Please urge your family and friends to oppose this dangerous amendment.
Heavily funded, radical, pro-abortion groups have placed the misleading Amendment 4 on the ballot this November. The BALLOT SUMMARY of the amendment reads as follows:
“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.”
AMENDMENT 4 IS DELIBERATELY DECEPTIVE!
It is not what it seems! It will enshrine abortion until birth as a fundamental right in Florida’s constitution for virtually any reason up to nine months of pregnancy – even when babies can feel pain – yet the misleading language hides this reality.
“No law shall prohibit, penalize, delay, or restrict abortion.”
This language would legally trump and invalidate commonsense laws in Florida regulating abortion, including clinic safety and cleanliness regulations, ultrasound requirements, informed consent, and the 24-hour waiting period. Abortion would become the only medical service completely exempt from any legal medical safety and health accountability requirements and protocols meant to protect women’s health and safety.
DELIBERATE CONFUSION
Key terms in the amendment such as viability, health, and healthcare provider are not defined at all anywhere in the amendment summary or text. This is unprecedented. Most ballot initiatives provide extensive definitions and guidelines in order to establish legal clarity. But the lack of definitions in Amendment 4 will inevitably create massive legal confusion and years of countless lawsuits while leaving the people’s elected representatives powerless to do anything. Amendment 4 allows for an abortion up until birth for any “health” reason at the absolute discretion of an undefined “healthcare provider.” Again, the word “health” is not defined, which would create a broad array of conditions that could be used to justify late-term abortions, including headaches, nausea, cramping, and discomfort, and could include emotional or psychological factors like stress or anxiety.
As well, the term “healthcare provider” is also undefined in the amendment. Under Florida law, the term “healthcare practitioner” includes a host of non-medical doctors, such as acupuncturists, nurses, pharmacists, and physical therapists. This means even non medical doctor employees of abortion clinics could be allowed to prescribe and perform late-term abortions putting women’s lives at risk!
Finally, while it claims to provide for “parental notification,” the amendment it fails to mention that parental consent laws would be gutted, allowing minor girls to obtain even late-term abortions, without their parents’ consent!
Visit VoteNoOn4Florida.com for more information, and to help spread the word about this dangerous amendment.