Supporters of a proposed constitutional amendment aimed at ensuring abortion rights in Florida have submitted enough valid petition signatures to get on the November ballot, a key step in what could become the state’s biggest political battle this year.
The Florida Division of Elections website Friday morning showed that 910,946 valid signatures had been tallied for the proposal, which is sponsored by the political committee Floridians Protecting Freedom. That topped a requirement of submitting 891,523 signatures to qualify for the ballot.
Flagler County alone submitted 4,800 petitions, with probably more in the pipeline, says Janet Sullivan, who chairs Flagler County Democrats, and who led the drive locally. “As the Sponsor has to pay for each petition to be reviewed by the various SOEs in the state, they may decide to not spend any more money on the reviews, since the statewide goal has already been met,” Sullivan said.
The Flagler Supervisor of Elections’ official tally as of Dec. 28 shows that 4,789 petitions were submitted and processed, and 1,246 invalidated, netting a total of 3,543 valid petitions–at a cost of 50 cents per petition.
“I am a Democrat, but that’s not why I volunteered to get involved,” Sullivan said. “A good college friend almost died in 1971 after she had a ‘back alley’ abortion. We cared for her in our dorm the best we could. A musician-friend I knew in the early 70s before Roe v. Wade was forced to carry her late-stage stillborn fetus until she went into natural labor. I will never forget these women and their horrific experiences. I vowed to work for a woman’s right to a safe abortion, and this initiative does that.”
Floridians Protecting Freedom also met a requirement to meet signature thresholds in at least half of the state’s 28 congressional districts. Unofficial totals on the Division of Elections website showed that the committee exceeded the thresholds in 17 of the 28 districts.
Flagler County is part of the 6th congressional district–with Lake, Marion, Putnam, St. Johns and Volusia counties. The district as a whole submitted 32,411 signatures so far, but needed 34,389 for the district to meet the threshold. District 7, which also includes a portion of Volusia voters, exceeded the threshold–as did, for example, Districts 2 and 3 in the Panhandle, which include some of the state’s more conservative counties, but also Leon County in the Second, a more liberal enclave.
“Flagler volunteers worked hard at public events this past summer and fall to collect signed petitions,” Sullivan said. “They didn’t know anything about who they were approaching for a signature, and to the best of my knowledge, no voter turned down the opportunity to sign a petition. Flagler voters of all parties, genders, and ages”–Sullivan said the range was from 18 to 99–“submitted a signed petition.”
Now, focus will shift to the Florida Supreme Court, which has to sign off on the wording of proposed ballot initiatives. The court has scheduled a Feb. 7 hearing on the abortion initiative, which Attorney General Ashley Moody and other opponents are trying to keep off the ballot.
“Make no mistake: we will put abortion on the ballot in 2024 and take back the rights that have been stolen,” Senate Minority Leader Lauren Book, D-Davie, said Friday in a post on the social-media site X.
But Moody and the other opponents are urging the Supreme Court to block the measure, contending it would be misleading to voters — an argument that initiative supporters dispute.
The Supreme Court will review the proposed ballot summary and title, the wording that voters see when they go to the polls. The proposed ballot summary says, in part: “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.”
Moody and other opponents have raised a series of objections, including contending that the word “viability” can have multiple meanings.
Floridians Protecting Freedom announced the initiative in May after the Republican-controlled Legislature and Gov. Ron DeSantis approved a law that could prevent abortions after six weeks of pregnancy. The six-week limit is contingent on the outcome of a legal battle about a 15-week abortion limit that DeSantis and lawmakers passed in 2022. The 15-week case also is pending at the Florida Supreme Court.
The proposed constitutional amendment has come amid the backdrop of ballot fights in other states after the U.S. Supreme Court in 2022 overturned the landmark Roe v. Wade abortion-rights decision. The U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling left abortion decisions to states.
“The supporters are not just women, not just young women, and not just Democrats,” Sullivan said, calling herself “hopeful” that the entirely conservative court, stacked with DeSantis appointees, will sign off. “If this initiative gets onto the ballot, it likely will have overwhelming support from all Florida voters to become an amendment to the Florida Constitution.”
