Jacob Ogles
The campaign against an amendment decriminalizing abortion today launched ads and websites trying to reach English– and Spanish-speaking audiences. The message in any language is that Amendment 4 more extreme than it seems.
Vote No On 4 kicks off its first ad campaign with a video titled “Not What It Seems.” The two-minute spot calls the proposed constitutional amendment in November dangerously vague.
“Bait and Switch. Sleight of Hand. Smoke and Mirrors. All deceptions that make one thing seem like another,” a narrator states. “Like Amendment 4, an ‘abortion’ amendment that’s much more extreme than at first it seems.”
The Florida Supreme Court in April approved ballot language for a measure that would reverse a ban on abortions six weeks into pregnancy that went into effect in Florida in May. While supporters have presented the proposed constitutional amendment as a return to Florida law before the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, critics allege the measure goes much further.
“Amendment 4 was deceptively written to allow abortions throughout the entire pregnancy, even when the baby can feel the pain of the procedure, and to make abortion the only medical procedure that can be performed on a minor without a parent’s consent,” said Vote No On 4 Florida President Dr. Mary J. O’Sullivan, Professor Emeritus of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Miami Medical School.
“By allowing any so-called ‘healthcare provider’ – not just doctors – to determine fetal viability and approve late-term abortions, Amendment 4 essentially gives abortion clinics a rubber stamp to approve abortions in the third trimester, up to and including the last month of pregnancy.”
The ad drills that message in, noting prior constitutional amendments appearing on ballots often contained specific definitions. But Amendment 4 doesn’t define essential terms like “viability” and “patient’s health,” while replacing parent “consent” for minors to obtain an abortion with only a requirement for “notification.”
“This ‘small’ trick is a big scam,” the ad states.
“They didn’t have to write Amendment 4 this way, but they did. Why? Because they want to deceive you—to make their extreme amendment seem reasonable.”
The ad campaign said approving Amendment 4 would effectively allow abortions without any effective restriction.
“No law shall prohibit any abortion at any time for any reason determined by abortion clinic employees. This amendment makes abortion the only medical procedure your child can undergo without your consent,” the law states.
As the ad debuts, organizers say they have also grown a network of dedicated volunteers and aim to reach 80% of the electorate with its messaging. The campaign enjoys grassroots support, organizers said, as opposed to relying on liberal mega-donor George Soros, as supporters of Amendment 4 have done.
Constitutional amendments in Florida require 60% of voters to support measures on the ballot to pass.
17 comments
waked
July 1, 2024 at 7:23 am
What is extreme is Big Brother sticking his nose into private, personal decision making by supposedly free adults in America. Saying that a fetus is a human being doesn’t make it so, a pregnant woman should be free to decide whether to bring another person into the world whom she will have to care for- not the government!
Michael K
July 1, 2024 at 8:20 am
Well stated. Thank you.
Hung Wiil
July 2, 2024 at 10:03 pm
Wrong, douche bags. The principle of the right to life is the first principle, and the role of government is to protect the humanity of the weakest from the bloodlust of the democracy loving uninformed masses. You know who you are . . . people who think Biden won the debate. Now go get your booster shot for the new Covid vaccine, tool.
Joe
July 3, 2024 at 12:47 pm
“The principle of the right to life is the first principle, and the role of government is to protect the humanity of the weakest from the bloodlust of the democracy loving uninformed masses.”
Absolutely wrong and completely hypocritical as expected, from a useful idiot of the far-right party that has no interest in protecting **living** children or minority groups from RepubliQan bloodlust and predation.
Hung Wiil
July 4, 2024 at 5:25 pm
How is it wrong, tool? Just because “Joe” claims it? That is YAG.
Jojo
July 5, 2024 at 6:50 am
When you have to resort to insults like douche bag you’ve lost the argument.
Why is it so hard for the anti choice crowd to put themselves in the place of a teenage girl who has been raped and becomes pregnant or the mother who truly wants a child bur is faced with extreme complications?
Mindless ideology over common sense
Hung Wiil
July 6, 2024 at 7:56 pm
Wrong, Joe.
FLPatriot
July 10, 2024 at 12:35 pm
LMAO….Governments role is to protect the humanity of the weakest when it comes to abortion but F the weakest in society when it comes to vaccines and COVID. You idiots get dumber by the day.
Cheesy Floridian
July 1, 2024 at 9:32 am
In order to fight this misleading ad that is being put out by people who do not want women and girls to have a choice in whether they want to remain pregnant or not, here is the actual ballot language, “No law shall prohibit, penalize, delay, or restrict abortion before viability or when necessary to protect the patient’s health, as determined by the patient’s healthcare provider. This amendment does not change the Legislature’s constitutional authority to require notification to a parent or guardian before a minor has an abortion.”
The ad that has been put out to fight this amendment is harmful and not truthful.
Joe
July 1, 2024 at 11:05 am
They are lying, just like their dark-money right-wing donors lied in lying ads in other states that have put abortion rights on the ballot.
Turn out and vote against lying RepubliQans and their authoritarian puppet-masters!
John Houman
July 2, 2024 at 2:31 pm
Reproductive Rights refer to legal and ethical rights individuals have regarding their health and decision-making. These rights encompass a range of issues, including the right to access contraception, family planning services, and safe and legal abortion. They also include the right to make decisions about whether to have children, when to have them, how many to have, and are considered fundamental human rights based on the principles of autonomy, privacy, and equality. It’s a Sad Day when a woman visits her primary care doctor for Reproductive Health Care and the first person the doctor consults is a Lawyer, not a Specialist!
A woman is twice as likely to die today of pregnancy problems than her mother a generation ago!
Hung Wiil
July 2, 2024 at 10:05 pm
Why, John? Is it because medical technology is worse today than a generation ago? Go back to sleep, Boomer.
Joe
July 3, 2024 at 12:44 pm
Big surprise that a RepubliQan tool like “Hung Wiil” is completely lacking in reading comprehension and critical thinking. It’s because your right-wing paymasters want it to be this way, you neanderthal.
Hung Wiil
July 4, 2024 at 5:26 pm
Joe must actually be Joe Biden because he sucks dick at debate.
FLPatriot
July 10, 2024 at 12:37 pm
Not Hung Wiil is a child. His comments mean nothing here.
Michael K
July 3, 2024 at 8:13 am
I’d like someone to explain to me how – in all of this – scores of men are exrtremely self-righteous and demanding about controlling women’s bodies. But there are zero actions or consequences for men, so far as I know.
Let’s see some harsh legislation that forces men to relinquish control of their bodies and their lives to please the the state and far-right radicals who wish to impose their “religion” on everyone else..
FLPatriot
July 10, 2024 at 12:39 pm
I am all about forcing men to get a vasectomy at puberty and when they can show the courts and sign documents that they can and will provide for a child, THEN they can go get it reversed. I bet the men would lose their shit when they lose control of their body.
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