The Florida Abortion Measure’s Failure Is an Infuriating Allegory for Women

On Election Night, Floridians voted by a majority to overturn its six-week ban on abortion and restore reproductive rights. But it didn’t matter.

The Florida abortion measure, Amendment 4, which would have allowed abortion up to the point of fetal viability, lost anyway. The final tally was 57 percent yes to 43 percent no. The result effectively means that a minority of voters decided the state’s future on the issue, and gave the state the distinction of becoming the first to have an abortion ballot measure fail post-Dobbs.

Confusing, I know. You’d think that an obvious and decisive percentage split like that would be a clear message on what voters wanted. But because the Florida abortion measure was an amendment to the state constitution, it needed a 60 percent threshold of votes to pass. This statute requiring a higher majority passed in 2006, ironically with just under 58 percent of the vote. Another proposed amendment, which would have legalized marijuana, also won the popular majority on Tuesday night but failed because of the threshold.

The amendment’s failure means that the state’s Heartbeat Protection Act will stay the law of the land. The act prohibits abortion “once the unborn child has a detectable heartbeat,” or around six weeks gestation, and went into effect in April of this year. There is an exception, for rape and incest but only until 15 weeks gestation, and in a particularly cruel twist on the exception, women must show “documentation” of their assault to get one.

For activists, the loss was an infuriating but, they hope, temporary blow. Governor Ron DeSantis had campaigned hard against the measure, and declared victory soon after polls closed at 8:00 p.m. But the Yes on 4 Florida Campaign said in a statement that the majority split in the vote shows that Floridians actually do not want the ban his administration enacted.

“Tonight, Floridians made their voices heard loud and clear, demanding an end to the state’s restrictive 6-week abortion ban,” they said.

They called on the state’s lawmakers to make the will of the people heard.

“Without immediate action from the legislature, Floridians will remain under a 6-week ban—one that impacts countless women before they may even realize they’re pregnant,” they said.