Conservatives in several states have gone all out to defeat abortion-rights ballot measures before voters even get to the polls in November.
In Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis has ordered state police to question residents who signed petitions to place Amendment 4 before voters Nov. 5. Meanwhile, the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration claimed online the measure is dangerous to women’s health, while another state agency has required a disparaging statement about the amendment accompany the original ballot language.
“Ron (DeSantis) has repeatedly used state power to interfere with a citizen-led process to get reproductive freedom on the ballot,” Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried said in a report by NBC 6 in Miami. “This is their latest desperate attempt before Election Day.”
Lauren Brenzel
Yes on 4 campaign Director Lauren Brenzel said DeSantis is bent on subverting the will of the almost 1 million voters who signed petitions in support of the amendment.
The campaign subsequently announced the launch of a media blitz designed to emphasize the importance of the amendment for women’s reproductive health rights in Florida, which currently bans abortion after six-weeks of pregnancy.
“The bottom line is, the Florida government is trying to decide what you should do with your body, not you,” Brenzel said. “This multi-million dollar paid media campaign will remind Floridians — who supported this amendment across party lines — that the state is meddling with our personal decisions and make clear what is at stake and how the current abortion ban is greatly harming the lives of many Floridians.”
In Missouri, Republicans failed in legal efforts to have abortion-rights Amendment 3 removed from the ballot. Their hopes were dashed Sept. 10 when the state Supreme Court ruled the measure must remain on the general election ballot.
Rachel Sweet
“This fight was not just about this amendment — it was about defending the integrity of the initiative petition process and ensuring that Missourians can shape their future directly,” said Rachel Sweet, campaign manager for Missourians for Constitutional Freedom.
The decision overturned a Sept. 6 ruling by Circuit Court Judge Christopher Limbaugh that Amendment 3 violated state law and should not have been certified. His decision resulted from a lawsuit anti-abortion legislators filed against Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft, who certified the initiative in August.
Ashcroft announced Sept. 9 he had changed his mind in the matter. “On further review in light of the circuit court’s judgment, I have determined the petition is deficient. Therefore, this office has decertified the petition for the November 5, 2024, ballot.”
Missourians for Constitutional Freedom quickly appealed, and state justices subsequently determined Ashcroft’s last-minute decertification came too late. “Respondent Ashcroft certified the petition as sufficient prior to the deadline, and any action taken to change that decision weeks after the statutory deadline expired is a nullity and of no effect.”
The American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri said it is citizens who should decide the state’s position on abortion: “Hundreds of thousands of Missourians have exercised their power as citizens in its purest form and want their fellow citizens to vote on whether to change Missouri’s Constitution with regard to abortion rights.”
Meanwhile in Nebraska, the backers of two competing abortion-related amendments are awaiting a decision on the fate of their measures from the state Supreme Court. The deadline for placing measures on the ballot in that state is Sept. 13.
In Nebraska, the backers of two competing abortion-related amendments are awaiting a decision on the fate of their measures.
Multiple lawsuits have been filed over the initiatives which, if both are approved, would make Nebraska the first since the overturning of Roe v. Wade to consider competing abortion amendments on a single ballot, the Nebraska Examiner reported.
One of the measures would protect abortion rights until fetal viability, while the other would prohibit abortions beyond the first trimester. “Both measures include exceptions: for the life or health of the mother in the abortion-rights initiative and for the life of the mother and in cases of rape or incest in the other,” the nonprofit news organization said.
Justices heard oral arguments Sept. 9 in the three lawsuits, two seeking to block the abortion-rights amendment and the other arguing both should be certified or neither of them should.
Abortion rights activists in Arkansas lost their bid for an amendment when justices upheld the state’s refusal to certify the measure for November, the Associated Press reported.
Election officials had rejected thousands of petition signatures because organizers had failed to submit information about hired signature gatherers. “The ruling dashed the organizers’ hopes of getting the constitutional amendment measure onto the ballot in the predominantly Republican state, where many top leaders promote their opposition to abortion.”
Other states with abortion-rights measures on the November ballot are Arizona, Colorado, Maryland, Montana, New York, Nevada and South Dakota, according to AP.
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