TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) 鈥 Florida's Republican attorney general has asked the state Supreme Court to keep a proposed abortion rights amendment off the ballot, saying proponents are waging 鈥渁 war鈥 to protect the procedure and ultimately will seek to expand those rights in future years.
But proponents of the proposed amendment said Attorney General Ashley Moody is playing politics and that her arguments fall legally short given what the call the clear and precise language of the proposed measure.
A group called Floridians Protecting Freedom has gathered nearly 500,000 of the 891,523 voter signatures needed ahead of a Feb. 1 deadline for signatures to put the proposal on the 2024 ballot. The state Supreme Court would be tasked with ensuring the ballot language isn鈥檛 misleading and applies to a single subject if it goes before voters.
The proposed amendment would allow abortions to remain legal until the fetus is viable. But Moody argued that abortion rights proponents and opponents have differing interpretations as to what viability means. Those differences along with the failure to define 鈥渉ealth鈥 and 鈥渉ealth-care provider,鈥 she said, are enough to deceive voters and potentially open a box of legal questions in the future.
鈥淭he ballot summary here is part of a ... design to lay ticking time bombs that will enable abortion proponents later to argue that the amendment has a much broader meaning than voters would ever have thought,鈥 she argued in a 50-page brief.
She said while prior court decisions have used viability as a term meaning whether the fetus can survive outside the womb, 鈥渙thers will understand 鈥榲iability鈥 in the more traditional clinical sense 鈥 as referring to a pregnancy that, but for an abortion or other misfortune, will result in the child鈥檚 live birth.鈥
Proponents disputed those statements.
鈥淭he proposed amendment is very clear and precise,鈥 Democratic state Rep. Anna Eskamani said in a news release. 鈥淭he term viability is a medical one, and in the context of abortion has always meant the stage of fetal development when the life of a fetus is sustainable outside the womb through standard medical measures.鈥
Moody also argued that language that allows abortions after the point of viability to protect the health of the mother do not distinguish between physical and mental health. She also said voters might assume a health-care provider is a doctor, but the amendment doesn't explicitly say so.
Republicans have dominated state politics and controlled the governor鈥檚 office and both branches of the Legislature since 1999. In that time, the state has consistently chipped away at abortion rights, including creating a waiting period before the procedure can be performed, parental notification if minors seek abortion and forcing women to have an ultrasound before having an abortion.
A law Gov. DeSantis approved last year banning abortion after 15 weeks .
If the courts uphold the law 鈥 DeSantis appointed five of the Supreme Court鈥檚 seven justices 鈥 a bill DeSantis signed this year will , which is before many women know they are pregnant. DeSantis, who is running for president, has said he would support a
If the amendment makes the ballot it will need at least 60% voter approval to take effect.
