Florida is the next big target of the billion-dollar abortion industry.
More than 80,000 unborn babies are aborted there every year, and their deaths are big money for abortion facilities like Planned Parenthood. But the new state heartbeat law, which Gov. Ron DeSantis signed in April, threatens their deadly trade.
So on Friday, Planned Parenthood and the ACLU unveiled a “multi-million” dollar campaign to make aborting unborn babies a “right” under the Florida Constitution, Politico reports.
The pro-abortion groups already are fundraising to promote the pro-abortion amendment and hope to have it qualify for the ballot in 2024, according to the report.
“The radical abortion lobby’s post-Dobbs playbook is clear. Groups like the ACLU and Planned Parenthood are flooding states around the country with millions of dollars to confuse and deceive the people,” said Katie Daniel, state policy director for SBA Pro-Life America.
Daniel said the amendment deceptively claims to limit abortions once unborn babies are viable, but it really would “enshrine brutal late-term abortion on demand right up to birth with no protections for babies born alive.” After viability, the amendment allows abortions for “health” reasons, and some abortionists say pregnancy itself is a health condition that justifies abortion at any stage.
If the amendment passes, Planned Parenthood and the ACLU also could succeed in their goal to end parental rights involving underage girls seeking abortions.
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Language in the amendment says “every individual has a right to reproductive autonomy” – without age limit. In other words, parental consent laws could be deemed unconstitutional, and young girls could get abortions, or be coerced by an abuser, without their parents’ knowledge.
According to SBA Pro-Life America, the full amendment states:
“Every individual has a right to reproductive autonomy and freedom to make and execute all decisions involving pregnancy, including but not limited to childbirth, fertilization, sterilization, contraception, and termination of a pregnancy before the point of fetal viability,” unless the abortion is deemed “medically necessary to protect the life or health of the pregnant person.”
“No other individual, firm, corporation, institution, or entity may prohibit, penalize, harass, discriminate against, or in any other way interfere with an individual in their exercise or [sic] this right, or any other individual or entity that assists an individual with the exercise of this right, under any circumstances.”
“A state interest is ‘compelling’ only if it is for the limited purpose of protecting the health of an individual seeking care, consistent with accepted clinical standards of practice and evidence-based medicine and does not infringe on that individual’s autonomous decision-making.”
To amend the Florida Constitution, a ballot initiative must have at least 890,000 signatures from voters in at least half of the congressional districts, according to Forbes. Then, the ballot measure must pass with at least 60 percent of voters’ approval.
Planned Parenthood and other groups plan to launch a massive marketing campaign to convince Florida voters that the amendment is reasonable. Pro-abortion groups rarely explain exactly what their proposals would do, instead speaking in vague terms about rights and personal liberty.
For example, Sarah Standiford, national campaigns director for Planned Parenthood Action Fund, told Politico that the amendment is about “reproductive freedom.”
“Floridians know what is best for their own bodies and their own lives,” Standiford said in an interview Thursday. “People are ready to vote for reproductive freedom and to take back power from lawmakers who have literally gone against the will of the people.”
But the new pro-life laws in Florida are the will of the people, and the amendment is not. Florida voters elected a strong pro-life majority to both houses in November and a pro-life governor and attorney general.
A March poll by Ragnar Research found 62 percent of Florida voters support legislation to protect unborn babies from abortion once their heartbeat is detectable.
Even Politico, which leans pro-abortion and erroneously referred to the heartbeat law as a “six week” abortion ban, noted that a recent Pew Research poll found only 22 percent of Americans believe abortions should be legal after the baby is viable.
Many other polls show public support for even stronger protections for unborn babies, especially after the first trimester. An April NPR poll found 67 percent believe abortions only should be allowed, at most, up to the first three months of pregnancy. A strong minority, 41 percent, would prohibit all abortions or allow them only in cases of rape, incest or to save the mother’s life.
Daniel at SBA Pro-Life America said Florida leaders acted on the will of the people when they passed the heartbeat law last month.
“It is crucial that voters understand what is at stake in the pro-abortion Left’s war on women, children and parents and we are committed to exposing their extreme agenda in Florida and nationwide,” she said.
Florida reported 82,192 abortions in 2022, according to state health statistics.
The new heartbeat law currently is not in effect due to a pro-abortion lawsuit. However, pro-life advocates hope the Florida Supreme Court will reject abortion activists’ claims and allow the life-saving law to go into effect soon.
Pro-life advocates also are working to stop pro-abortion constitutional amendments in Connecticut, Ohio, Missouri, Maryland and South Dakota.
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