Abortion, marijuana ballot measures poised for epic fight in Florida

Ballot measures on abortion and marijuana are emerging as an epic clash in Florida, with forces on both sides portraying the choice facing voters as a social and cultural marker that will shape the lives of Floridians for generations.

Millions of dollars are expected to be poured into the campaigns surrounding Amendment 4, the abortion access proposal, and Amendment 3, which would allow Floridians to use recreational marijuana. That's on top of the nearly $75 million supporters have already raised, most of which went to getting the initiatives on the November ballot.

But the campaigns also are being powered by high-octane rhetoric. And seven months before voters go to the polls, the themes are clear.

Take the abortion issue: “This is a do or die moment for both sides,” said John Stemberger, president of Liberty Counsel Action, and a longtime anti-abortion advocate in Florida.

“If this passes, it means abortion on demand, permanently in Florida,” he added, echoing a depiction used by virtually all those opposing Amendment 4, but dismissed as nonsense by its supporters.

“The opponents are using scare tactics,” said Laura Goodhue, executive director of Florida Planned Parenthood and a leader of Floridians Protecting Freedom, whose measure seeks to include abortion rights in the Florida Constitution.

“The amendment limits government interference with abortion but it allows for reasonable regulation. Nobody is arguing for anything more.”

DeSantis calls ballot proposals 'radical'

Gov. Ron DeSantis is condemning both measures and also portrays them as a signature moment in state history.

“Once voters figure out how radical both of those are, they’re going to fail. They are very, very extreme,” DeSantis said during a recent appearance in Davie.

He singled out the marijuana measure as “basically a license to have it anywhere you want. So, no time, place and manner restrictions. This state will start to smell like marijuana,” he said, disregarding that the ballot measure also allows for state regulation of legal weed.

Both the abortion and marijuana measures must win support from at least 60% of Florida voters to become law. Organizers acknowledge reaching that level will prove challenging, but point to early polling showing Floridians’ support for both proposals tops that.

Then again, support may change as November nears. And dragging the proposals below the 60% standard is what critics focus on, conceding that even if just over a majority of Floridians say yes to the measures, opponents win.

“The difference might come down to a few thousand votes,” said Andrew Shirvell, founder and executive director of Florida Voice for the Unborn. “If it’s 58 or 59%, we’re declaring victory. They lost. And if we defeat them, whatever the margin is, I think those supporting abortion are not coming back to Florida. That’s what’s at stake here.”

Those lining up against the recreational marijuana proposal also envision a campaign built on fueling misgivings among Floridians.

“We do agree with Gov. DeSantis that once Floridians discover what’s in this drug legalization amendment, they won’t want it in the state constitution either come November,” said Mark Wilson, president and CEO of the Florida Chamber of Commerce, which along with the Drug Free America Foundation, urged justices to block the measure from the ballot.

Abortion access takes center stage

Seven states have voted in support of ballot measures endorsing abortion access since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022 and gave states authority to impose fresh restrictions.

If Amendment 4 is approved by Florida voters, abortion access would be assured in the state until fetal viability, or how soon a fetus can survive outside of its mother's womb, generally considered 24 weeks. It would also allow abortions in those rare instances when necessary to protect the patient’s health, as determined by a health care provider.

Anti-abortion activists contend that if approved by voters, the measure could lead to courts overturning Florida’s parental consent, waiting-period requirement and other abortion-related restrictions enacted over the years by a conservative Republican-controlled Legislature.

While the opposition is raising the specter of an unregulated abortion industry, others dismiss such claims. “Reasonable regulation will occur, just like with other medical procedures,” Goodhue said. “That won’t change.”

Florida’s current law banning most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy was upheld the same day the state’s Supreme Court approved Amendments 3 and 4 for the November ballot. But finding that law constitutional triggered a new law banning most abortions after just six weeks of pregnancy.

A strict new 6-week abortion ban will take effect

Florida’s six-week limit goes into effect May 1. Since Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022 by the U.S. Supreme Court, 14 states now ban abortion while many, like Florida, have imposed sharp new restrictions.

Arizona, which is positioning its own ballot measure for November, stunned the nation Tuesday when its Supreme Court upheld a near-total abortion ban first enacted in 1864.

Shirvell, in Florida, acknowledged that the state’s new six-week restriction could further galvanize support behind the abortion rights amendment as the campaign unfolds.

He said justices appeared to try to “appease both sides” by allowing the strict requirement to go into place while giving voters a chance to decide.

“You can’t appease either side on this issue,” he said. “It’s going to be on the voters. Do you want restrictions? Or unlimited abortions?”

Mary Ziegler, an abortion law expert at the University of California-Davis, who formerly taught at Florida State University, said the focus by anti-abortion opponents on the health care exceptions in the ballot measure is similar to the attacks leveled in other states where voters restored abortion rights after the 2022 U.S. Supreme Court ruling.

“These are not new arguments,” Ziegler said about the unlimited abortion claims.

