Florida’s Voice
By Owen Girard
Published Jul. 5, 2024
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – The pro-abortion “Yes on 4” campaign released merchandise with the phrase “Doctors Not Politicians,” despite supporting vague terminology used in Florida’s ballot amendment 4.
The amendment, introduced by Floridians Protecting Freedom, states that any “healthcare provider” may determine an individual can get an abortion, completely disregarding “viability,” another vague and non-definable word used in the amendment that many pro-abortionists argue to be the commonsense limitation on the measure.
The undefined vagueness of the term has raised concerns that if the amendment were implemented, anyone in the healthcare field could determine a person’s right to an abortion, even if they were a dental hygienist, chiropractor or staffer at an abortion clinic.
The campaign sells several forms of merchandise containing the “Doctors Not Politicians” phrase, including shirts, bumper stickers, yard signs and tote bags.
The Florida Statutes have multiple definitions of a “health care provider” based on various legislative additions. However, one of the most general definitions of the term includes “any person licensed, certified, or otherwise authorized by law to administer health care in the ordinary course of business or practice of a profession.”
The “Vote No On 4” campaign, an anti-Amendment 4 group, emphasized to Florida’s Voice how the measure could easily result in people who aren’t doctors determining a woman’s access to an abortion.
“This dangerous abortion amendment is deceptively written to disguise the fact that it would allow abortion right up to the moment of birth for any age without parental consent in Florida,” the campaign said.
“They can all be bypassed by any ‘healthcare provider’ – which is not just doctors, but a host of other professions and even employees of abortion clinics. And the amendment doesn’t define ‘viability’ or ‘patient’s health’ – instead, leaving it up to these so-called ‘healthcare providers’ to determine if, when and for what reason abortions can be performed. They didn’t have to write it this way, but they did it deliberately to trick Florida voters,” the campaign added.
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The “Vote No On 4” campaign, a pro-life group working to reject the amendment in November, reminded Florida’s Voice about the extreme nature of the initiative and how it would make it virtually impossible to limit abortions at the state level in any way.
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The initiative by the pro-abortion group was originally challenged by Attorney General Ashley Moody on the basis of the proposed amendment’s vagueness. However, it was narrowly upheld by the Florida Supreme Court and was allowed to be put on the 2024 ballot.
Since then, polls have shown that the abortion amendment passes with the required 60% needed to be placed into the state’s constitution.
Opponents of the measure, including Gov. Ron DeSantis, have argued that the vagueness is intentional as the pro-abortion movement is attempting to mislead Florida voters.
“They way they wrote the summary, there are people that are pro-life that poll in favor of this because they think it’s a pro-life amendment,” DeSantis said.
The “Yes on 4” campaign is managed and funded by Floridians Protecting Freedom. Florida’s Voice reached out to the organization regarding the issue of terminology vagueness in the amendment and did not receive a reply.
https://flvoicenews.com/pro-abortion-group-touts-doctors-not-politicians-merch-despite-vague-terms-used-in-amendment-4/
