“Florida would become the abortion mecca of this region”: Governor DeSantis urges faith leaders to fight abortion amendment

BY JENNIFER CABRERA

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – During a Faith and Community Initiative call today, Governor Ron DeSantis explained why he opposes Amendment 4 to Florida’s Constitution and asked members of the faith community to educate their congregations and communities about the need to vote against the amendment.

“A culture of life in Florida”

In his remarks, DeSantis said Florida’s Heartbeat Protection Act, which protects the life of an unborn baby when a heartbeat is detected (usually around six weeks gestation), has “helped promote a culture of life in Florida.”

He said that before that bill took effect, Florida was “a big abortion destination,… so we kind of got a glimpse into what could happen in the future.”

DeSantis said his administration challenged the ballot summary at the Florida Supreme Court, arguing that it was misleading, but “it turned out it was a 4-3 split where the justices approved it to be on the ballot, even though the three dissenting justices were able to point out how this is a very misleading ballot summary, and even the amendment itself is very misleading. And so it’s on the ballot.” He pointed out that 60% of the vote will be needed, which is higher than similar measures in other states that passed with 50% approval, but although “60 [percent] is a higher threshold,… there’s a certain amount of wind at the backs when you have every media… supporting Amendment 4’s passage. There’s going to be a lot of money that gets poured in,… so we’re in a situation where we’ve got to fight back against that.”

Amendment 4 eliminates requirement for parental consent for abortion for minors

DeSantis told the group that Amendment 4 will overturn both the Heartbeat Protection Act and the preceding 15-week protection for unborn babies, and it also “eliminates parental consent for minors with respect to abortion – that’s something that is in our statutes. It’s something that’s very common-sense… So it does eliminate an important parental right.”

He said the amendment guarantees abortion “all the way ’til the moment of birth” with the approval of a “healthcare provider” that does not need to be a physician; he said that even a chiropractor could approve an abortion.

“Florida would become the abortion mecca of this region, and maybe one of the abortion meccas of the entire world”

DeSantis said that many voters think late-term abortions don’t happen, “and while it is rare – it’s roughly about 2% – the vast, vast majority of late-term abortions are purely elective… Because all of the southeast has various forms of pro-life legislation, Florida would become the abortion mecca of this region, and maybe one of the abortion meccas of the entire world, because it would be one of the most liberal abortion regimes anywhere in the world. This amendment is written maybe more liberal than New York and California – you would basically have a cottage industry where people would be coming into Florida for this purpose. And look, we’re a tourism state. We want to be family-friendly tourism. We don’t want abortion tourism.”

He pointed out that once the amendment is in Florida’s constitution, it would require another constitutional amendment on a ballot to change it: “You can elect pro-life legislators. You can elect [a pro-life Governor], and it’s not going to matter, because they’re not going to be able to legislate around this amendment to the state’s constitution.”

Ballot language “focus-grouped to try to appeal to conservative and Republican voters”

DeSantis said the ballot language was “poll-tested, focus-grouped to try to appeal to conservative and Republican voters… The ballot summary talks about… quote, viability.” He said many people may think that’s equivalent to a heartbeat bill, but “that is not the intent of the people who are putting this up.” 

He encouraged the people on the call to “utilize your influence to let people know what’s at stake. And it’s obviously about creating a culture of life or walking away from a culture of life. It’s also about upholding parental rights or diminishing and eliminating key parental rights.”

Amendment 3 “would basically mean the state would start to smell like [marijuana]”

Changing topics, he added that Amendment 3 “would basically say you have a constitutional right to possess and smoke large amounts of marijuana, which would basically mean the state would start to smell like it. You’d see it in public. It would be part of your life in ways that I think most Floridians would think are bad. Those are two amendments that would never be able to pass the legislature. People would never actually campaign and win election on those really extreme proposals, but they’re there, and they’re dressed up in ways that are trying to get people to vote for it, who probably, if they saw the actual text of the amendments, would never be willing to [vote for them]… So we need to step up, and we need to get the job done.” 

He pointed the faith leaders to the website for the Vote No on 4 Campaign and encouraged them to sign up to get alerts.

“We want to be a family-friendly state”

DeSantis concluded by listing the policies his administration has put in place to help families, including the Fatherhood Initiative, streamlining foster parenting and adoption practices, and making baby items tax-free: “So we want to be a family-friendly state. We’re putting policies in place to be a family-friendly state. This amendment would eliminate rights of parents and would enshrine in the state’s constitution one of the most radical and extreme abortion regimes, not just anywhere in the United States, but anywhere in the world.”

Pray, preach, and purse

After DeSantis finished, his Chief of Staff James Uthmeier encouraged the people on the call to pray, preach, and “purse” (donate): “We’re going to have to raise some money… Every little bit counts… We feel good about it. We’re optimistic.”

Uthmeier said the authors of the amendment “intended… to essentially create a loophole for any abortion, any time, anywhere. People, even some people that maybe don’t think the heartbeat bill was the best idea,… even they come around and realize, well, that this thing is just too extreme.”

Ballot language

Uthmeier read the amendment, emphasizing that it doesn’t define terms such as “viability,” “protect the patient’s health,” and “healthcare provider”: “Except as provided in Article X, Section 22, 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.” 

Article X, Section 22 reads, “The Legislature shall not limit or deny the privacy right guaranteed to a minor under the United States Constitution as interpreted by the United States Supreme Court. Notwithstanding a minor’s right of privacy provided in Section 23 of Article I, the Legislature is authorized to require by general law for notification to a parent or guardian of a minor before the termination of the minor’s pregnancy. The Legislature shall provide exceptions to such requirement for notification and shall create a process for judicial waiver of the notification.”

Notification would replace parental consent for minors

Uthmeier pointed out that the “or” makes the “before viability” part irrelevant because any healthcare provider can approve an abortion at any point in a pregnancy: “Even a staff person at some sort of abortion factory could make a decision there.” He added that the language about requiring a parent to be notified about an abortion for a minor is “a little sleight of hand” because the constitution requires “notification,” not the consent of a parent, as Florida statutes currently require. So this would contradict the parental consent statute: “That would make this the only medical procedure in the state where a child could undergo the procedure without the parent knowing.”

Uthmeier concluded by saying that this will allow abortions “all the way up until birth… We’re certainly going [be in a] far worse situation than we were before Roe v. Wade fell… Please pray, please preach, please find ways to help us with the purse, and we’ll grow the movement.”

“You have no prohibition at all… from preaching on the topic”

One of the pre-submitted questions was whether a pastor can preach about this without losing nonprofit status, and Uthmeier said, “You have no prohibition at all, as a nonprofit, as a religious organization, from preaching on the topic. You’ve got first amendment rights. This is an issue advocacy mission. We’re not advocating for any political, partisan candidate [or] individual organization; this is issue advocacy.” He said churches can also raise money, but each church should consult an attorney for the best way to donate funds.