Group closer to getting abortion rights on Florida ballot

The historic battle wages on to get abortion rights on next year’s ballot, as an abortion rights group is close to getting past its first obstacle.

On WINK News, we told you how Floridians Protecting Freedom was close to the 1.4 million signature goal.

Now, they are telling us they have done it.

The group tells WINK News they have enough signatures to get it on the ballot. Now, they are waiting for the state to verify the signatures.

The Waiting Game

The next hurdle is waiting for them on the other side.

The group has until Feb. 1 to get the almost 900,000 required signatures, and then the Florida Supreme Court has to sign off on the proposed ballot wording.

If it makes it to the ballot, 60% of voters must approve it.

It would bar the state from restricting abortions before viability, which is typically around 22 to 24 weeks.

Anna Hochkammer, the executive director of the Florida Women’s Freedom Coalition, one of the groups pushing the amendment, said each signature is a person who wants a say on what happens with abortion rights in the state.

Hochkammer said she is confident, in her words 100% confident, that a constitutional amendment to increase abortion access in Florida will be on the November ballot.

“We’ve got about 850,000 verified signatures with hundreds of thousands of more in the process of being verified by the different 67 counties, supervisors of elections, right now,” Hochkammer said.

The Other Side

Gov. Ron DeSantis signed Florida’s 6-week heartbeat bill into law in April, a bill Senator Jonathan Martin voted for.

“Nobody wants innocent life killed in the State of Florida, and that’s what the six-week ban attempts to do,” Martin said.

Martin said he won’t be surprised if the amendment makes it on the ballot, but he doesn’t think 60% of Floridians will vote in favor of it or “make it law.”

“We saw the voters overwhelmingly supported a governor and legislator in the 2022 election that made no qualms about their support for the strengthening of abortion legislation to protect innocent life in the womb,” Martin said.

Hochkammer’s prediction is quite the contrary.

“There’s absolutely no doubt whatsoever that when this is on the ballot, Floridians will vote to protect abortion access for women and girls,” Hochkammer said.

Hockammer said it’s not just Democrats. She believes they will vote in favor of the amendment.

She said 15% of the petition signatures have come from Republicans and another 30% from Floridians with no party affiliation, but Attorney General Ashley Moody said the Supreme Court should block the amendment before it makes it on the ballot.