Florida Abortion Rights Petition Clears Signature Requirement To Appear on Ballot

A petition aimed at amending the Florida state constitution to protect abortion rights in the state has secured enough signatures to qualify for the ballot.One of the groups behind the petition, Floridians Protecting Freedom, announced that 911,169 signatures have been verified by the Florida Division of Elections, about 20,000 more than what is required for the petition to appear on the ballot.The measure, should it pass, would amend the state constitution to add a section reading: “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.”In early December, the group told the Sun that it had already received more signatures than were required to get on the ballot, though it was waiting for the state to verify them.Despite the petition reaching the signature requirement, it’s not guaranteed that the measure will appear on ballots in Florida. The state attorney general, Ashley Moody, and the state supreme court, which has a conservative majority, must also sign off on the ballot measure. Ms. Moody’s office deferred to the court in a statement to the Sun.“The Supreme Court will evaluate the clarity of the amendment before it goes to the voters,” her office says. “It is the constitutional and statutory responsibility of the Attorney General’s Office to provide argument with regard to clarity on proposed constitutional amendments.”Even with Florida’s requirement that amendments receive 60 percent support in an election, polling indicates that it is relatively likely to pass.A recent survey from the University of North Florida’s Public Opinion Research Lab found that the amendment has 62 percent support. Only 29 percent of respondents said they opposed the measure.Since the overturning of Roe v. Wade, abortion rights have won every time the issue has been put before voters, including in states like Kansas and Ohio, where voters typically prefer Republican candidates.Florida legislators passed a ban on abortions after six weeks, though the ban has yet to go into effect pending a ruling from the state supreme court on an earlier 15-week ban.“The fact that we only launched our campaign eight months ago and we’ve already reached our petition goal speaks to the unprecedented support and momentum there is to get politicians out of our private lives and health care decisions,” the director of the petition’s campaign, Lauren Brenzel, said in a statement.Florida is only one of a number of states where abortion rights advocates are pushing to put an abortion rights question on the ballot, including Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Maryland, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New York, and South Dakota.

Florida Abortion Rights Petition Clears Signature Requirement To Appear on Ballot

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