More on the ballot measures: Even when voters speak on abortion and marijuana, courts and lawmakers may get last word

Many in GOP expected to support abortion rights

She predicted that opponents will face a stern test in Florida despite its heavy Republican lean.

“You can vote for this amendment and still vote for Donald Trump, or for Rick Scott,” the Republican U.S. senator running for reelection, she said. “You can still vote for a Republican legislator. But you can also say, ‘I don’t like the state’s current abortion law.’ You’re going to see that happen.”

The Republican Party of Florida has come out against the abortion access amendment. And while supporters of the amendment are trying to avoid having it labeled as a partisan vote, President Biden has embraced the measure and his campaign expects it to drive more women and younger voters to the polls who may also support him.

President Trump in a video statement Monday said that abortion should be left to states to decide, his latest position after earlier calling for a 15-week federal ban and ridiculing Florida’s six-week standard as “terrible.”

Trump was criticized by a leading anti-abortion group, Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, which has called for Congress to enact a 15-week national law. The organization also had urged Florida justices to block the state’s ballot measure and now plans to urge voters to defeat it.

SPA Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser said the ballot proposals in Florida and the one advancing in Arizona "have been written by the far Left."

Abortion rights to play in variety of campaigns, races

Florida's measure is certain to be central to campaigns up and down the ballot this fall.

Former U.S. Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, a Miami Democrat running an uphill bid to unseat U.S. Sen. Rick Scott, a Republican, has launched a “Florida freedom tour” poised to continue through the May 1 enactment of the six-week abortion limit.

Scott has said he would’ve signed the six-week law as governor.

“Floridians won’t forget Rick Scott’s lengthy history of trying to sign away women’s rights and control their bodies,” Mucarsel-Powell said.

Marijuana fight will be big — but shaded by abortion

DeSantis has joined with other state conservative leaders in speaking against the marijuana amendment, but their expected campaign against it is not likely to match the fervor surrounding the abortion amendment – or as well-funded as the pro-pot campaign.

In terms of mounted opposition, eyes are on the Florida Chamber of Commerce and the Drug Free America Foundation, which tried to prevent the measure from appearing on the ballot but haven't said whether they'd actively campaign against it.

Law enforcement organizations including the Florida Prosecuting Attorneys Association and the Florida Sheriffs Association say they haven’t decided whether to take a position on the amendment, but a push to weigh in may come at future meetings. John Kazanjian, president of the Florida Police Benevolent Association, says the group isn't taking a stance at this time, for example.

Aubrey Jewett, a University of Central Florida political science professor, said “it’s not that there won’t be ads on recreational marijuana, there will be."

He added: "But I think it will pale in comparison to what we see about abortion, because that is such an emotional issue for both sides.”

“I won’t be shocked if the margin is 4-1 or 5-1 – or higher” on the funding for the weed amendment compared to against, he continued. “The pro-legalization side stands to make an enormous amount of money if it passes. There is no similar financial incentive for the anti-side.”

Industry money powers the pro-marijuana campaign

The marijuana campaign, in getting the initiative on ballot, had been fueled by around $40 million from Trulieve, the state's largest medical marijuana operator. And more funds are coming from more places.

Other dispensaries also have voiced support for the amendment since the Supreme Court OK’d the measure and have added millions of dollars more for the campaign.

The new donors include Verano Holdings Corp., Curaleaf Holdings, Inc., AYR Wellness, Inc., Cresco Labs, Inc., Green Thumb Industries, Inc., and Insa, Inc., six companies which have cannabis licenses in multiple states, including Florida, where medical marijuana has been legal since 2016.

The ballot proposal would let the state’s current distributors of medical marijuana sell recreational pot to any adult age 21 and older, with consumers permitted to buy up to three ounces of marijuana at a time, including no more than five grams of cannabis concentrates.

DeSantis, aside from worrying the amendment could lead to prolific pot smells, accuses it of being written so broadly that it would limit how the state could regulate the industry.

“It will reduce the quality of life," DeSantis said after the state Supreme Court cleared the proposal for the ballot. "Do we want to have more marijuana in our communities? I don't think it'll work out well. But it is a very, very broad amendment."

Supporters dismiss opponents' fears

Smart & Safe Florida, the group pushing the amendment, calls that take “unfounded.” The Florida Constitution, the proposed amendment and Florida Supreme Court precedent make clear that the state could enact recreational marijuana regulations, organization spokesman Steve Vancore said.

He said a state-run recreational industry will reduce the dangers created by the “dangerous unregulated products” bought illegally by Floridians. The plans for the campaign moving forward are “basic,” Vancore added.

“We will continue to share the truth and the actual positive impacts of the amendment,” Vancore said. “This will primarily center around debunked misstatements as well as sharing the safety message with Florida voters.”

John Kennedy is a reporter in the USA TODAY Network’s Florida Capital Bureau. He can be reached at jkennedy2@gannett.com, or on Twitter at @JKennedyReport. USA TODAY Network-Florida First Amendment reporter Douglas Soule can be reached at DSoule@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Florida ballot measures on abortion, marijuana emerge as an epic clash