Florida
State agency wades into political battle over FL’s abortion-rights amendment
By Jackie Llanos, Florida Phoenix
The Florida Agency for Health Care Administration launched a webpage Thursday bashing the proposed state constitutional amendment to restore abortion access beyond six weeks, prompting Florida Democrats to call out the use of state funds against the measure.
Related: Florida Health Agency Targets Abortion Rights Ballot Measure
Ron DeSantis, Heritage Foundation Team Up to Kill Florida Abortion Measure
By Andrew Perez, Rolling Stone
When Floridians fill out their ballots in November and consider whether to restore abortion access in the state, they will be presented with a series of right-wing claims and speculation about how the measure “would result in significantly more abortions and fewer live births per year in Florida,” could “require the state to subsidize abortions with public funds,” and could result in costly litigation.
50-stop bus trip launched as Trump flip-flops, says he will vote no Florida Amendment 4
By Antonio Fins, Palm Beach Post
The top Harris-Walz campaign official, the chair of the national Democratic Party and four members of Congress gathered here Tuesday morning, Sept. 3, to kick off a bus tour intended to magnify their differences on abortion with Republican Donald Trump, and his recent back-and-forth on the issue.
DeSantis administration reviewing abortion amendment petitions for ‘fraudsters’
By Justin Garcia, Lawrence Mower and Romy Ellenbogen
Tampa Bay Times
In a move that supporters of the amendment fear could be “political interference,” Gov. Ron DeSantis’ deputy secretary of state has asked supervisors in Hillsborough, Orange, Palm Beach and Osceola counties to gather roughly 36,000 signatures for the state to review.
Trump pivoted on Florida’s abortion ban. Here’s what anti-abortion leaders want next.
By Alice Miranda Ollstein and Meridith McGraw, Politico
The anti-abortion activists celebrating Donald Trump’s vow to vote no on Florida’s upcoming abortion-rights amendment have their sights on a bigger target: extracting a promise from the former president to staff his administration with staunch abortion opponents if he wins in November.
Trump scrambles to do damage control on Florida abortion measure
By Kierra Frazier, Politico
Former President Donald Trump said Friday he will vote against a Florida ballot measure that would enshrine the right to abortion in the state constitution — a day after he angered some of his evangelical supporters with remarks about restrictions on the procedure.
Related: After conservative criticism, Trump says he is a ‘no’ on Florida’s abortion rights ballot measure
Donald Trump can’t decide if he dislikes abortion or Ron DeSantis more
By Nate Monroe, Jacksonville Florida Times-Union
On abortion, Florida resident Donald J. Trump is a man of selfish and often conflicting impulses:
Related: I’m a Trump supporter, and I’m voting for Amendment 4
Meet the conservative women who are planning to vote Yes on Florida’s abortion amendment
By Romy Ellenbogen and Alexandra Glorioso, Herald/Times Tallahassee Bureau
As the women trickled into the community clubhouse late last month, each grabbed a red flyer printed with a message: “Pregnancy is personal, not political.”
Related: These Republicans Are Pushing for Abortion Rights
Abortion advocates are trying to engage young voters before general election
By Lia Marsee, WMNF Tampa Bay
This November’s ballot gives voters the chance to decide on Amendment Four – which enshrines abortion rights in the Florida Constitution up to fetal viability, or 24 weeks.
Majority of Florida voters back abortion rights ballot measure: Poll
By Julia Manchester, The Hill
A majority of Florida voters say they back a ballot measure to enshrine abortion rights into the state’s constitution, according to new polling released Friday by The Hill and Emerson College Polling.
Florida’s abortion law almost killed my wife
By Derick Cook, Miami Herald
From the first moment I saw Anya’s face, I knew she would be my wife. It only took a year for us to get married, and it wasn’t long before Anya told me she was ready for us to have a baby together.
Middleburg doctor: Here’s why I’m voting YES on Florida’s Amendment 4 for abortion access
By Neal Verma, M.D., Jacksonville Florida Times-Union
A recent UNF survey found that 69% of Floridians support Amendment 4, which will remove all politicians from private medical decisions, including those about abortion.
Now and then, issues like Florida’s Amendment 4 require people to protest
By Katy Sorenson, Miami Herald
When I was 10 years old in 1965, my mother’s first cousin Pat, a white suburban woman, led her friends, her children and me – all dressed in our Sunday best – on a field trip to downtown Chicago.
