ORLANDO, Fla. – The future of abortion rights on the November ballot is about to be in the hands of the state’s highest court.
The key hearing kicks off Wednesday with the focus being the wording of this controversial proposed amendment.
It’s shaping up to be one of the biggest political battles this year.
“Frankly, it’s saying that we trust patients to make decisions about themselves and their pregnancy with whoever they decide to involve and not with politicians,” said Cheyenne Drews, Orlando resident.
She plans to be at Wednesday’s Supreme Court hearing in Tallahassee.
The court will hear arguments and eventually decide whether Amendment 4 will make it on the ballot in November.
They’ll have to approve this wording which reads in part “no law shall 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.”
The hearing comes after the political campaign “Yes on 4″ collected the required number of signatures to qualify for the ballot.
Drews works with Progress Florida, one of the many organizations that helped garner signatures.
“We’ve seen since the fall of Roe extreme abortion bans force people to leave the state just to access healthcare and this amendment would limit that interference in making those decisions for themselves,” said Drews.
Currently Florida has a 15-week abortion ban. Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody is set to present arguments Wednesday. She and other opponents have questions about the amendment and the word viability that they believe may be unclear to voters.
“The other unintended consequence is that we are losing good healthcare providers because of these laws,” said Retired Anesthesiologist Dr. Nancy Staats.
At a virtual press conference Tuesday, doctors weighed in.
“Politicians have no place in the exam rooms when patients are making these really personal and private decisions about their reproductive health,” said St. Petersburg immunologist Dr. Mona Mangat.
News 6 reached out to the Attorney General’s office and have not heard back.
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