Advocates for abortion access scored a win Friday, as supporters of a proposed constitutional amendment designed to protect abortion rights submitted enough valid petition signatures to get on the November ballot.
Friday’s development was a key step in what could become the year’s biggest political battle, as the state Supreme Court would still need to sign off on the ballot initiative’s wording — while state Attorney General Ashley Moody is fighting to keep the measure off of the ballot.
The Florida Division of Elections website Friday morning showed that 910,946 valid signatures had been tallied for the proposal, surpassing the needed 891,523 signatures to qualify for the ballot.
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Floridians Protecting Freedom, the political committee that sponsored the proposal, said getting enough signatures represented a “huge milestone for abortion access” in the state.
Lauren Brenzel, campaign director for the committee, pointed to reaching the petition goal as an indicator of support for abortion rights.
“The fact that we launched our campaign only eight months ago, and that we’ve already reached our petition goal, speaks to the unprecedented support and momentum that there is to get politicians out of our private lives and healthcare decisions,” Brenzel said during a press conference Friday.
The political committee launched the ballot initiative in response to the Legislature and Gov. Ron DeSantis last year approving a measure that restricted abortions to six weeks of pregnancy — which opponents have asserted amounts to a de facto ban on the procedures.
The six-week restriction, however, is contingent on the outcome of a legal battle about a 15-week abortion limit that DeSantis and lawmakers passed in 2022. The 15-week case is pending at the Florida Supreme Court.
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The proposed constitutional amendment also comes after the U.S. Supreme Court in 2022 overturned the landmark Roe v. Wade decision on abortion, putting the matter in states’ hands.
Meanwhile, the ballot initiative will face scrutiny from the state Supreme Court, which is tasked with approving the summary and title that voters would see when they go to the polls. Moody and other opponents are urging justices to block the measure, arguing that it is misleading to voters. Moody, in part, has raised concerns about the measure’s use of the term “viability,” arguing that the term can have multiple meanings.
The court has scheduled a Feb. 7 hearing on the abortion initiative.
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