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Officials in Republican states have waged legal battles and other efforts to thwart abortion ballot measures or to influence their language. Florida stands out.
By Grace Panetta, for The 19th
Florida is voting on a constitutional amendment that would restore a right to abortion in the state, overcoming more than a year of resistance and efforts—including from the office of Gov. Ron DeSantis—to stop voters from directly weighing in on the issue.
The state, which is currently under a six-week ban, is one of 10 that will be voting directly on abortion this year. The abortion rights measure on the ballot, Amendment 4, requires a 60% supermajority to pass. The group Floridians Protecting Freedom, which is backing the measure, is fighting multiple state-sponsored efforts to defeat the amendment. The campaign has criticized the efforts as “dirty tricks” and “government interference.”
Across multiple Republican-controlled states, state officials have waged legal battles and other efforts to thwart abortion rights measures from getting on the ballot or to influence the language. But Florida stands out for how DeSantis is deploying multiple levers of power within his administration to discredit the amendment and even block political speech about it. While courts have pushed back on some of those efforts, they amount to the most sweeping and brazen government-funded campaigns opposing an abortion ballot measure this election cycle.
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