State leaders are fighting abortion rights in Florida and across the country

Florida is among 10 states that will decide abortion initiatives in Tuesday’s election, an unprecedented event after the end of Roe v. Wade.

The voting will take place in battleground states, such as Arizona and Nevada, blue states, such as New York, and red states, including Nebraska and South Dakota. Abortion is also on the agenda in Colorado, Maryland, Missouri and Montana.

Most initiatives, including Florida’s, would amend the state constitution to allow abortion until fetal viability, which is typically considered about 24 weeks, or later in cases to save the mother’s life.

But Florida Amendment 4 stands out because of the challenges it faces, says Chris Melody Fields Figueredo. Fields Figueredo is executive director of the Strategy Center for Ballot Initiativesa progressive group involved in ballot measures nationally.

None of the other states need a supermajority to pass, Fields Figueredo said, but Florida needs 60% support.

Polls show the majority of Floridians support Amendment 4. But the question of whether the measure can cross the 60% threshold will not be answered until the votes are counted.

Fields Figueredo called Governor. Ron DeSantis’ The opposition to Amendment 4 is “authoritarian” because DeSantis is using state resources to campaign against it.

“We have seen attempts by the state government to try to stop these reproductive freedom ballot measures, but Florida really takes it to a whole other level,” Fields Figueredo said.

According to media reports, election police knocked on the doors of a small number of people who signed the petition to participate in the vote in an effort to investigate claims of voter fraud.

The latest episode of state involvement is the DeSantis administration’s mission discontinuation of letters to TV stations threatens criminal charges for playing an abortion rights ad a month before the election. A judge later overturned the attempt, extending a temporary restraining order last Election Day to prevent the state from making more threats.

But the sight of state leaders opposing abortion rights initiatives is not unique to Florida, the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law, who has been following such efforts this election cycle.

For example, the Arizona State Supreme Court allowed the state’s Republican-controlled Legislative Council to pass to send mailers referring to fetuses as ‘unborn humans’.

Attorney General of Montana Austin Knudsen tried to keep abortion rights off the ballot because he argued the initiative was legally insufficient. Secretary of State of Montana Christi Jacobsen Also tried to change election rules to disqualify petition signatures from inactive registered voters. However, the Montana Supreme Court overruled both state leaders.

Knudsen I also tried to add a disclaimer on the voting language. But again, the state’s highest court ruled against him.

In Florida, Amendment 4 will be a “financial impact statement‘written by DeSantis administration and a representative of the Heritage Foundation. Floridians Protecting Freedom, the political committee supporting Amendment 4, lost the legal battle to dismiss the ballot warning.

Lawmakers and anti-abortion advocates in Missouri are in vain tried to take the initiative out of the mood.

Also anti-abortion advocates has filed a lawsuit to challenge the validity of the petition signatures in South Dakota.

In Orange County, Florida, anti-abortion rights activists indicted last month to challenge Tuesday’s election results if Amendment 4 passes.

As in Florida, voters in Nebraska will decide whether to protect abortion until the viability of the fetus. But there’s a twist. In the same election, Nebraska voters will decide whether to ban second- and third-trimester abortions after lawmakers added a second competing initiative to the ballot.

‘It already is confusing voters,” Fields Figueredo said of the tactic.

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