In a Post-Dobbs First, Amendment Enshrining Abortion Rights in Florida Constitution Fails at the Ballot Box

For the first time since Roe v Wade was overturned by the Supreme Court, a ballot measure supporting greater abortion access has failed in Florida after intense lobbying in recent weeks from Governor DeSantis and other anti-abortion activists.The amendment, one of six on the state’s ballot this year, would have enshrined a right to abortion in the state’s constitution, overturning the state’s six-week abortion ban and allowing abortions until fetal viability. Amendment 3, a ballot measure to legalize recreational marijuana for adults aged 21 and over, also failed.Since the Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization in 2022, seven states have had abortion-related ballot measures, and the side supporting greater abortion access has won every time. This year, a record ten states have abortion measures on the ballot — Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Maryland, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New York, Nevada, and South Dakota. In Florida, both the marijuana and abortion measures saw support from more than half of voters but failed to meet the 60 percent majority required for the constitutional amendments to pass. With 90 percent of the votes tallied, Amendment 4 had a 57 percent “yes” and 43 percent “no vote,” while Amendment 3 had a 55.7 percent “yes: vote” and a 44.3 percent “no” vote.In the presidential election, the Associated Press called the race quickly after polls closed on Tuesday, and President Trump picked up Florida’s 30 electoral votes — winning the state by 56 percent to Vice Harris’s 43.1 percent, with 91 percent of the vote reporting. Florida’s Amendment 4 sparked an intense investigation into allegedly fraudulent petition signatures and an opposition campaign from Mr. DeSantis, who said that Amendment 4 would “mandate abortion up until the moment of birth” and that it was deceiving to voters, as the Sun had reported. A state healthcare agency also launched a website warning about the dangers of Amendment 4, sparking a heated legal debate and an eventual lawsuit. Mr. DeSantis also vocally opposed Amendment 3, saying that it was prompted by corporate greed from the marijuana industry and that it was “like Big Pharma on steroids” and the “wrong plan for Florida.”An ad supporting the measure highlighted that both Ms. Harris and Trump agreed that recreational marijuana should be legalized. “I just feel strongly, people should not be going to jail for smoking weed,” Ms. Harris said, in a clip shown in the ad. Trump also endorsed Amendment 3, saying that it was time to “end needless arrests and incarcerations of adults for small amounts of marijuana for personal use.”

In a Post-Dobbs First, Amendment Enshrining Abortion Rights in Florida Constitution Fails at the Ballot Box

In a Post-Dobbs First, Amendment Enshrining Abortion Rights in Florida Constitution Fails at the Ballot Box

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