Jesse Scheckner
A new ad supporting the Amendment 4 campaign to protect abortion access in the Florida Constitution features a Tampa mother who didn’t want to avail herself of the procedure, but says she had to.
Identified only as “Caroline” in the 30-second spot, she tells an agonizing story of doctors finding a brain tumor on her MRI as she was pregnant with her second child.
“My first thought was, ‘Am I going to be able to see my daughter again?’” she says in the ad.
“The doctors knew that if I did not end my pregnancy, I would lose my baby. I would lose my life. And my daughter would lose her mom. Florida has now banned abortion even in cases like mine. Amendment 4 is going to protect women like me. We have to vote ‘yes.’”
The new ad began airing in popular TV markets across Florida and is the first funded by Floridians Protecting Freedom, the political committee behind the Amendment 4 initiative, to feature an abortion patient.
It’s part of the organization’s multimillion-dollar ad campaign to build support for the ballot measure and follows English- and Spanish-language TV spots featuring doctors of gynecology and obstetrics.
Amendment 4 needs 60% voter support to pass. Determined to prevent that from happening is Gov. Ron DeSantis, whose Florida Freedom Fund is financing counterprogramming, and apparatuses under the Governor’s sway like the state Agency for Health Care Administration, whose tax-funded anti-abortion messaging online has attracted multiple lawsuits.
There’s also Created Equal, a national group that has taken out ad space in Florida this month to claim that Amendment 4 will allow late-term abortions.
Polls show varying enthusiasm for the measure. One published this week found less than half of likely voters statewide intend to vote “yes” on Amendment 4, while 29% said they firmly oppose it.
An Emerson College survey last month found 55% voter support, with 26% opposition. Another in July by the University of North Florida’s Public Opinion Research Lab showed 69% of likely voters favor Amendment 4.
The General Election is on Nov. 5.
8 comments
Cubrey Porter
October 1, 2024 at 6:03 pm
“Florida has now banned abortion even in cases like mine.”
This statement is a lie.
Here is the truth: “Florida’s six-week abortion ban includes exceptions for some vulnerable communities and when a mother or fetus’ life is in danger.” –Stephanie Colombini, WUSF Health News Florida, April 30, 2024.
jerry
October 1, 2024 at 7:13 pm
Here’s the problem: what, exactly, does “mother’s life in danger” mean specifically? What if she’s doing OK at this moment, but she almost certainly will not be doing OK at some time in the future? Is her life in danger or not? Before you answer, remember that your practice and freedom will be forfeit if you call it wrong.
Cheesy Floridian
October 1, 2024 at 9:02 pm
I want my freedom and my choice back not exceptions. Yes on 4!
cassandra was right
October 2, 2024 at 5:18 pm
You are confused. You are wrong. There are women in Florida right now who are being denied cancer treatment because they are pregnant. That means their cancer is growing and spreading while they wait nine months. Imagine what that’s like!
These women are also being denied abortions because the embryo or fetus is not killing them right now at this very moment. For some women their cancer may not even be expected to ever kill them. Instead, waiting months may just result in surgery, a sicker and shorter life, or stronger chemotherapy than would have been needed if the woman had received an abortion at the time of diagnosis!
You and the governor do not have a right to deny women healthcare. Bans on abortions are IMMORAL!
Vote YES on 4
Suzanne
October 8, 2024 at 4:38 pm
We have freedom of speech but not freedom of our bodies! No matter what the circumstances are that a woman wants an abortion it should be her choice! People are concerned about the fetus but when that fetus is forced to be born when it either wasn’t wanted or the pregnancy was due to horrific circumstances and that child is abused, neglected, emotionally and mentally abused or unwanted and abandoned to foster care, NOW tell me which is worse! In my opinion:
No# 1 there would be less people with mental and emotional problems from being emotionally neglected and abused
NO#2 There would be less people on welfare looking to feed their children because they can’t afford childcare and can’t get a job because they have no one other then the state and taxpayers to help them.
NO#3 There would be less drug and alcohol damaged children to suffer
NO#4 There would be less dropouts in schools because Most children who are affected by drugs and alcohol syndromes that have trouble learning and are mainstream in regular schools. Instead of schools focusing on the same educational learning for everyone they should have a curriculum that provides learning for everyone based on how they learn meaning it can be book learning, listening, Demonstrating or whatever else but the system just gives up on these children! because not everybody learns the same there wouldn’t be so many kids on medication to help them with what they are labeled as ADD or ADHD or whatever. NOT ALL children are diagnosed from parents that are Drug addicted or alcoholics. These children just need to be taught differently and I know that because I have children that was diagnosed with both and I was told that because my children had ADD and ADHD they were unable to learn, and they would be drug addicts and alcoholics and a menace to society. Fortunately, that didn’t happen with my children because I was able to teach them in a way that they can learn because I choose to be an at home parent with no job because my children came first in my life to explain to them in a way that they could understand. But there are children that fall through the cracks hook up with gangs to feel some kind of belonging because they feel nobody cares about them or they have very low self esteem because they feel stupid because they can’t learn like everyone else and most of the time their parents leave it up to the teachers to put up with their children’s behavior problems and not help them even try to go over what they don’t understand. And there are teachers who don’t know how to teach children who have these issues not because they don’t know how to teach but because they aren’t taught in college how to teach these children that need smaller classes with less children in order to focus on each individual! There are parents who can’t be bothered because in their sick minds these children were an accident being conceived and they couldn’t abort them so they leave it to society to deal with an unwanted emotionally disturbed child that feels unloved and unwanted and theses children will pick it out on everyone around them. Like I said everybody is different everybody learns differently, This is not something new. This is why we have so many dropouts. This is why we have so many people in jail because the people that are considered a menace to society couldn’t learned because society shun them because they deemed them as different , wake up people, we are all different. We are all different size shapes colors that’s difference!
Teachers are not even paid enough to handle different types children with learning disabilities that disrupts their classroom and their classmates! This is why children go through bullying because of children who hate their own life situation and can’t learn like everyone else OR The children that can learn pick on other children that are struggling with learning or having difficulties at home with their living situations!
BOTTOM LINE IF A WOMAN WANTS AN ABORTION ITS HER RIGHT TO HER BODY AND ITS A DISSERVICE TO THE CHILDREN THAT HAVE TO SUFFER BEING BORN INTO THIS WORLD BEING UNWANTED, ABANDONED, NEGLECTED, STARVING, EMOTIONALLY ABUSED, SEXUALLY ABUSED AND FORCED TO LIVE IN FOSTER CARE WHEN THEY ARE TAKEN AWAY! IN MY OPINION IM THINKING ABOUT THE CHILDREN, THE PEOPLE WHO OPPOSE ABORTION WHAT ARE THEY THINKING ABOUT? RELIGION? Well They are not God and if there is any consequence from God then why is it ANYONES BUSINESS? Let Go and let God handle it! God is a forgiving God and it’s their Conscience they have to live with NOT YOURS!
Cheesy Floridian
October 1, 2024 at 9:01 pm
Vote yes on4! Don’t believe the DeSantis lies. Take freedom back take back the right to have a choice! Support freedom support choice yes on 4!
cassandra was right
October 2, 2024 at 6:36 pm
Tell Ron DeSantis: WOMEN’S BODIES ARE NOT STATE PROPERTY!!!
Freedom! Choice!
Vote YES on 4!
LaRue
October 7, 2024 at 3:23 pm
Someone is going to die in this scenario and the only one that is guaranteed to do so is the baby. The mother may have been successfully treated and both mom and baby may have lived happily ever after, but I guess we’ll never know.
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