TALLAHASSEE, Florida — Abortion-rights groups in Florida are locked in a battle with the state over the cost for a ballot measure that would overturn the state’s six-week ban.
The fight is over a seemingly obscure fiscal impact statement estimating the cost to the state for passing the proposed constitutional amendment. It highlights how both pro-abortion rights and anti-abortion forces are clawing for every inch of ground ahead of a campaign that will see tens of millions of dollars spent across the country’s third-largest state.
And, abortion-rights activists say, it shows how the state’s Republican leaders are trying to defeat the November ballot measure at every turn.
“They almost always put up as many procedural obstacles as possible,” Anna Hochkammer of the Florida Women’s Freedom Coalition said. “They try and make these processes as expensive and complicated as possible, and this is another example of that tactic.”
Florida law requires each ballot initiative to include a financial impact statement for voters to consider. The statement for the abortion-rights amendment — which would allow for the procedure in the state up to the point of a pregnancy’s viability — was finalized in November of last year, well before the state’s current, six-week ban went into effect. At the time, state economists said the impact of the six-week ban on state finances could be significant, but because the law had not yet taken effect, there was not enough data to accurately crunch the numbers.