MIAMI – There are new voices being heard in the fight to put the question of abortion access in Florida on the ballot. Who they are and what they want may be surprising to some.
Ten former elected officials from all over the state and the political spectrum, including Republicans, who are traditionally opposed to abortion.
They’ve filed a brief with the Florida Supreme Court supporting a would-be ballot measure allowing voters to decide the issue of abortion in the Sunshine State.
That includes conservative former Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll, former GOP state lawmakers and the former mayors of Key Biscayne and Miami Shores.
“People want to go to the ballot box on this one,” ex-Miami Shores Mayor Alice Burch said.
The filing makes clear that the group takes “no position on the abortion issue” but says that “Floridians to decide how their state’s law will address it.”
Voters in other red states, like Ohio and Kansas, gave abortion rights advocates big victories since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
Court filing:
“Giving the voters a voice, respecting the voice and respecting the decision, I think it’s the best way to get to the best solution,” former Key Biscayne Mayor Mayra Lindsey said.
The filing Monday comes as the Florida Supreme Court weighs whether the ballot language that would go to voters next year passes the technical standards — and as Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody, a staunch Republican, fights to keep it off.
Not all conservatives are eager to see abortion on the ballot, however.
“I thank goodness that most states in this country don’t allow you to put everything on the ballot, because pure democracies are not the way to run a country,” Former U.S. Senator Rick Santorum, R-Pennsylvania, said in the wake of abortion opponents losing in Ohio.
That eyebrow-raising comment telegraphs the heavy lift citizens have getting issues on the ballot.
“I don’t think there is any reason why they shouldn’t be able to vote on it and it should be so difficult to get things on the ballot,” Burch said.
Any measure to protect abortion rights in Florida would need 60% of the vote to pass.
Related:
Read the attorney general’s briefing and the case docket.
Read through the ballot’s initiative language and views about abortion among adults in Florida.