Fact Check: ABC’s Linsey Davis Muddles Florida Abortion Amendment
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CLAIM: ABC News moderator Linsey Davis framed voting against a proposed abortion amendment in Florida as supporting the state’s six-week abortion restriction.
VERDICT: FALSE. While voting against the proposed amendment would allow the state’s current six-week restriction to stand, a vote for or against the amendment is based on the content of the measure, which would enshrine a right to abortion into the state constitution and allow abortions throughout pregnancy in the Sunshine State.
During the presidential debate on Tuesday at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Davis brought up Florida’s abortion amendment when questioning former President Donald Trump on the issue.
“In your home state of Florida, you surprised many with regards to your six-week ban because you initially had said that it was too short, and you said ‘I’m going to be voting that we need more than six weeks.’ But then, the very next day you reversed course and said you would vote to support the six-week ban,” Davis said, also seeming to falsely ascribe ownership of the six-week restriction to Trump, who did not pass the law. [Emphasis added].
In reality, the abortion amendment, called Amendment 4, would enshrine in the state constitution a right to abortion up until fetal viability, which is typically around 24 weeks, and after that point under certain exceptions.
The ballot summary states:
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.
RELATED: Ten States Will Have Abortion on the Ballot in November
If Florida voters pass the measure with at least 60 percent support in November, the abortion amendment would undo the state’s six-week limit and basically create a permanent right to abortion in the state that could only be undone with another ballot measure or an uphill legal battle.
“The ABC moderators lied about Florida and Amendment 4,” Florida State Rep. Randy Fine said in a post to X during the debate. “It is not about whether you support a 6 week abortion ban or not. A future legislature can always change that if the amendment fails. It is about whether we have free abortion on demand through week 40 FOREVER that no future legislature can ever change. Disgusting.”
The Florida Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA) has notably come out against the amendment, saying it “threatens women’s safety.” The AHCA warned that the measure’s vague language could lead to the overturning of at least 20 abortion-related laws, including parental consent, if it is passed.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) has also spoken out against the abortion amendment and said it was “written in a way that’s intentionally designed to deceive voters.”
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