TALLAHASSEE — A group of anti-abortion advocates are trying to force Florida’s abortion amendment off the ballot this November or void any votes cast for it, citing a report from the DeSantis administration that said there was “widespread” fraud in the petition gathering for the effort.

A lawsuit filed Wednesday in the 9th Judicial Circuit argues that the sponsors behind Amendment 4 failed to meet the required signature threshold to get on the ballot when that alleged fraud is considered. The anti-abortion plaintiffs are being represented by former Florida Supreme Court Justice Alan Lawson.

Amendment 4 proposes protecting abortion access until viability, about 24 weeks of pregnancy, and would undo the state’s ban on most abortions after six weeks of pregnancy. Gov. Ron DeSantis has vowed to defeat the initiative.

To get the amendment on the ballot, the sponsor group Floridians Protecting Freedom gathered nearly a million verified signatures from people across the state, about 100,000 signatures above the baseline qualifying requirement. The Department of State certified the amendment to appear on the ballot early this year.

But last week, the department released a report after reviewing petitions that local supervisors had already deemed valid, an unprecedented move, according to elections supervisors. In the report, the state’s Office of Election Crimes & Security argued that 16.4% of the petitions should have never been validated.