By Peter Pinedo
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Oct 11, 2024 / 16:30 pm
Here’s a roundup of abortion-related developments that took place across the country this week.
New poll suggests Florida abortion amendment will fail
A new survey published this week by The New York Times and Siena College found that only 46% of Florida voters support a ballot measure amendment that would legalize full-term abortion. This is well below the 60% threshold required for the amendment to pass.
If the Florida amendment — which is set to appear on the ballot this Election Day — fails, it will become the first pro-abortion amendment to be defeated at the polls.
Titled the “Amendment to Limit Government Interference with Abortion” or simply “Amendment 4,” the measure would invalidate both Florida’s six-week and 15-week pro-life protections for the unborn.
The amendment would also allow abortion past the point of viability through all nine months of pregnancy if determined by a health care provider to be necessary for the health of the mother.
Though the poll found that only 38% of voters oppose the amendment, the measure will still fail by 14 points if the New York Times/Siena poll is accurate. According to the poll, 16% of Florida voters are still undecided.
The amendment is supported by 68% of registered Democrats and 46% of independents. Meanwhile, 58% of registered Republicans oppose the measure.
A poll taken in August by Mainstreet Research and Florida Atlantic University found that 56% of Floridians supported the amendment, 21% were opposed, and 23% were undecided.
This comes after a slate of broad abortion amendments in California, Ohio, Michigan, and Vermont passed by wide margins. There are nine other states with abortion amendments on the ballot this November.
Several pro-life leaders have told CNA that defeating the Florida abortion amendment could help to reverse the momentum in the national abortion fight.
Congressional health plans illegally fund abortion
More than two dozen Republican members of the House and Senate are raising the alarm that most congressional health plans are illegally subsidizing abortion.
Four senators and 22 House members sent a letter to the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) on Wednesday warning the agency that it must stop illegally funding abortion.
According to the letter, OPM, which oversees health plans for members of Congress and their staff, is violating the Smith Amendment, which for decades has prohibited any congressional health plans from either directly or indirectly funding abortion.
Further, the letter said that with the planned withdrawal of an Aetna health plan in 2025, there are only two remaining health plans not subsidizing abortion that “may” be available to members of Congress and staffers.
(Story continues below)
The letter said that “the situation has now deteriorated to the point that members of Congress and their designated staff have only two plans available to them in 2025.”
“The law is specific,” the letter stated. “Under the Smith Amendment, OPM is prohibited from engaging in administrative activity in connection with any plan that subsidizes elective abortion, let alone almost all of them.”
The members of Congress are demanding that OPM cease administering health plans that illegally fund abortion and instead direct the D.C. Health Link, the health insurance marketplace that covers the District of Columbia, to provide Smith-compliant health plans for Congress.
“The severity of OPM’s specious implementation of — or perhaps malicious disregard for — the law must be finally and permanently remedied and brought into compliance with congressional intent,” the members of Congress said.
The Smith Amendment was introduced by Rep. Chris Smith, R-New Jersey, and has been consecutively renewed by Congress over the last several decades.
Montana Supreme Court upholds temporary block on pro-life laws
The Montana Supreme Court issued two rulings on Wednesday to uphold temporary blocks on several measures protecting unborn life. The measures prohibited dilation-and-evacuation surgical abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, telehealth chemical abortions, and restricted the use of tax-dollar Medicaid funds for abortion.
The rulings center on several pro-life laws passed by the state Legislature and signed by the governor in 2023. This means the laws will remain blocked as the cases against them progress through the courts.
The state has been blocked from enforcing the laws since a May 2023 ruling by the Lewis and Clark County District Court that enjoined them shortly after passage.
In both rulings, the majority of the five-person state Supreme Court said the laws likely violate the right to privacy. Both rulings said the lower court was correct to enjoin the laws because the abortion providers suing the laws are “likely to succeed on the merits, would be irreparably harmed absent an injunction … and the injunction is in the public interest.”
Montana Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte issued a response Wednesday in which he said he is “deeply disappointed” in the court’s ruling against the law banning taxpayer funding for abortion.
“I believe all life is precious and must be protected,” Gianforte said. “This extreme ruling means Montana taxpayers are forced to foot the bill for elective abortions.”
Poll finds abortion is top issue for women under 30
A new poll by the left-leaning health news source KFF found that abortion has surpassed inflation as the top issue for women voters under 30.
According to the poll, inflation continues to be the top issue for women. However, there was a slight increase from the summer — 10% to 13% — in the level of women of all ages who said abortion is their top issue.
Meanwhile, the most recent poll found that among women under 30, 4 out of 10 — 39% — say that abortion is their top concern. This well surpasses the percentage of women under 30 (28%) who say inflation is their top concern.
The poll also registered an increase in the percentage of women who say they are motivated to vote. According to KFF, 64% of women said they are more motivated to vote than usual compared with 45% when the question was asked in June when President Joe Biden was the Democratic candidate.