If the Florida Supreme Court signs off on the wording, the Floridians Protecting Freedom initiative is almost certain to spur a fierce — and expensive — political battle. The six-week limit approved this spring by lawmakers and DeSantis would largely halt abortions in Florida, where a reported 72,087 abortions were performed during the first 11 months of 2023, according to state Agency for Health Care Administration data.
The petition-gathering process is complicated and costly, and Floridians for Protecting Freedom faced a Feb. 1 deadline for meeting the requirements. It had raised $8.91 million for the initiative as of Sept. 30, while spending $8.79 million as it worked to collect signatures. It will have to file an updated finance report by a Wednesday deadline.
The signature totals posted Friday morning on the Division of Elections website showed that the largest number of valid signatures, 54,277, had been collected in Congressional District 14 in Hillsborough and Pinellas counties. Meanwhile, 45,673 had been collected in Congressional District 10 in Orange County, and 45,268 had been collected in Congressional District 21 in Martin, Palm Beach and St. Lucie counties.
–Jim Saunders, News Service of Florida, and FlaglerLive
Duane says
Why do people have to use extreme but very rare examples of why a law is good or bad.
I am sorry your friend suffered a medical complication.
I worked with a young lady 35 years ago who had over a dozen abortions because she and her boyfriends didn’t like the feel of a condom.
WTF?
Why The Face?
Deborah Coffey says
1. Pregnancies gone wrong aren’t rare. https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/22190-high-risk-pregnancy
2. https://www.ajmc.com/view/us-ranks-worst-in-maternal-care-mortality-compared-with-10-other-developed-nations
3. Who has abortions? https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/12/14/upshot/who-gets-abortions-in-america.html
4. YOU are citing the rare case!
Sherry says
Thanks so much, Deborah, for your “factual” response to duane! You, as usual, are most certainly right on!
Edith Campins says
Reall,y dozens of abortions? And you know this for a fact. There is no place for government in a woman’s healthcare decision. You oppose abortion? Don’t have one. Stop pushing your views on me. The factual stories of women in danger because of the restrictive Republican laws are everywhere. Your story…not so factual.
Sherry says
YES! This is really great news! Let’s hope that if this amendment passes, de santis and his “far right” henchmen will not be able to somehow subvert the will of the people. . . certainly he will try!
Jane Gentile-Youd says
Hooray! Congratulations Janet for your hard work. I had one of those kitchen jobs when I was young and foolish and am lucky to be alve. Nowhere in this ranting for 6 week insane rule is there one word about the father’s responsibility to costs for pre and post birth. DeSantis has turned into De Satan. And I am a Republican!
Dennis C Rathsam says
Never thought there were that many baby killers here in Fl! Murder,s everyone of you, I guess you dont remember when you were a baby? Just think you wouldnt be here right now, if it wasnt for your mother, & her love & devotion to you! There are enough things you can do to prevent a pregnancy, shear lust & stupitity dont cut it anymore. If its rape, thats a horse of another color.
Nancy N. says
Oh great, yet another opinion from an ignorant man who has absolutely NO understanding of the effects of abortion bans on women’s healthcare, and how many lives legal abortion saves. But it seems you’d rather engage in misogynistic tropes about madonnas and whores than in actual factual discussion about real world effects on actual women.
Nephew Of Uncle Sam says
Hey Dennis how many kids are you going to be adopting, should the State put you down for let’s say 5?
Dennis C Rathsam says
At 70 my adoption days are over…What about U? Like I said there are plenty of ways to avoid a pregnacy ignorance isnt one of them. How can you murder a poor inocent child, he or she didnt ask to be concived. Sorry folks I ll stick to my guns on this one….ITS MURDER!
Denali says
Dennis – get your head out of where the sun don’t shine. A fetus is no more a baby than the pile of car parts on my shop floor is a Formula One racer. The fetus has no cogitative process; no thinking, no reasoning, no memory. It is simply a mass of cells in a construction zone which may possibly, and I stress possibly, become viable; capable of living or surviving on its own. You cannot murder something which cannot sustain life on its own.
While I will never be able to understand or experience the emotions of a woman making this decision, I will be there to defend her right to take what she considers to be the best option for her. Neither an individual nor the government have the right to intercede in her decision making process.
