Gabrielle Russon
A new ad is playing to people’s faith to make an appeal for the Amendment 4 abortion rights initiative.
Faith in Public Life Action announced it was launching the digital campaign in the final days before the Nov. 5 election and with early voting already underway.
“My faith tells me that God wants us to treat our neighbors with compassion. For me that means voting ‘yes’ on 4 in this election,” one of the ads says. “My faith tells me we can’t let legislators limit our family’s options for health care.”
Another commercial centers around trusting God and being thankful for the medical community to help people make their health care decisions.
The group said it is spending $17,000 to air the ads on YouTube in the Tampa-St. Petersburg, Orlando-Daytona Beach, Gainesville, Jacksonville and Tallahassee media markets.
The proposed constitutional amendment would limit government interference on abortion before viability — which is considered about 24 weeks — or to save the mother’s life.
The ballot question also says, “This amendment does not change the Legislature’s constitutional authority to require notification to a parent or guardian before a minor has an abortion.”
Currently Florida has a six-week ban on most pregnancies.
In the abortion rights debate, faith and religion are being brought up by both sides.
“We cannot go to church and pray like Christians then turn around and vote like atheists,” Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nuñez said at an anti-Amendment 4 rally earlier this month.
And the Catholic Church is one of the financial backers funding opposition to Amendment 4.
Other churches are taking political stances, like at a small Baptist church in Orlando’s Baldwin Park that put “No on 4” signs outside its facility and anti-abortion literature in the lobby.
However, other faith leaders have played a role collecting signatures to get the issue on the ballot and are encouraging their congregation to support Amendment 4, framing it as a women’s rights issue.
“As people of faith, our values lead us to respecting the dignity and agency of our neighbors. The ‘Yes on 4’ amendment will push us forward in doing that,” said Jeanné Lewis, CEO of Faith in Public Life Action, in a statement. “Through this digital campaign, we’re meeting faith-based voters where they are with the understanding that abortion access is an integral part of making informed decisions and allowing all people the opportunity to thrive.”
9 comments
White Spiteful Devil Rapist Trump
October 30, 2024 at 3:09 pm
People that go to church catch as much hell as people that do.not go to church,some use religion as crutch to not do the right thing that they should do as humans beings,I do.not questions people faith,but I question their motivation,to support a man like Trump who mocked their beliefs Google Trump Mock Religion
Dont Say FLA
October 30, 2024 at 3:16 pm
If you’re a True Christian, you don’t need to waste your efforts on voting. Trump promises that for “next time” but if it’s true next time, it’s true this time too. God does not need to wait on Trump.
True Christians should stay home on Tuesday praying all day that everybody votes how you would have them vote. That’s far more powerful than just one vote for just one person.
Rita Joseph
October 30, 2024 at 3:22 pm
There can be no ballot results that can set aside the US Constitution’s founding principle that forbids the deliberate killing of our fellow human beings. Both science and reason tell us that our unborn children are fellow human beings, smaller than us but already belonging to our human family. Once conceived, each new human being is already one of us—the very same human being from conception to natural death—unique, lovable, always deserving of our protection.
The Founders recognized the “self-evident” truth that, for all human beings created equal, their right to life is the unalienable gift of “their Creator.”
Before the U.S. Constitution was written, it was first recognized in the Declaration of Independence that for every human being, the right to life is unalienable. This, the first and most fundamental right and obligation, goes on existing independent of any subsequent consensus measured in ballots or votes.
The Declaration’s right to Life was never predicated on a human being’s size or age or stage of growth. There are some principles that no democratic vote may revoke — such as “the natural rights of the infant in the womb” affirmed by Founder James Wilson, way back in 1790 in his lectures, Of the Natural Rights of Individuals.
The right to Life was one of the unalienable principles upon which the Constitution was founded. it’s a principle that can’t be lawfully removed by any ballot
Dont Say FLA
October 30, 2024 at 3:47 pm
100% Pro Death Penalty, though, aren’t ya.
Inconsistency: Today’s MAGA party’s only constant.
MAGA: Not you grandfather’s GOP, but totally your drunk unemployed uncle’s GOP
White Spiteful Devil Rapist Trump
October 30, 2024 at 6:02 pm
You are not an OB GYN ,why religion is cheaping these days and followers become mindless Zealots Google Jack Graham Trump Google Religious Leaders Do Not Support Trump
cassandra was right
October 30, 2024 at 11:17 pm
Benjamin Franklin published an abortion recipe in his very popular math textbook that women and girls had — and used — in their homes. Franklin encouraged unmarried young women to use the recipe.
The right to an abortion is deeply rooted in the nation’s history and traditions.
Michael K
October 30, 2024 at 4:14 pm
My faith tradition supports a woman’s right to choose.
A friend sent me this:
You can never ban abortions.
You can only ban safe abortions.
She reminds me that this only became a hot button political issue in the 1970s, after de-segregation, as a mechanism to consolidate political power and control, when in 1976, the Republican party put it in their platform.
Billy Nash
October 30, 2024 at 5:12 pm
The government should not have its nose in a woman’s health issues. To have to terminate a pregnancy has to be one of the most agonizing decisions a woman can make. It should be left between her, her doctor and God. The other issue is what happens to the child if the father disappears as does happen – where is the social network to help? Not every woman has a strong support system to help her bring a child into the world or have to carry a dead fetus to term, bleed out from a miscarriage or any other complication that comes with pregnancy. I’m not advocating abortion as birth control but it should be available if a woman needs to terminate a pregnancy.
Jojo
October 30, 2024 at 10:20 pm
To those doctors shilling for the DeSantes administration in the anti abortion ads- maybe you should speak to the families of the women who have lost their lives after having a miscarriage. Their DOCTORS would not perform the necessary surgical procedures because they could still detect a heartbeat. And they died of sepsis. This occurred in Texas but the same extreme, inhumane laws exist in Florida.