Florida
Florida Doctors Describe Dystopic Horrors as DeSantis Tries to Tank Abortion Measure
By Tessa Stuart, Rolling Stone
Amid a brazen, state-sanctioned disinformation campaign against a ballot measure to restore abortion rights in Florida — including visits to voters’ homes by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’ election goon squad — doctors say the state’s ban is putting their patients’ lives at risk, forcing them to confront unfathomably dark medical scenarios, and some are warning they may be forced to leave the state if the measure fails this November.
Related: Report: Florida physicians say abortion restrictions delayed necessary care
Doctor warns he is helpless to care for patients in new Amendment 4 ad
By Gabrielle Russon, Florida Politics
The political committee behind Amendment 4 has launched a second commercial featuring a doctor voicing his concerns about Florida’s six-week abortion ban and his helplessness to assist pregnant women.
Related: Doctors say women’s health — and maybe even birth control access — is at stake with Amendment 4 vote
DeSantis opposes Florida’s abortion ballot measure. He’s deployed the government to fight it.
By Arek Sarkissian, Politico
Gov. Ron DeSantis and other Florida Republican leaders have repeatedly tapped into taxpayer-funded resources to fight a November ballot initiative that would overturn the state’s six-week abortion ban.
Related: When a Republican Governor Couldn’t Win on Abortion, He Tried to Cheat
Door knocking, TV ads, websites: The abortion battle heats up in Florida and it’s getting ugly
By Cindy Krischer Goodman, South Florida Sun Sentinel
When Lucy Rodriguez knocks on a front door in West Palm Beach, she connects with the Hispanic resident about Florida’s proposed abortion protections in a way they can relate.
Group behind abortion amendment sues over state’s website, calling it ‘misinformation campaign’
By Gabrielle Russon, Florida Politics
The group backing a constitutional amendment that would protect abortion rights has filed a lawsuit to shut down a state health agency website fighting against Amendment 4.
Related: Florida Dems file complaint against state agency webpage opposing abortion amendment
Abortion ban changes so much for so many. Vote yes on Amendment 4
By Breana Skiles, Orlando Sentinel
My story: Twelve years ago, I was excited to go in for my eight-week checkup and our second ultrasound, to see the progress of our second child.
Consulting police and lawyers has become a part of Florida abortion providers’ work
By Jackie Llanos, Florida Phoenix
Miami family medicine physician Chelsea Daniels couldn’t help a 20-year-old patient seeking an abortion about a month ago she because she lacked the documentation the state requires to terminate pregnancies resulting from rape.
DeSantis turns to TV lobbyists to stop Florida voters from overturning a statewide abortion ban
By Jason Garcia, Seeking Rents
Ron DeSantis is teaming up with television industry executives as he tries to stop Florida voters from overturning the state’s near-total ban on abortion.
Voting-rights advocates say Florida is investigating ballot measure petitions too close to the election
By Margie Menzel, WFSU Tallahassee
Gov. Ron DeSantis says the investigators are following the law to combat election fraud
Florida’s Office of Election Crimes and Security says it’s found at least 35 people who submitted fraudulent petitions to get an abortion rights amendment on the November ballot.
‘You gotta do it scared:’ Meet the students learning to organize for Amendment 4
By Jackie Llanos, Florida Phoenix
Florida A&M University senior Lindsey LaRose gleefully greeted her peers as they trickled into the Florida People’s Advocacy Center in Tallahassee on Saturday morning, dancing and giving hugs to those she knew.
Mobile ad campaign urges pro-choice men in Miami to get involved
By Sommer Brugal, Axios
A new fleet of mobile billboards is hoping to coax young men in Miami into the fight for abortion rights.
Florida’s fight to enshrine abortion rights in state constitution draws big money donations from both sides
Staff Report, News Service of Florida
Money is flowing to political committees on both sides of a ballot measure that would enshrine abortion rights in the Florida Constitution.
FACT CHECK: ‘No on Amendment 4’ political ad. Are the claims true?
By Jamie Ostroff, WPTV West Palm Beach
If you watch WPTV, chances are you’ve seen commercials telling you why you should vote for or against Amendment 4.
