This piece originally appeared as part of NPR's live coverage of the 2024 election. For more election coverage from the NPR Network head to our live updates page.
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TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – A ballot proposal to allow abortion in Florida up to the point of fetal viability has failed, according to a call by the Associated Press.
Proponents of what would have been an amendment to the state constitution faced a tough challenge, with 60 percent approval required for passage and the state’s Republican leadership arrayed against it.
The vote means the state’s current law that bans most abortions after six weeks will stay in place, which abortion access supporters worry will delay care and endanger the lives of women.
Florida was one of 10 states voting on abortion rights — part of a trend set in motion after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the federal right to abortion in 2022 and many states limited abortion access.
The amendment’s failure leaves access tightly limited across the south where most states either ban abortion at any time during pregnancy or up to six weeks - when many pregnancies are still not even recognized. (North Carolina and Virginia allow more access).
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Florida’s ban does include exceptions for rape until 15 weeks and after that for fatal fetal abnormalities and to protect the life of the mother. But abortion access advocates say the exceptions don’t work well.
“A simple exception clause written by a politician without a medical background does not take into account how medically complex patients can be and how clinically nuanced situations can be,” said Dr. Chelsea Daniels, a physician at Planned Parenthood in Miami.
Daniels said she’s had patients with what she believed were life threatening conditions who were turned away by other providers because of concerns about whether that patient’s care would fall under the state’s exceptions.
Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis had argued the amendment would make Florida a “radical abortion regime.” DeSantis’ Agency for Health Care Administration published an ad and website saying the amendment “threatens women’s safety” and the Florida Department of Health sent a cease and desist letter to television stations that aired an ad in support of the amendment. A state investigation into alleged fraud in the petition gathering process to put the amendment on the ballot included police knocking on the doors of some of the people who signed.
Regan McCarthy is the assistant news director at WFSU.
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