for $200 or less, and the group’s median donation is $25.
Please donate to the effort if you can. It won’t be easy to win this fight and win Florida in the fall, but it’s not impossible.
#YES4FL