Florida’s abortion debate intensifies with new ads on both sides

If you followed the Hurricane Helene coverage on TV or watched the MLB playoffs, you know the Amendment 4 debate is intensifying as both sides are rolling out new commercials to influence undecided voters with the election one month away.

Each side accuses the other of being too extreme for Florida.

The latest pro-Amendment 4 ad features Deborah and Lee Dorbert of Lakeland, who were denied access to an abortion because of Florida’s six-week abortion ban.

“I remember the doctor handing me a baby boy that was blue, and I just held him because he was so cold,” Deborah Sorbet said. “Due to the abortion ban. I was being forced to carry the baby from 23 weeks all the way to 37 weeks, knowing that my son was going to die.”

“The government had no right to do that to my family. This ban is torture.”

Meanwhile, the No on 4 group released an ad that targets the ballot language as being too vague.

“Bait and switch. Sleight of hand. Smoke and mirrors,” a female narrator says, calling Amendment 4 “much more extreme than at first it seems.”

Amendment 4 needs at least 60% of the vote to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution. Florida’s six-week abortion ban went into effect in May following the end of Roe v Wade.

In its newest ad, No on 4 ad attacks the ballot language for not being precise.

“So how many definitions does Amendment 4 provide? Zero. This small trick is a big scam,” the anti-Amendment 4 ad says. “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 also claims the ballot initiative eliminates parental consent for minors to get the medical procedure. Amendment 4 campaign leaders dispute that and say the initiative does not impact adult consent.

“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,” the ballot language says.

Viability, the period when an unborn child can survive outside the womb, is considered to be about 24 weeks.

The ballot wording also reads, “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 Amendment 4 campaign argues their ballot language is clear and needed to protect women’s health care and choices from the government. The term “viability” is a medical term that is also appearing in state law, they said.