Skibum says
Hey, Dennis! All this talk about how it is the responsibility and suffering consequences of ONLY the female sex when it comes to the process that creates a life after a baby is born. You and so many others with religious or political motives think it is just dandy for politicians and courts to intervene and enact draconian laws governing a woman’s body while at the same time completely removing the doctor/patient decision regarding a person’s private healthcare. You do realize, I suppose, that the only woman to ever become pregnant without the involvement of the male species was Mary, the mother of Jesus. No other woman on the planet got that way without a male becoming aroused and impregnating her, yet where in any of the multitude of laws proposed or enacted into law over many decades here in the U.S. is there any scintilla of court oversight or legal steps required for any male to have to follow before he inserts himself into a female to start a sexual act that could result in the creation of a human embryo? If you’re all so pious and concerned about LIFE and how horrible it is that a woman even considers going through an abortion, why in the hell don’t you and the rest of the conservatives enact laws with strict processes to follow, and criminal repercussions for males? Let all these GOP male politicians pass laws that effect THEM. Laws in every state that force males to go through several hoops in order to hopefully get a court sanctioned penis insertion pass, or alternatively, for the man to be told, NO, we are not going to allow you to insert yourself inside that other member of the opposite sex for whatever spurious reason they may come up with. Since you don’t believe women are capable of making informed decisions about their own bodies and healthcare without the men in political and judicial positions making it for them because women are just some type of birth vessels without brains or the ability to take care of themselves unless a man does their thinking for them, society MUST obviously put the onus and brunt of the responsibility for the potential of creating a life on the MALE of the species, right? Go for it, please let your republican reps, gov and congressmen know this important information and start enacting these male sexual prohibition laws NOW to prevent any birth vessel, empty headed woman from the burden of having an abortion. See how many seconds of conversation you are going to have with ANY GOP politician or conservative, pro-life religious person before the door gets slammed in your face and they laugh at you as a fool, because they are ONLY pro-life when it comes to responsibilities and consequences for the woman sex, and want absolutely NO restrictions, laws or legal consequences for when, where, how, or how often a male may insert his erect penis and ejaculate, even though each and every instance may potentially create a life these “men” so dearly cherish and want to protect… as long as it doesn’t affect or confine THEM!!! Enough said.
Dennis C Rathsam says
Seems to me some liberal fools think men can get pregnant, and some woman cant explain what a woman is. Clearly someones not telling the thruth here. This crap is the dam nation of society. There are only 2 sexes in this world, always was always will be.
Skibum says
Well you have succeeded in skirting completely around the entire point of my comment, which is that it takes TWO, both a man that is equally responsible as a woman for causing a pregnancy… yet nobody nowhere is trying to put onerous laws and restrictions on the males for causing an unwanted pregnancy in the first place. Yes, men love to have sex wherever and whenever they want, but then when the woman becomes pregnant and neither her nor the man ever intended to or thought about the potential for actually having a baby, then OMG how could the woman do such a thing but NO man, you may not have an abortion and you will bear the full responsibility and penalties if you do, while the male counterpart, who was equally responsible for the act, just casually walks away saying “see ya later, babe!” This is your idea of equality? Of equal responsibility, just because the male is not the one who biologically gives birth? If so, then just admit for all of us that you and others like you see women as nothing other than birth vessels, not actual human beings that are supposedly equal to men. I’m waiting for a coherent response please.
Sherry says
Thanks so much, Skibum, for pointing out how our current laws do NOT hold men accountable for the creation of life, and the massive responsibilities that follow for 20+ years. Unfortunately, trying to have a rational debate with irrational, non thinking people is a waste of any “thinking/educated/logical” person’s time.
I would also like to add that it is often those who deny a women’s rights over her own body that passionately speak out against, and vote against, any kind of public assistance for those children that are forced to be born. . .often disparaging the “single mothers”, and their child raising choices. The hypocrisy being that they are only mindlessly/”politically” concerned for the life of the fetus, and not at all concerned for the life of the actual child.
