Florida Supreme Court allows financial statement to be attached to abortion ballot measure

The Florida Supreme Court ruled that a financial statement, which was blasted by abortion-rights advocates, will be allowed to appear alongside a ballot measure seeking to enshrine abortion through viability in the Sunshine State.

The state’s high court ruled 6-1 against the group challenging the statement, Floridians Protecting Freedom, because it participated in and did not object to the Financial Impact Estimating Conference’s process, which it was seeking to challenge with the lawsuit.

“The petitioners actively participated in the Estimating Conference process that they now challenge, without questioning or objecting to the Conference’s authority to issue a revised financial impact statement on its own initiative,” the majority opinion reads. “For that basic reason, the petitioners waived or forfeited any reasonable claim to extraordinary relief from this Court.”

The approved financial statement warns that if enacted, Amendment 4 would lead to more abortions and fewer births in the state, along with “uncertainty” over whether it would lead to state-funded abortions and parental consent laws for minors to receive abortions, among other concerns.

“Litigation to resolve those and other uncertainties will result in additional costs to the state government and state courts that will negatively impact the state budget,” the statement reads, in part. “An increase in abortions may negatively affect the growth of state and local revenues over time. Because the fiscal impact of increased abortions on state and local revenues and costs cannot be estimated with precision, the total impact of the proposed amendment is indeterminate.”

The group supporting Amendment 4, Floridians Protecting Freedom, has slammed the statement as “deceptive and politically-motivated” and argued that it would mislead voters on the ballot measure.

The main group opposing the ballot measure, Vote No on 4 Florida, celebrated the decision as being the “right decision.”

“The Florida Supreme Court made the right decision by approving the financial impact statement that will appear on the ballot with Amendment 4,” Vote No on 4 statewide grassroots director Sara Johnson said in a statement.

“This statement advises voters that Amendment 4 could result in taxpayer-funded abortions, and would allow abortions to be performed on minors without a parent’s consent – information that Florida voters deserve to know, and that the extremists who wrote amendment 4 are attempting to hide,” Johnson added.

Amendment 4 would prevent the state from creating legislation that would “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,” if passed. Opponents of the measure argue it is intentionally vague in its wording and could open the door for little to no restrictions on abortion.

The measure requires a 60% margin to be enacted into law, a more daunting threshold than in states where passing a state constitutional amendment needs a simple majority. Democrats have seen the measure as a way to boost turnout and make Florida more competitive after the GOP blew them out in the 2022 midterm elections in the state.

The Sunshine State is one of multiple states that will vote on abortion ballot measures in November.