August 8, 2024
Contact: Taryn Fenske
press@VoteNoOn4Florida.com
Tallahassee, FL – When Michigan voters approved a 2022 abortion amendment similar to Amendment 4 that will be on Florida’s November ballot, they had no idea that it might result in having their tax dollars spent on abortions. After all, that possibility was never mentioned in the amendment. But lawyers with the ACLU, which drafted and defended both Michigan’s amendment and Florida’s Amendment 4, recently filed a lawsuit based on Michigan’s abortion amendment to overturn that law prohibiting public funding of abortion and to compel Michigan to provide taxpayer funding of abortion through Medicaid. The lawsuit argues that without taxpayer funding for abortions, Michiganders experience a “delay [in] access to care” – language which uses the same operative term – delay – as Amendment 4.
“The interest groups who wrote and continue to defend Amendment 4 have repeatedly refused to tell voters existing laws it would overturn,” said Attorney General Ashley Moody. “This Michigan case makes it crystal clear that reasonable laws that most people on both sides of the abortion issue support will be challenged in court if Amendment 4 passes. Because of how broad and misleading Amendment 4 is, voters need to understand that seemingly uncontroversial laws will likely be overturned.”
In paragraphs 29 and 30 of the Michigan complaint, the ACLU alleges that “the denial of [Medicaid] coverage to patients considering abortion care may delay their access to health care … Accordingly, the coverage ban burdens and infringes upon Medicaid-eligible patients’ constitutional right to reproductive freedom.”
If Amendment 4 passes, the same ACLU lawyers will file the same lawsuit in Florida to use their deceptive amendment to overturn Florida’s law against public funding and force Florida taxpayers to pay for elective abortions.
At only 34 words, Amendment 4 provides no definitions for any of its operative terms, creating enormous loopholes and entry points for inevitable lawsuits.
For more information on how Amendment 4 was deliberately written to deceive voters, visit www.VoteNoOn4Florida.com
Resources:
Click here for the AP Article on Michigan lawsuit. Click here to read the Michigan lawsuit.
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