Skibum says
You are right, Sherry. And in this discussion it was not lost on me that there have been so-called pro-life GOP politicians who were discovered to have had mistresses who became pregnant, and those same, supposedly “pro-life, hypocritical, sexually consumed politicians continued to publicly decry abortions while privately paying for their mistresses to have abortions so the men didn’t have to pay child support or have to worry about any bastard, out of wedlock baby scandal that might derail their, for outward appearances, Godly and sanctified marriage. These unethical and immoral elected officials who want to deny women their rights show time and time again that they would not stand for the same restrictive laws applied to themselves.
YankeeExPat says
“Baby Killers ” ?,……..are you referring to the IDF ?
JC says
Sorry but I hope the FL Supreme Court knocks the ballot language down the drain. Viability means different things to different people from my experience. I’m pro choice but the language should been done by weeks. Then again, 24 weeks is harder to sell than viability. People need to realize that most people are moderate on this issue. Only way something like this can get to 60% of voters if the issue is moderated to 10-15 weeks.
Also I don’t want this language to be voted because if it gets voted and it pass with over 60% of votes, the legislature could just say that viability is six weeks and the FL Supreme Court can consider it valid. Back to square one.
TREEMAN says
VIABILITY-That WORD is the RED FLAG that should have STOPPED everyone from signing!! The FL Supreme Court must state that the word, VIABILITY, is too CONFUSING to everyone!!! Maybe 10-14 weeks would have been better than viability!!
Brad W says
“Viability” is defined in Florida Statue 390.011(13) as “Viable” or “viability” means the stage of fetal development when the life of a fetus is sustainable outside the womb through standard medical measures”.
It is not subjective but a legally defined condition.
Likewise, the wording itself came from the courts themselves in the original challenges to the referendum.
https://www.flsenate.gov/laws/statutes/2021/390.011
JC says
And just watch when the FL GOP in the House/Senate will rewrite the law where Viability is actually six weeks since the date of last period. Laws can be changed, which is why I am 100% in disagreement with the current ballot language. You have to do it in weeks that’s super black/white to read/understand to prevent our lopsided FL Legislative to rewrite the law under our noses.
Atwp says
Here we go again! Democrats we did good in 2023, let us do better in 2024. Let us use this hot political potato to our utmost political advantage. Come on Democrats we can do this, let us win the presidential race again. Let us vote in droves like we never voted before. It will be hard but we can and should best the Republicans. It will take a lot of work, we can do this. We did it before what will stop us from winning again. We have to vote.
Marlee says
BAN VIAGRA
Celia Pugliese says
I just agree with Marlee!
The Sour Kraut says
You want to make Desantis even shorter?
Pay stotr says
I like that one. Lol
D says
It would be different if these “right to life” people cared about the living child and helped to get free medical care, diapers/formula, and daycare. But no, then they say “If you can’t support a child. You shouldn’t have a child.”
Such a bunch of hypocrites.
DaleL says
Medical care should be left to medical professionals. Any fetus which is not viable and will never be viable outside the womb, cannot be provided protection under the law. There is no reason why any woman should be forced to carry a fetus to term, that will die either before, at, or shortly after birth. It is just plain cruel, medically unnecessary, expensive, and dangerous to the woman.
A rape victim is a victim. They should be treated as such. A rape victim should be afforded every opportunity to prevent or end any resulting pregnancy, ASAP. The same for minors, they cannot give legal consent and any pregnancy would be the result of statutory rape.
Any fetus, which is old enough to be reasonably considered viable outside the womb, deserves some protection under the law. I think a 21 week ban on abortion, except in the case of a non-viable fetus or to protect the life of the woman, is reasonable.
This is a good amendment and should go on the ballot for Florida voters to decide.
Nancy N says
The problem with a ban that provides exceptions after a certain point is that it is then left up to lawyers to interpret that ban and its applicability to individual situations. At best, this causes delays. At worst, this can prevent necessary healthcare being delivered altogether because of fear of legal consequences. In either event, the consequences can endanger and even kill women. I know the dangers of this from tragic personal experience – I nearly died from an 18 hour delay in inducing delivery after my son was discovered to have no heartbeat at 23 weeks gestation. Abortion must be freely available so healthcare is freely available to pregnant women, without delays, hurdles, and limits.
