'PRAISE GOD!' Florida defeats radicals' attempt to enshrine nearly limitless abortion as a right

A coalition comprising the ACLU of Florida, Planned Parenthood, Florida Women's Freedom Coalition, and various other radical outfits campaigned to scrap legal protections for the unborn and effectively legalize late-term abortion through a constitutional amendment to Florida's Declaration of Rights.

They failed.

The voters had their say Tuesday and said "no" to Amendment 4.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who campaigned against the amendment, announced its defeat just after 8 p.m., prompting a flood of appreciative comments online as well as a meme from his press secretary depicting DeSantis lording over the Florida Democratic Party's symbolic grave.

At the time of publication, 88% of votes were in, and the amendment had netted less than 57.2% of the vote. 42.9% of voters opposed the amendment. 60% of the vote was needed for passage.

"Thank you, Florida!" tweeted Florida's first lady Casey DeSantis. "And God bless @GovRonDesantis!"

Christina Pushaw, an aide to DeSantis, wrote, "Florida makes history again. We have defeated the Soros-backed abortion amendment and the corporate-backed weed amendment."

'Amendment 4 is a radical, gruesome abortion policy that would allow abortion up to the moment of birth.'

It appears that the rest of the state was not nearly as keen on stripping unborn children of legal protections as the residents of Broward, Leon, Orange, and Palm Beach Counties.

Had the ballot measure secured the 60% of the vote needed to pass, the people's democratically elected representatives would be prohibited from passing any law banning, penalizing, delaying, or restricting abortion "before viability or when necessary to protect the patient's health, as determined by the patient's healthcare provider."

Critics noted that the wording of the amendment was intentionally vague, setting the stage for virtually unrestricted abortion in the Sunshine State.

Taryn Fenske, a spokeswoman for the group that fought the amendment to the end, Vote No on Amendment 4, previously told Blaze News that the reason for the amendment's "misleading language" was "because the Soros-backed radicals pushing Amendment 4 know that they need to conceal the shocking reality of how their scheme would endanger women and children in Florida."

Amendment 4 would also have undone the Heartbeat Protection Act, which bans the slaying of unborn babies after six weeks of pregnancy, unless the mother is a victim of rape, incest, or human trafficking; the mother's life is in danger; or the baby has a fatal fetal abnormality.

Since the amendment has failed, the Heartbeat Protection Act remains the law of the land.

Liz Wheeler, host of BlazeTV's "The Liz Wheeler Show," previously told Blaze News, "Amendment 4 is a radical, gruesome abortion policy that would allow abortion up to the moment of birth. This means big, healthy, full-term babies would be aborted for any reason."

"Amendment 4 is dishonestly presented as allowing abortion 'just' until viability — but what is viability?" continued Wheeler. "The term viability is not defined in the legislation, and viability is not a scientific or ethical concept about when a human life begins anyway, but simply a term that defines, on a moving scale as medical knowledge advances, our capacity to keep that baby alive outside the womb before the baby reaches full term."

'Tens of thousands of babies will now be saved.'

DeSantis said in August, "If you care about building a culture of life in this state or this country, them winning in Florida, I think, really represents the end of the pro-life movement."

The Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops condemned the amendment, calling it "an extreme proposal that legalizes full-term abortion with no protections for the preborn child."

"We urge all Floridians of goodwill to stand against the legalization of late-term abortion and oppose the abortion amendment," continued the bishops' statement. "In doing so, we will not only protect the weakest, most innocent, and defenseless of human life among us but also countless women throughout the state from the harms of abortion."

As it became clear early on Tuesday that Amendment 4 would fail, CatholicVote noted on X, "Huge win for Ron DeSantis. Huge win for life."

Archbishop Thomas Wenski of the Archdiocese of Miami told Blaze News in advance that the defeat of Amendment 4 "would be a tremendous victory for Life and the rights of the unborn."

"Tens of thousands of babies will now be saved because Florida's Amendment 4 failed," tweeted Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life. "PRAISE GOD!"

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