Florida votes against enshrining abortion rights into state constitution

Florida voters defeated a measure to enshrine abortion access into the state constitution, a devastating blow for advocates who had hoped to roll back the state’s six-week abortion ban and continue their now-broken streak of ballot-measure victories.

A total of 10 states voted on abortion-related ballot initiatives on Tuesday; results are forthcoming in the other nine. Four of those states could overturn post-Roe abortion bans and restore access.

Unlike other measures, which only require a simple majority – or, in the case of Colorado, 55% of the vote – to pass, the Florida measure needed to garner 60% of the vote.

While it was always considered an uphill climb, the Florida result is a bitter pill for abortion rights supporters, shattering a string of successes at the ballot box. Advocates have won a string of abortion-related ballot measures in seven states since Roe was overturned.

After the US supreme court overturned Roe v Wade in 2022, Florida became a refuge for people fleeing the abortion bans that now blanket the rest of the US south, before its six-week ban took effect in May of this year.

Had the Florida measure passed on Tuesday, it would have protected the right to abortion up until fetal viability, or about 24 weeks into pregnancy.

In the weeks leading up to election day, Florida Republicans alarmed civil rights and voting rights groups by unleashing a wave of attacks on the measure. Law enforcement officials investigated people who signed a petition to get the measure onto the ballot, while the state’s agency for healthcare administration put up a webpage attacking the amendment.