DaleL says
I understand your concerns. I’m very glad that you made it through your extremely dangerous and horrible experience. I agree that lawyers and courts are ill suited to determine in a timely manner emergency medical care.
As I wrote in my first sentence, medical care should be left to medical professionals. In your case, once your doctor determined that your fetus had no heartbeat, he/she should have documented that in your medical chart along with supporting imaging, lab work, and/or instrument readings. After consulting with you (the patient), the non-viable (dead) fetus should have been aborted/induced. There is no reason why any woman should be forced to carry a fetus that is dead.
Pam says
Great to read this. Political Republican Men have no right to think they have the legal right to control female bodies. DeSantis sure tried to keep this off the ballot, another reason he is not qualified to hold a position in the Oval Office.
Now he has Dr. Quake Quake telling people not to get vaccinated against the flu or Covid. DeSantis sure isn’t for protecting people in the State of Florida.
Thomas Hutson says
Petitions from Flagler Voters
This is one topic most Americans want to stay out of because it is so close and personal for them. I, for one, have a very simple outlook on this topic! It’s one of the “NUNYA” topics, none of your business! This is a personal, a very personal topic and not one we need government to be involved in. Only problem today is our current political leaders and judges insert themselves into our everyday lives, forcing their personal views on all of us. There was never any doubt what was going to occur once the current Justices were seated on the Supreme Court.
If any of you watched their hearings prior to their approval by the Senate, it was obvious. They lied to the Senate and to the American people, they looked us straight in the eye and lied! We are at this point due to their failure, they don’t care about the law, only their personal feelings on this topic. This includes our current minions sitting on the Florida Supreme Court, what a joke they are! How many Florida voters want “Baby Mussolini” making decisions for them?
Now, the American Voters are going to have the final say in spite of them. Why, ask yourself “WHY” are you afraid to let the residents and voters in Florida decide the rights of this “BALLOT Measure”? “MISLEADING?” Oh, and for those afraid of the language in this suggested bill, it would not make any difference to you no matter what the language is, 6 weeks, 12 weeks, 15 weeks. Anything other than a total ban is not enough for you; please get off that. As for the word “VIABILITY” that is one for our “Queen” the Attorney General Ashley Moody, she is an attorney, after dissecting each of the alphabet letters in “VIABILITY”, you will still not get the answer.
As a Florida registered Voter, I personally will support the rights of the Florida Voters, if this Ballott Measures passes, it will be the will of the Florida Voters not “Baby Mussolini” and his minions. For those voters who want to vote against this Ballott Measure, it’s your right to disagree. You embarrass yourself when you try to bully other voters that disagree with you by calling them baby killers. But if that makes you feel good, it’s your right so have at it. However, our Florida Voters will decide!
Thomas Hutson says
Petitions from Flagler Voters
This is one topic most Americans want to stay out of because it is so close and personal for them. I, for one, have a very simple outlook on this topic! It’s one of the “NUNYA” topics, none of your business! This is a personal, a very personal topic and not one we need government to be involved in. Only problem today is our current political leaders and judges insert themselves into our everyday lives, forcing their personal views on all of us. There was never any doubt what was going to occur once the current Justices were seated on the Supreme Court.
If any of you watched their hearings prior to their approval by the Senate, it was obvious. They lied to the Senate and to the American people, they looked us straight in the eye and lied! We are at this point due to their failure, they don’t care about the law, only their personal feelings on this topic. This includes our current minions sitting on the Florida Supreme Court, what a joke they are! How many Florida voters want “Baby Mussolini” making decisions for them?
Now, the American Voters are going to have the final say in spite of them. Why, ask yourself “WHY” are you afraid to let the residents and voters in Florida decide the rights of this “BALLOT Measure”? “MISLEADING?” Oh, and for those afraid of the language in this suggested bill, it would not make any difference to you no matter what the language is, 6 weeks, 12 weeks, 15 weeks. Anything other than a total ban is not enough for you; please get off that. As for the word “VIABILITY” that is one for our “Queen” the Attorney General Ashley Moody, she is an attorney, after dissecting each of the alphabet letters in “VIABILITY”, you will still not get the answer.
take up your cross says
No man can live without joy. That is why one deprived of spiritual joy goes over to carnal pleasures. St. Thomas Aquinas
Sanctity is never a substitute for sex, but sex is often a substitute for sanctity.
on JOY – Peterkreeft.com
Tony Mack says
Here’s a message to all those men who might be facing the possibility of their wife having a difficult birth decision — that decision will soon be out of your hands and in the hands of the Republican legislature in Tallahassee. Think about that — the life of your wife and her medical care, no longer is a decision you will get to make. If a husband or father to be, is comfortable with that, then continue to vote for Republicans. They will calmly sit by and watch your wife suffer and possibly die rather than give you the right to choose medical decisions.
