DeSantis Gov. Is Doing Everything It Can to Defeat Abortion Rights Bill – Mother Jones

Governor Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.) is doing everything in his power to block the passage of Florida’s abortion rights amendment in November.Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel/ZUMA

Florida Government appears to be doing everything in his power — including potentially breaking the law — to prevent voters from approving abortion rights legislation in November.

On Thursday, the state health department launched a website spreading misinformation about Amendment 4, a ballot measure that surfaced in November that seeks to overturn the state’s ban on abortions after six weeks that the Florida Supreme Court approved in April. If it receives the required 60 percent of the vote, the amendment would guarantee the right to abortion before the point of so-called viability, which is generally considered to be around 24 weeks of pregnancy. But the state’s new website — which DeSantis has since defended as a “public interest notice” — attacks the initiative with a litany of false claims, including that it “endangers women’s safety,” “eliminates parental consent” for minors seeking abortions, and could “lead to unregulated and unsafe abortions” by allowing people without health care experience to perform the procedure.

These claims, however, are easily refuted by looking at the actual text of the amendment, which clearly states that the patient’s health care provider is responsible for determining when a post-viability abortion is necessary to protect the patient’s health. It also states that passage of the amendment will not override the legislature’s authority to require that a parent or guardian of a minor be notified before an abortion is performed.

But the state’s campaign against the amendment doesn’t end there. The same day the site went live, Tampa Bay Times reported that the Florida Department of State was looking for evidence of fraud in more than 30,000 citizen signatures used to place the amendment on the November ballot. Two election supervisors told the newspaper that the move was “highly unusual” given that the signatures had already been approved by local supervisors. Tampa Bay Times also reported Friday that police visited the homes of at least two voters who signed a petition supporting Amendment 4 to verify their signatures.

The anti-abortion efforts are the latest in Gov. Ron DeSantis’ ongoing fight to defeat Amendment 4 after launching a political spending committee aimed at doing just that in May. (It has raised $3.7 million so far.) Now, abortion-rights advocates say DeSantis’ administration is hoping to scare voters into voting against the amendment. “In our opinion, this is unprecedented for the state to clearly oppose a citizen-led initiative,” Bacardi Jackson, executive director of the ACLU of Florida, said Thursday. “This kind of propaganda coming from the state, using taxpayer dollars and operating outside the political process, sets a dangerous precedent.”

The Florida Democratic Party said in a statement Friday that it had filed a public records request seeking information about when the agency began working on the website and who was involved. “Ron (DeSantis) and his cronies know they are losing and are willing to do anything — including breaking the law — to rig the results in their favor.” Florida Democratic Party Chairwoman Nikki Fried said in a statement, adding that the party is also taking legal action to try to take down the page. State Senate Democratic Leader Lauren Book also said her office is exploring legal action in response to the website.

The Florida Agency for Health Care Administration did not respond to questions Mother Jones how much it cost to create and maintain the website, who requested its creation, why it contained false and misleading information, and how officials responded to criticism of the website. Instead, the agency provided the following statement: “Part of the agency’s mission is to provide information and transparency to Floridians about the quality of care they receive. Our new transparency page is designed to educate Floridians about the state’s abortion laws and provide information about a proposed policy change that would impact care across the state.”

Now, some are warning that the DeSantis administration’s use of government resources for political purposes could be illegal. Meanwhile, polls suggest a majority of Florida voters support the amendment.