Florida’s proposed Amendment 4 would add the following language to the state constitution’s Declaration of Rights: “… 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,” except for requiring parental notification when a minor seeks an abortion.
I have an opinion on that ballot measure. I won’t share that opinion with you.
The opinion I WILL share with you is that the measure should indeed be decided by the state’s voters. In fact, it’s already being decided by those voters. Mail ballots have already gone out. Some, including mine, have been returned and counted. “The system,” such as it is, is doing its job.
Governor Ron DeSantis hates that.
After losing a state Supreme Court bid to block the measure, DeSantis, his party, and their cronies in government have worked overtime to prevent voters from having their say.
On October 3, the Florida Department of Health threatened television stations with prosecution for running ads supporting the ballot measure.
On October 14, the Florida Office of Election Crimes and Security issued a report claiming that Floridians Protecting Freedom submitted a “large number of forged signatures or fraudulent petitions” to put the measure on the ballot.
Whether the report’s claims are true or not, the obvious reason for issuing it is to build a case so that DeSantis can seek to prevent the votes from being counted, or just flat-out overturn the will of the voters if the measure receives the 60% required for passage.
This isn’t about abortion. It’s about control.
As an anarchist, I can’t say I really trust “the voters” very much. If nothing else, it’s worth noting that these particular voters elected Ron DeSantis governor. Twice.
But I trust them at least a little more than I trust DeSantis (or Andrew Gillum or Charlie Crist if one of those two had defeated DeSantis).
DeSantis obviously doesn’t trust the voters very much, either. He’s pulling out all stops to prevent them from even having the opportunity to return a result he may not like.
DeSantis reminds me of a lawyer who doesn’t like the looks he’s getting from the jury during closing arguments. He expects the verdict to go against him, so he’s begging the judge for a mistrial to avoid that verdict.
Politicians never really trust voters, but most are less obvious about it than DeSantis.
Thomas L. Knapp (Twitter:@thomaslknapp) is director and senior news analyst at the William Lloyd Garrison Center for Libertarian Advocacy Journalism (thegarrisoncenter.org). He lives and works in north central Florida.
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