A group of self-righteous politicians have taken that decision out of your hands and if your wife should die or face massive health debilitations because of their action — you will have no recourse, no action you can take…and they do not care if your wife dies! This issue is not just about a woman’s right to choose her own healthcare, it’s about families, it’s about would-be fathers who will not, cannot and dare not make decisions about their own family’s well-being.
So, keep voting for these politicians who are practicing medicine without a license…that is the only “freedom” they will grant you. Millions of women, pregnant or thinking about starting a family, should be marching on Tallahassee to defy these pompous right wingers and next to those millions of women should be millions of men who are just as involved in family medical decisions and the spouse’s healthcare. One last note — if any of these Republicans found themselves in a situation where their wife, significant other or just plain girlfriend, needed an abortion to save their life, be assured they would certainly find a way to violate the very laws they intend to subject each and every one of you to follow. Just think about that.
Laurel says
Tony Mack: Best answer yet, thank you.
Also, add that a defective fetus that threatens the life of the mother, may also threaten the possible lives of children yet to come. In nature, spontaneous abortions happen to protect the life of the mother as she is the future survivor. A baby cannot survive on its own. An example being that female dolphins will spontaneously abort when the Japanese hunt them. This allows the female the possibility of producing future offspring.
So, Dennis, do YOU remember being a fetus as you suggest we should? If you do, you are truly alone in that experience.
Stephen says
If this measure makes it on to the ballot. I will vote for its passage.
James Gill says
Congrats Flagler! With the influx of NE liberals fleeing their cities, they are still voting the same. Flagler is now purple.
Svenghouline says
Abortion on demand has degraded and numbed the conscience of so many people in this nation. Why would you think this societal desire to eliminate people that are perceived to be a burden, will not logically extend to the elderly and disabled? In fact the author of Obamacare, Zeke Emmanual, suggested just this idea when he said people at age 75 have a ‘duty to die’. Talk about Nazi like ideology!
As a woman i must say, all the feminist talk on here also amuses me because abortion, in my counseling experience, is usually heavily pushed by the boyfriend. It let’s him totally off the hook. No garnishment of wages for child support, which I have also worked with in payroll departments.
Think for yourself and stop blaming everyone else for your choices in life.
Pierre Tristam says
No such thing as “abortion on demand.” That’s the morbid creation of stone-headed ideologues with cynicism in place of hearts, who focus-grouped a shitty way of demeaning a wrenching decision to win points with electoral groups while reducing women to vessels in the service of the state. And they call themselves conservatives. The only thing they’re conserving is the mouth-foaming of inquisitors.
Sherry says
Dear Pierre,
Thanks so much for this comment. “Abortion On Demand” is nothing but a FOX/right wind dog whistle!
Certainly wouldn’t want the counseling of a person with such “extreme” views. In my experience, the most effective counselors are credentialled professionals who are “open minded” and “compassionate”.
Ed P says
Just the real credible facts and zero commentary. Just to be clear, I am pro-choice.
Have been since 1973.
Estimated 63,459,781 total abortions ( a estimate only…no reliable reporting)
Abortions are not racially balanced to population
620,327 abortions nationally in 2020-CDC. ( the number is declining since 1993)
11.2 per 1000 women 15-44 -2020
About 1/2 are not surgical but involve abortion pills
24% of 2020 abortions were second time
10% were 3rd
8% were 4th or higher. CDC numbers…
93 percent occurred in first trimester
86 percent of women were unmarried
I was surprise at the total number being over 63 million.
Ray W. says
Thank you, Ed P, for researching facts and adding to the conversation.