Florida Abortion Amendment Falls Short Following Aggressive Opposition by Ron DeSantis

In the wake of an aggressive opposition campaign by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, an effort to enshrine the right to a pre-viability abortion in the state constitution failed on Tuesday. The Republican governor threw the full weight of his administration behind blocking the measure, known as Amendment 4. A clear majority of voters backed the effort, but it fell just short of the 60 percent threshold it needed to pass.

Addressing supporters just after 9 p.m., organizers with the Yes on 4! coalition struck a triumphant tone, emphasizing the 57 percent support the measure received. The results sent a clear message to legislators that the state’s abortion ban is too extreme, an organizer said.

The amendment, which made its way onto the ballot with the support of 1 million Floridians, would have effectively invalidated the state’s six-week abortion ban. The state’s law, which DeSantis pushed through, effectively outlaws all abortions, because people often don’t yet know they are pregnant at the six-week mark. 

Florida voters also rejected Amendment 3, which would have legalized marijuana and had faced similar attacks from DeSantis.

The governor quickly took to social media to announce the results. He tweeted: “With polls now closed in Florida — Amendment 3 has failed. Amendment 4 has failed.”

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Former President Donald Trump, meanwhile, handily won the state for the third straight presidential election. Trump, who lives in Florida, on Tuesday refused to answer reporters’ questions about how he voted on the amendment. The Republican nominee had previously criticized the state’s six-week ban and suggested he would back the measure before reversing course.

Across the United States, voters in 10 states weighed in on reproductive rights, including in Missouri, which was the first state to officially outlaw abortion after the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision.

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As The Intercept previously reported, DeSantis’s actions to undermine Amendment 4 showcased a troubling escalation in his larger efforts to subvert the direct democratic process in Florida and weaponize the administrative state. 

The governor used the legal system, state agencies, the financial impact statement process, and the election cops in his quest to maintain the state’s near-total abortion ban — spending millions of dollars in the process. The state reportedly spent roughly $4 million intended for fighting the opioid epidemic on advertisements against the two citizen-led amendments.

DeSantis went too far for even senior members of his administration. In October, John Wilson, the general counsel for Florida’s Department of Health, resigned in protest after allegedly being directed by DeSantis to send cease-and-desist letters to television stations playing advertisements in favor of Amendment 4.

Prior to Wilson’s abrupt resignation, advocates had already been raising alarm bells over DeSantis’s anti-democratic tactics. 

In an interview ahead of the election, Democratic state Rep. Anna Eskamani, who won her reelection race on Tuesday, warned that if DeSantis was successful, it would set a dangerous precedent for other “extremists” to weaponize the administrative state against the electoral process.