The fallacy of ‘let states decide’ on abortion
By Tina Polsky, South Florida Sun Sentinel
In his ever-changing position on abortion rights for women, former President Donald Trump has stated that the states should decide abortion rights for women. Why?
Boca Raton Temple Beth El voice urgent support for reproductive rights in Florida
By Luli OrtizWed, WPEC West Palm Beach
A few months remain until the November election and voters will be asked to weigh in on a controversial item on the ballot: Amendment Four, which seeks to guarantee abortion rights in the state of Florida.
Committee behind Florida abortion amendment banks another $987,000
Staff Report, News Service of Florida
Floridians Protecting Freedom, a political committee spearheading a drive to pass a constitutional amendment on abortion rights, raised slightly more than $987,000 from Aug. 16 through Aug. 23, according to a newly filed finance report.
Lee County commissioner places controversial anti-abortion amendment resolution on agenda
By Kate Cimini, Fort Myers News-Press
The Lee County Board of County Commissioners has placed a resolution on the agenda for its upcoming meeting that would denounce Amendment 4, a proposed constitutional amendment that would ensure Floridians maintain access to abortion.
Number of reported abortions in Florida down nearly 13% during first 8 months of 2024
By Jim Saunders, News Service of Florida
The number of abortions reported in Florida during the first eight months of this year was nearly 13 percent lower than during the same period in 2022 and 2023, as a law preventing abortions after six weeks of pregnancy has led to fewer procedures.
Abortion Care Policies Impact Families’ Economic Health and Well-Being
By Anne Swerlick, Florida Policy Institute
It is a volatile time for abortion policies. Since the 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision overturning Roe v. Wade, the U.S. Supreme Court has eliminated legal abortion nationwide and shifted abortion policy decisions to the states.
Should abortion count as a local issue in county elections?
By McKenna Schueler, Orlando Weekly
When Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed into law Florida’s 15-week abortion ban two years ago in Kissimmee, public records show his office invited a lengthy list of anti-abortion politicians and advocates to show up for the celebration — including a Winter Garden Republican who’s now running for a seat on the nonpartisan Orange County Commission.
Why thousands of Florida students are not being taught sex ed
By Judd Legum, Popular Information
In May 2023, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) signed Florida House Bill 1069, a law that requires sex education classes in the state to conform to right-wing ideology.
New funding coming to Florida to help keep women alive in childbirth
By Cindy Krischer Goodman, South Florida Sun Sentinel
Omari Maynard thought life was great when his partner Shamony came home from the hospital with a baby boy, their second child.
National
More Voters, Especially Women, Now Say Abortion Is Their Top Issue
By Ruth Igielnik, New York Times
Donald J. Trump is shifting his stance on reproductive rights, but voters, by a wide margin, say that they trust Kamala Harris on the issue.
The 10 states where voters could decide on abortion directly
By Elisha Brown, Florida Phoenix
After legal fights, counter-campaigns, and bureaucratic wrangling all year long, as things stand today, abortion questions in 10 states are heading to ballots in November.
America is trying to fix its maternal mortality crisis with federal, state and local programs
By Laura Ungar, Associated Press
At the site of a race massacre that reduced neighborhoods to ashes a century ago, where murals memorialize a once-thriving “ Black Wall Street,” one African American mother strives to keep others from dying as they try to bring new life into the world.
Restricting Title X Results in Cascading Harms
By Amy Friedrich-Karnik and Rachel Easter, Guttmacher Institute
Title X, the United States’s publicly funded family planning program, was established in the 1970s with the express goal of reducing inequities in access to contraception and other reproductive health care.
Related: The Right to Contraception in the United States
Letters to the editor
I had an abortion and I support Amendment 4
By Susan Lorenz, Clearwater, Tampa Bay Times
I support family planning and the Florida Amendment 4 initiative to limit government interference with abortion. I am 67, and for me this is an issue of freedom and human decency.
Also see: A pragmatic solution
Flawed, inappropriate resolution
By Joyce Campana, Fort Myers, Fort Myers News-Press
The Lee County Board of Commissioners proposed resolution opposing Amendment 4 is inappropriate, dangerously misinformed and contains inaccurate content.
Also see: Oppose Lee resolution, Not the role of commissioners
By Patricia Aiken-O’Neill, Naples, Fort Myers News-Press
Excerpt: The point is that this serious health care decision should not be left to the state to decide or manage or to lawmakers, who deal in politics, not medicine or health care; rather, this decision should be up to the patient and her health care provider…It is the patient’s right to make her decision. Don’t take that right away from her. Vote YES on Amendment 4.