Florida women’s health care ranks dismally
By Cary Barbor, WGCU Fort Myers
A recent study showed that, for healthcare coverage, access, and affordability for women, Florida ranks 48 out of 51 states including Washington, D.C. For prenatal care, the state comes in dead last – 51 out of 51.
Democrats, Rick Scott clash over IVF in hot election year
By Gabrielle Russon, Florida Politics
Democrats are attacking U.S. Sen. Rick Scott for helping block a vote on a bill protecting vitro fertilization (IVF), as the Senate again failed to pass legislation to establish a nationwide right to the procedure.
Protect Florida abortion rights by voting Yes on Amendment 4
Editorial, Tampa Bay Times
Americans want a middle ground on abortion, and they rightly believe that medical decisions should be left to patients and their doctors, not the government. By approving Amendment 4, Florida voters can return that balanced medical and legal environment to the Sunshine State.
National
Abortion Bans Have Delayed Emergency Medical Care. In Georgia, Experts Say This Mother’s Death Was Preventable.
By Kavitha Surana, ProPublica
In her final hours, Amber Nicole Thurman suffered from a grave infection that her suburban Atlanta hospital was well-equipped to treat.
Abortion rights opponents try to derail ballot initiatives
By Anna Claire Vollers, States Newsroom
Measures that would protect abortion access are on track to appear on the ballot in 10 states in November, but abortion opponents are engaged in last-ditch legal maneuvering to try to prevent voters from weighing in on the proposals.
Now a Roe advocate, woman raped by stepfather as a child tells her story in Harris campaign By Colleen Long, Associated Press
A 22-year-old woman who became an abortion rights advocate after she was raped by her stepfather as a child tells her story in a new campaign ad for Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris.
‘Women are not safe in Louisiana’: New Orleans leaders want pregnancy care drug law reversed
By Lorena O’Neil, Louisiana Illuminator
Doctors and local elected officials alike vehemently decried a new Louisiana law that will reclassify the pregnancy care drugs misoprostol and mifepristone as controlled dangerous substances. The legislation takes effect on Oct. 1 and is the first of its kind in the nation.
Samuel Alito and German rightwing aristocrat linked to US anti-abortion activist
By Martin Pengelly, The Guardian
The supreme court justice Samuel Alito and a German aristocrat and “networker of the far right” from whom Alito accepted expensive concert tickets, are both linked to an ultra-conservative Catholic US group whose board members include the dark money impresario Leonard Leo and the founder of a hardline anti-abortion Christian group, documentation reviewed by the Guardian shows.
Letters to the editor
Yes on Amendment 4
By Patty Molnar, Naples, Fort Myers News-Press
Excerpt: The Florida law currently bans abortion past six weeks of pregnancy, a draconian timetable for many women who don’t yet know they are pregnant…In the upcoming Nov. 5 General Election, I urge you to vote for Amendment Four. A vote “YES” on this amendment will reinstate a woman’s right to choose past six weeks.
Why we should overturn abortion ban
By Holly Kennedy, Lakewood Ranch, Sarasota Herald-Tribune
Excerpt: My vote “yes” on 4 is a vote to protect the freedom of women to keep private reproductive health care decisions between themselves and their doctor, without interference from politicians. My vote “yes” on 4 is a vote to protect the ability of medical professionals to provide reproductive health care that saves women’s lives in emergency situations and not risk the loss of their licenses or potential jail time. My vote “yes” on 4 is a vote to prevent politicians from forcing women to carry to term the result of a rape or incest. Vote “yes” on Amendment 4.
Governor’s overreach
By Maureen Trerice, Naples, Marco Eagle
This is a sincere plea for our governor to let Floridians vote this election cycle for or against the abortion amendment on its own merit and stop weaponizing public funds…The overreach of his activism undermines the concept of “The Free State of Florida” while making a mockery of it ever being a real possibility.
Vote Yes on Amendment 4
By Sara Ross, Naples, Coastal Breeze
Excerpt: That was 1980 and I was in New York. Picture if it was today and in Florida. My husband would rush me to a local hospital and they would tell me to go home and not come back till I was bleeding out and about to die, and then, if it wasn’t too late, they would help me.