A proposed amendment that would overturn Florida's six-week abortion ban and enshrine constitutional access to the procedure has drawn out and split one key demographic ahead of the election, leaving Floridians to wonder: who is telling the truth?
The two main players in the debate over the measure, called Amendment 4, are Gov. Ron DeSantis' administration and Floridians Protecting Freedom (FPF), the group that put the referendum on the November ballot. In an attempt at some scientific ethos, both have recruited what was once thought to be the most trustworthy, nonpartisan group: doctors.
But what happens when each half of over a thousand Floridian doctors dragged into the conversation are calling each other liars?
While a definitive answer is uncertain, it's clear that public trust in what their doctor recommends will likely continue to erode, just as it did the last time doctors' politics became front-and-center news with COVID-19 vaccines.
"The overwhelming support from Florida’s medical community for Amendment 4 is in contrast to the State’s hand-picked, extremist provider voices, and sends a clear message: abortion care is healthcare," FPF's campaign, Yes on 4, said in a statement. They pointed to a Tuesday press call revealing that over 850 doctors statewide endorsed Amendment 4—all of whom signed a letter advocating for its passage.
"Today’s conversations with doctors across the state served as a powerful reminder of what’s at stake this November—because medical decisions should remain between a woman and her doctor and be free from government interference," the campaign added.
The conversation follows Gov. DeSantis' statewide campaign against Amendment 4, where he has called the measure everything from the common conservative accusation that it's "deceptive" and "dangerous" to clever turns of phrase like a "Pandora's Box for bad policies" and a "Blizzard of lies."
The pro-life Governor brought out a slew of doctors against the amendment during three separate campaign stops on Monday and Tuesday in Coral Gables, Jacksonville, and Winter Park during the first two days of early voting, joining forces with the Florida Physicians Against Amendment 4 in Jacksonville.
FPAA4's press releases say they have over 700 doctors on their side.
Some told horror stories of botched abortions resulting in women having perforated uteruses, with one doctor saying that she saw a woman's small bowel "hang from her vagina" after the procedure went wrong. They allege that abortions are dangerous, and would become even more so if Amendment 4 passes.
The group—which is tied to the national organization that tried and failed to restrict the abortion pill—points to the ballot item's position that a woman can get an abortion if her "healthcare provider" decides her health is at risk, claiming this means a "clerk at Planned Parenthood" would be allowed to perform the procedure.
"Do not believe the lie. Women are not dying across our state because of lack of access to abortion under our current laws,” Dr. Christina Peña, a Miami OB-GYN practitioner, said at the Coral Gables press conference.
FPAA4, their parent group the American Association of Pro-Life OBGYNS, and the Florida Medical Association, who were significant contributors to DeSantis' 2018 and 2022 campaigns and released a resolution formally opposing Amendment 4, have yet to respond to a request for comment.
The two doctor sects' insult-hurling and insistence that their side is right appears to re-exhume the public mistrust that seethed underneath the COVID-19 vaccine debacle, in which the CDC and 92% of doctors supported Americans getting vaccinated against the pandemic-inducing virus. Concerns on the right, spearheaded by DeSantis and his allies, led to fears that a) the vaccine didn't work or the more sinister option of b) it causes serious health issues.
Though data on that front has varied, mistrust remains. The usage of all vaccines took a hit in the years following COVID, leading to a resurgence in Measles, an outdated disease. The Florida Surgeon General in January called for a halt in COVID vaccines, demonstrating the level of distrust in health institutions and doctors as a whole.
And now with abortion, it's become a doctor v. doctor battle.
DeSantis has been a vehement critic of the abortion amendment since its inception in May 2023, one month after he signed his priority legislation into law—a six-week ban. After FPF collected nearly a million petition signatures to get the Amendment on the November ballot to protect the procedure until viability, DeSantis and Attorney General Ashley Moody asked the state Supreme Court to block it from the ballot due to "vague" language.
When the Court refused on Apr. 1 of this year, DeSantis began to regularly slam the measure: first for being vague, then for allowing abortion "on demand", and now for allegedly allowing unlicensed providers to abort fetuses. Soon, the Agency for Health Care Administration put up a taxpayer-funded website advocating against the Amendment (drawing the ire of the left), and then the Department of Health sent out cease-and-desist letters to TV stations running a pro-Amendment 4 ad they claimed to be false.
But through all that, DeSantis never made campaign stops labeled as press conferences to blast the measure. Until Monday.
According to a new poll released before his campaign tour but after his administration's ads, DeSantis' full-frontal assault on Amendment 4 may be working. Support for the Amendment was at 69% in July; now, it's at the bare minimum needed to pass: 60%.
Once DeSantis' statewide tour is complete, will support sink beneath the threshold?
Stay tuned.
