Florida voters consider abortion ballot measure

On Tuesday, 18-year-old Betsy Linkhorst will cast her first vote not only on who should be in the White House, but also on the issue of abortion.

Her home state of Florida is one of 10 states across the country with abortion on the ballot this election.

If passed, Florida's measure – Amendment 4 – would repeal the current six-week ban on abortion here and expand access to the point of fetal viability, around 24 weeks of pregnancy. According to the wording of the measure, it could also take place later “if this is necessary to protect the patient’s health.”

Ms Linkhorst, who said she was “nervous” about living in a state with limited access to abortion, told the BBC she would vote “yes”.

“It's important to vote based on our rights,” she said of her vote for both Kamala Harris and expanding abortion access in Florida. “I don’t believe it’s the government’s right to police women’s bodies.”

Of all the abortion measures on the ballot this week, the ballot question in Florida is the most closely watched.

For more than a year, the state was one of the last places in the South where women could have a legal abortion, up to 15 weeks. But in May, Florida enact an even more restrictive law, which banned abortions after six weeks – with a few exceptions – before most women know they are pregnant.

Polls suggest a majority of Florida voters support Amendment 4. However, the amendment must meet a 60 percent threshold to pass – and polls suggest that while the campaign enjoys strong support, it may not quite reach that hurdle in the more conservative state.

If it happens, it would be a major victory for the abortion rights movement.

“It's the hardest place in the country to win,” said Kelly Hall, a strategist who works on abortion rights ballot measures and executive director of the Fairness Project. “If we overcome this particular hurdle, there is absolutely nothing stopping us from passing ballot measures wherever they are legal.”

This is the first presidential election since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and gave states the right to regulate abortion themselves. Since then, 17 states have passed bans restricting nearly all abortions within their borders.

During the 2022 midterm elections, which came months after the Supreme Court's decision, voters in the conservative states of Kentucky and Kansas voted against restricting abortion, sending a signal that access to the procedure is widely supported by the American people. The issue is also credited with helping Democrats do better than expected in congressional elections.

Now Democrats are hoping again that abortion measures in key battleground states like Arizona and Nevada will persuade their voters to vote for abortion rights at the ballot box — and while they're at it, catapult Vice President Harris into the White House and their vote reject candidates to victory.

In a sign of how important the issue of abortion is to voters, Florida-based Republican candidate for the White House Donald Trump has sought to back away from his once tough anti-abortion stance. Now he says he believes the decision on how to regulate it should be left to states and voters.

Last August in an interview with NBC, he seemed to indicate that he would vote for Amendment 4. But after outcry from his abortion opponents, he said he would vote against it.

The issue is controversial in the Republican-leaning state.

Nancy Collins, 88, voted no to Amendment 4 because of her Catholic faith.

“I’ve always been against abortion,” she said. “It goes against my religion.”

Ms. Collins supported Trump's current position that abortion policy should be left to individual states, and she hoped Florida would reject any expansion beyond the current six-week ban.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has also used his state government's powers to defeat the measure.

He says the measure would allow children to have abortions without parental consent, which Amendment 4 supporters oppose.

Last month, he said the change would “make Florida one of the most radical abortion jurisdictions, not just in the United States but anywhere in the world.”

The state Department of Health also launched a website opposing Amendment 4. And in October, a judge overturned the Department of Health's attempts to block a television station from airing an ad in support of Amendment 4.

There is no guarantee that abortion measures will give Harris or other Democratic politicians the electoral boost they are hoping for this year.

In Florida, which Trump won handily in 2016 and 2020, he is widely expected to score another victory.

A New York Times/Siena College poll found that 12% of voters in Arizona and Florida would vote for both Trump and an abortion rights measure.

Jonel Jones, 37, is a former Democrat who decided to vote for Trump this year. She had been looking for a job for months and felt the former president had a better handle on the economy and might improve her prospects.

She said she personally doesn't believe in abortion. But she had read stories from other states like Georgia and Texas about pregnant women becoming sick or dying after being denied an abortion or treatment for a miscarriage and didn't want a similar situation in Florida.

“I don’t think that’s right,” Ms. Jones said.

After checking the box for Donald Trump, she voted “yes” on Amendment 4.