On Wednesday, the Florida State Supreme Court will review the ballot language on a proposed constitutional amendment dealing with the issue of abortion.
The group, “Floridians Protecting Freedom” obtained enough signatures to get their proposed amendment on this year’s ballot. But before these proceed, their oral arguments must impress the Florida Supreme Court Justices.
The proposed language read, “Amendment verbiage is 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.”
Pro Life groups are lining up to oppose this measure reaching the state ballot. Florida Right to Life says the pro-abortion organization has used deceptive tactics to get voters to sign the petition.
“This group has duped prospective petition signers into believing they would be saving the lives of women by signing the petition and we take issue with the term health in the ballot language as “health” is not properly defined and can mean absolutely anything as determined by the “health care provider” which is also undefined,” said Florida Right to Life.
The pro-life group also says the ballot language is purposefully vague and is designed to allow abortions for all 9 months of pregnancy for any reason with no protections offered.
Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody has been fighting this proposal, agreeing with pro-life groups that the language is deceiving. Moody’s officed says the ballot proposal deceives voters by using the term “Viability” which is misleading voters.
Groups backing the abortion amendment are the Florida Democratic Party, the ACLU and The League of Women Voters.
