Florida abortion rights amendment has enough signers to be Amendment #4 on Nov. ballot.

But the FL supreme court will hear arguments Feb. 7 re: language. The following article from Florida Phoenix explains.

"Organizers of the petition drive to enact a state constitutional right to abortion through a citizens’ initiative have collected enough petition signatures to merit a place on the November ballot, a state elections agency announced Friday.

But one major hurdle remains: the Florida Supreme Court still must approve the description of the measure that would greet voters. And the anti-abortion Gov. Ron DeSantis has appointed five of the seven sitting judges, and Attorney General Ashley Moody — a Republican, like DeSantis — has asked the court to reject that language.

The court has scheduled oral arguments for Feb. 7 following requests to that end by Floridians Protecting Freedom, the initiative sponsor, plus Moody and anti-abortion groups. The justices are not supposed to consider the merits of any proposed amendments — only that the ballot language accurately describes the initiative and won’t confuse voters.

But for now, Maria Matthews, director of the Florida Division of Elections, acknowledged in a letter to Floridians Protecting Freedom that the Amendment to Limit Government Interference with Abortion would appear on the ballot as Amendment 4.

“Today, our campaign to limit government interference with abortion reached a historic milestone with the assignment of an official ballot number,” campaign director Lauren Brenzel said in a written statement.

“This November, Floridians should have the chance to vote for Amendment 4 to return control of our bodies and futures back to us, where these personal decisions belong,” she said.

The abortion initiative needed 891,523 petition signatures to qualify. According to the division’s website, as of Friday 993,387 had been collected. The sponsors announced on Jan. 5 that they’d met the threshold, but now the state has confirmed it.

Court challenge
That summary reads: “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. This amendment does not change the Legislature’s constitutional authority to require notification to a parent or guardian before a minor has an abortion.”

In arguments filed with the Supreme Court, Moody and the anti-abortion organizations have argued the summary’s use of the word “viability” is ambiguous. However, since Roe v. Wade in 1973 the word has been widely accepted as meaning the point at which a fetus could survive outside the womb, between 23 and 24 weeks’ gestational age.

One Moody brief suggested the amendment would give health care providers the power to decide both what constitutes “viability” of a pregnancy and whether the “health” of the pregnant person justified a late term abortion without disclosing that to voters. “In essence,” providers would be “serving as their own regulators,” the brief asserts.

Moody also has argued that the ballot language fails to disclose that federal law could intrude on abortion rights, including through the 2003 federal ban on “partial birth abortions” (first filed in 1995 by Charles Canady, then a Florida congressman, now a justice of the Florida Supreme Court).

The sponsors replied that state law and Florida Supreme Court precedent reject such an expansive view of the court’s obligations when reviewing ballot language.

“In fact, the court has made clear, repeatedly, that the chief-purpose requirement does not require ‘an exhaustive explanation of the interpretation and future possible effects of the amendment,’” a sponsor’s brief says.

As for the alleged ambiguous language, “The question is not whether the proposed constitutional language itself is free of any ambiguity, but whether the ballot title and summary affirmatively mislead voters as to the new constitutional language voters are asked to adopt,” the sponsor’s brief argues.

Floridians Protecting Freedom expressed optimism about the outcome. “Once the Florida Supreme Court confirms what we know already, that our ballot title and summary meet the requirements to go to voters, we will have crossed the final hurdle,” the group said in a written statement.

“We look forward to the court’s favorable ruling, and then we’ll make sure every Floridian knows they will have the chance in November to vote to restore their freedom to once again control their own bodies, their own health care and their own futures,” the group said.

The fate of Florida’s 15-week abortion ban is also before the court — and if the state high court overrules its own 1989 ruling protecting abortion access under the Florida Constitution, a six-week ban passed in 2023 would take effect 30 days later.

The Florida court heard oral arguments in that case on Sept. 8, 2023, in a challenge by Planned Parenthood affiliates and other providers but has yet to issue its ruling."