Republican Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody asked the state Supreme Court on Monday to review the wording of a proposed amendment to enshrine abortion into the Florida Constitution.
Pro-abortion Floridians Protecting Freedom began organizing after Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) signed a bill blocking abortion in the state after the detection of a fetal heartbeat via ultrasound, at approximately six weeks of gestational age.
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This spring, the group filed a petition to include an abortion amendment on the November 2024 ballot that prevents the legislature from acting to "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."
As of last month, Floridians Protecting Freedom had over one-fourth of the required petition totals in half of the state's congressional districts to put the issue on next year's ballot.
Moody, however, claims that the language of viability in the amendment is unnecessarily vague and will cause confusion at the polls.
"Floridians are entitled to know clearly and concisely what they are voting for or against," Moody wrote in an op-ed published by the Florida Voice on Friday. "As attorney general, I have a constitutional and statutory duty to inform the Florida Supreme Court when ballot initiatives will confuse voters."
Moody, who was elected in 2019, said she is "unabashedly" against abortion but that her opposition to the amendment has "nothing to do with [her] personal view on abortion."
In the opinion piece, Moody argues that there is a difference between the viability of a pregnancy, or the period at which a miscarriage becomes significantly less likely, and the viability of a fetus, or the period at which a child can survive outside of his mother's womb.
Moody highlighted the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists's distinction between "two contexts" of viability. The first is that a pregnancy is typically deemed viable and likely to progress after the end of the first trimester at 12 weeks of gestation. The second is that a fetus is unlikely to survive outside of the womb before 21 weeks of gestation.
The group previously told the Washington Examiner that it supports no legal limitations on abortion procedures, regardless of gestational age limits.
"As I have done throughout my two terms, I have objected to initiatives when the language of the summary will mislead voters. Floridians Protecting Freedom's initiative is one of the worst I have seen," Moody wrote.
Viability entered the context of federal law under the Roe v. Wade framework that allowed for abortion before 28 weeks gestation, the point at which a child could live outside of the womb in 1973 when the case was decided.
In contemporary debates, viability limits on abortion have become a fierce topic of debate among abortion rights groups, with many liberal advocates saying that limitations after viability ought not be a compromise when seeking legislative or electoral consensus.
Even some anti-abortion physicians do not support statutory viability with gestational age limitations to abortion because of the multitude of circumstances that contribute to a child's likely survival, including maternal health, the child's genetics, and reasons for early delivery.
The Florida Democratic Party condemned Moody's call for judicial review on Tuesday, calling it an "unserious attempt to seek attention."
“The Florida GOP continues to undermine the rights of Floridians to amend their constitution,” Florida Democratic Party Chairwoman Nikki Fried said. “Ashley Moody’s argument is purposefully dishonest and ignores that Florida voters overwhelmingly favor protecting access to reproductive healthcare. Doctors should decide what’s best for their patients — not the government."
Moody argued, however, that the majority of abortion supporters would be accepting of limitations on the procedure after 12 or 15 weeks when a pregnancy is likely to survive, rather than in the second trimester or later.
A recent Axios poll found that 73% of the public supports legal abortion during the first six weeks of pregnancy. Overall support for abortion drops to 51% at 15 weeks of gestation and 27% support at 24 weeks of gestation.
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Moody's office confirmed for the Washington Examiner that it has not yet filed a brief on the amendment with the Florida Supreme Court.
"Our arguments will likely be broader than those made in the op-ed," Moody's press secretary Chase Sizemore told the Washington Examiner.