Voters in 10 states decide Tuesday either to protect life or to enshrine abortion up to birth in their constitutions. 

Florida to Remain a Pro-Life State

Florida’s Amendment 4 will not gain a large enough majority of the vote to enshrine abortion up to birth into the state Constitution, according to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

With 83% of the vote in, 57.4% of Florida voters cast their ballots in favor of the initiative to allow abortion up to the moment of birth if deemed “necessary to protect the patient’s health.” At least 60% of Floridians would have needed to vote in favor of Amendment 4 in order to enshrine abortion in the state Constitution. 

Abortion is currently banned in Florida after six weeks.

Floridians Protecting Freedom, the pro-abortion group behind the ballot initiative, spent 8.3 times as much as the pro-lifers opposing the amendment. 

Florida pro-lifers filed a lawsuit Oct. 16 against Floridians Protecting Freedom found to have engaged in fraudulent practices to put the amendment on the ballot.

More than 100 paid petition circulators associated with Floridians Protecting Freedom engaged in fraudulent practices to get the amendment on the ballot, according to a Friday report from the Florida Office of Election Crimes and Security. 

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has used his platform to oppose Amendment 4. 

“If Amendment 4 passes, it would get rid of every common sense rule and regulation on the books in Florida that could possibly ‘delay or restrict’ elective late-term abortion,” he said on X. 

GOP leaders like DeSantis using their voices to raise awareness about radical pro-abortion ballot initiatives helps “fill the gaps” in funding on the pro-life side, said Kelsey Pritchard, director of state public affairs at Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America.

“In all of these states, and particularly in Florida, what we have seen from the majority of the mainstream media is just a level of hostility that is unprecedented,” Pritchard told The Daily Signal.

She hopes this win sends a signal to the mainstream media that Americans don’t want abortion advocates writing their news. 

“The way they have painted people who oppose these ballot measures, particularly Ron DeSantis, they have painted him like a dictator,” she continued. “And so to win in a place like Florida, after they have thrown everything they have to try to win these abortion ballot measures for the Left, for the abortion industry, that would be a huge victory.” 

Background

Five largely pro-abortion states—Colorado, Maryland, Montana, Nevada, and New York—and five largely pro-life states—Arizona, Florida, Missouri, Nebraska, and South Dakota—voted in the weeks leading up to Election Day on ballot measures to legalize unlimited abortion. 

Each of these proposed constitutional amendments includes a wide-ranging “health of the mother” clause that would make it legally and practically impossible to pass laws restricting abortion.

In the Supreme Court’s Doe v. Bolton decision, issued the same day in 1973 as the high court’s Roe v. Wade ruling, the justices defined “health” of the mother as referring to “all factors” affecting the pregnant woman, including “physical, emotional, psychological, [and] familial” factors and “the woman’s age.”

Because the opposed amendments to state constitutions contain no limitations on what “health” means and no definitions of “health care professional,” the measures would legalize abortion at any stage of pregnancy.

In most of the 10 states, the pro-abortion lobby far outspent their pro-life opponents.

“The abortion industry can afford to pour millions into these fights,” said Kelsey Pritchard, director of state public affairs at Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America. “They will see an ROI [return on investment] if these abortion measures pass in their state, and they will be able to profit exponentially off of aborting more children and off of the health and safety of women and girls, when they don’t have to follow any regulations in their industry.”

This article will be updated as results are announced for each state’s vote on its abortion ballot question.