Amendment 4 Activists Show Girls How To Skirt Parental Consent
The proposed unlimited abortion ballot measure in Florida, referred to as Amendment 4, is facing scrutiny for allegedly encouraging underage girls to bypass state laws requiring parental consent for abortions. Proponents of the “Yes on 4” campaign have linked to resources on their website that guide teens on how to obtain abortions without notifying their parents. These resources include connections to lawyers who can assist with judicial bypasses and information on acquiring abortion pills, which carry significant health risks. Critics claim that Amendment 4 could eliminate parental consent for minors seeking abortions, despite assurances from media and amendment advocates that it wouldn’t directly change existing legislation.
Governor Ron DeSantis has expressed concerns that the amendment would allow minors to seek abortions without their parents’ knowledge. Additionally, if passed, the amendment could allow abortion to be deemed necessary for a woman’s health at any stage of pregnancy. Public sentiment shows that a majority of Americans and Floridians support parental notification laws and restrict late-term abortions. Nevertheless, the amendment’s supporters are moving forward with their campaign, despite significant opposition from various groups and the general public.
Some of the biggest proponents of Florida’s proposed unlimited abortion ballot measure are encouraging and even helping underage girls seeking abortions to circumvent state laws requiring parental consent.
The “Yes on 4” campaign, which is responsible for promoting a proposed amendment that would effectively enshrine abortion through birth in the Sunshine State’s constitution and eliminate safeguards designed to protect women and children, featured information on its now-scrubbed “Resources” page that links to websites explaining how teens can obtain abortions without involving their parents, as mandated by Florida law.
An archived version of the page also warns girls and women away from life-saving pregnancy centers by claiming they are “fake clinics” that “may try to trick and shame you” and “use tactics to delay your decision-making until it’s too late to have an abortion.”
The first link on the “Yes on 4” website takes users to Floridians for Reproductive Freedom’s (FRF) guidance, which boasts of connecting girls who “cannot involve a parent” with attorneys who can finagle a judicial bypass “without your parent’s involvement.”
Directly below FRF’s advice on how to skirt the state’s parental consent law, the pro-abortion group tells girls and women how they can obtain dangerous abortion drugs, which are responsible for a 500 percent increase in abortion-related emergency room, by mail.
FRF’s chatbot Charley, the amendment’s opponents at the “No On 4” campaign pointed out, “falsely claims that ‘abortion is medically safe no matter how far along someone is in their pregnancy,’” “advises minors to travel to Puerto Rico for abortions,” “offers ‘websites to find [abortion] pills right now’ without asking basic screening questions,” and “even asserts that it is ‘safe to have your abortion at home … even if you have not seen a doctor or nurse first.’”
Gov. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., warned earlier this year that Amendment 4, if passed, will “eliminate parental consent for minors.”
Media, however, insisted because the amendment claims not to “change the Legislature’s constitutional authority to require notification to a parent or guardian before a minor has an abortion,” the end of parental consent isn’t guaranteed.
Yet, even the fake fact-checkers at PolitiFact admit that the Planned Parenthood, ACLU, and George Soros-funded abortion activists responsible for coordinating the wave of ballot measure battles in red states like Ohio often pursue legal challenges that use the vague language in the radical amendments to cut parents out of the equation.
Parental consent is not the only problem Amendment 4 poses to Floridians. If the proposal passes on Nov. 5, medical professionals in Florida could deem abortion at any stage of pregnancy necessary for a woman’s “health,” physical, emotional, or mental.
Approximately 56 percent of Americans say parents should have to give their child permission to get an abortion. Overall, 55 percent of Americans think ending life in the womb beyond the start of the second trimester, around 14 weeks gestation, should be “generally illegal.” In Florida specifically, at least 62 percent of voters, including 58 percent of women, say they favor the state’s six-week abortion limit.
Despite Floridians’ strong opposition to the extremism presented to them via Amendment 4, out-of-state activists have poured millions of dollars, deception, and fraudulent signatures into passing it.
Former President Donald Trump, who publicly expressed discomfort with Florida’s current heartbeat law, recently rejected the “radical” amendment because it seeks to allow abortions through all nine months of pregnancy.
“All of that stuff is unacceptable. So I’ll be voting no for that reason,” Trump said.
Jordan Boyd is a staff writer at The Federalist and producer of The Federalist Radio Hour. Her work has also been featured in The Daily Wire, Fox News, and RealClearPolitics. Jordan graduated from Baylor University where she majored in political science and minored in journalism. Follow her on X @jordanboydtx.
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