Ashley Moody wants Supreme Court to toss abortion rights amendment
Not just anyone is invited to join Ashley Moody's opioid lawsuit.

Ashley Moody
Moody says voters would be confused by the term 'viability.'

Attorney General Ashley Moody says she will ask the state Supreme Court to block a proposed abortion rights amendment from appearing on the 2024 ballot.

Moody released an op-ed for Florida’s Voice where she argued that the measure’s ballot summary would mislead voters. If passed by 60% of voters, the amendment would prohibit the Legislature from banning abortion prior to “before viability or when necessary to protect the patient’s health.”

Moody, who has already asked the high court to uphold the state’s current ban on abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, says language drawn by the amendment’s proponents, Floridians Protecting Freedom, is “one of the worst I have seen.” She says voters would be confused by the term “viability” and that it could be viewed as allowing abortion anywhere from 12 weeks to 25 weeks.

“While I personally would not vote for this initiative no matter what definition of ‘viability’ it was using, I know that to some voters, it is material to their vote — whether you are talking about an abortion in the first trimester or at the end of the second trimester,” Moody wrote. “Floridians are entitled to know clearly and concisely what they are voting for or against.”

So far, state election officials have verified that more than 400,000 voters have signed petitions to get the proposed abortion amendment on the 2024 ballot. Organizers will need more than 891,000 signatures by the February deadline in order to qualify

But another big hurdle is getting the state Supreme Court to approve the amendment. The court reviews citizen initiatives to see if they stick to a single subject and to make sure the ballot summary given to voters is not misleading.

The Attorney General is responsible for asking the court to review the amendment once organizers collect 25% of the needed signatures. The Attorney General is under no legal obligation to take a position, but often does. Moody has already asked the court to block an amendment that would permit the use of recreational marijuana. That citizen initiative is scheduled to go before the court on Nov. 8.

Florida legislators earlier this year reduced the state’s ban on abortion from 15 weeks to six weeks. But that law will not take effect unless the state Supreme Court upholds the current 15-week law. Moody has asked Justices to undo a 1989 ruling that struck down abortion restrictions because the court found they violated the privacy clause that voters put in the state constitution.

Christine Jordan Sexton

Tallahassee-based health care reporter who focuses on health care policy and the politics behind it. Medicaid, health insurance, workers’ compensation, and business and professional regulation are just a few of the things that keep me busy.


16 comments

  • Michael K

    October 6, 2023 at 3:45 pm

    Why do Republican legislators always block citizen initiatives – and when that fails, undo the will of the voters?

  • Julia

    October 6, 2023 at 4:14 pm

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  • Phil Morton

    October 6, 2023 at 6:14 pm

    Viability- ability to survive or live successfully, Seems pretty simple to me. Took me 30 seconds to look that up.

  • Earl Pitts American

    October 6, 2023 at 7:54 pm

    Great job there Ash,
    The way to put the spank on the Deamoncrats is to keep attacking their pet priorities. Ssh, as you already know, abortion is 100% more important to the left than:
    Ukraine
    Open Borders
    Drag Queens
    Homer Testical Men (do the left care as much about Lesbians … no.
    Guys pretending to be girls so they can win at girly sports when they $uck at mens sports.
    Chopping off little kids genetilla
    Baiscally Ash as you know Abortion is the #1 thing you can attack the Demoncrats on to get results…that is their holy grail,
    EPA

    • Mark

      October 6, 2023 at 10:43 pm

      Which is why you have lost EVERY abortion referendum that has been voted on since Roe was overturned.

    • JD

      October 6, 2023 at 11:30 pm

      Abortion is the final nail in the right’s political coffin. How’s it feel to know the party is going to lose epically on this one Shitts? LMAO.

      You’re pathetic.

    • Mike Neeley

      October 7, 2023 at 9:20 am

      Very constructively written!! (too bad there is no written punctuation to indicate sarcasm)

    • WhatNow

      October 7, 2023 at 7:06 pm

      Am beginning to think that Earl Arm Pits of America is either a paid Russian troll or a bonafide neo-Nazi/White Supremacist.

  • Marvin M.

    October 6, 2023 at 10:44 pm

    Of course Moody wants the abortion amendment and the marijuana amendment stricken off the ballot. If they’re on there, too many people will come out to vote. Can’t be having that!

  • Tom Palmer

    October 6, 2023 at 11:17 pm

    No surprise. GOP always blocks public.

  • JD

    October 6, 2023 at 11:32 pm

    I haven’t figured out why people keep voting for dipshit republicans. They always Carter the economy that the Democrats bail out. They steal their rights, and then they tell their woman what they can do? I guess Republicans like being cuckolds. Pathetic

    • JD

      October 6, 2023 at 11:33 pm

      Crater, not Carter

      • Ocean Joe

        October 7, 2023 at 6:55 pm

        It was pretty good either way, although Jimmy couldnt help the oil embargo.

  • seldomseensmith

    October 7, 2023 at 7:59 am

    Florida is chock full of repubican fascists. Stay away

  • Mike Neeley

    October 7, 2023 at 9:17 am

    I am in constant wonder how people who have never even met me deem it possible to determine what I will or will not understand.

  • SteveHC

    October 7, 2023 at 7:19 pm

    Well of COURSE! Moody – and everyone else in DeSantis’s political circles – would like to kill ALL citizens’ Constitution initiatives, as they would absolutely love to kill democracy in Florida. ALL fascists love autocracy, DUH..

Comments are closed.


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