DeSantis leans on the power of state government to defeat abortion on the ballot

After signing into law a strict abortion ban, Gov. Ron DeSantis is escalating his campaign against a November ballot question that would broaden access to the procedure — throwing the weight of his political power and state government behind a campaign to defeat Amendment 4.

In the past few weeks, the DeSantis administration launched a state-sponsored website that claims the measure “threatens women’s safety.” He spearheaded a broad investigation into verified Amendment 4 petitions that has led to tens of thousands of signatures being pulled for review and state election police knocking on voters’ doors . He used his platform at a Florida GOP gathering last weekend to call out fellow Republicans by name for not yet donating money to help defeat the abortion amendment.

DeSantis enlisted his staff in the campaign, allowing his top aide to serve as the chairman for a political action committee targeting both the abortion amendment and a proposal to legalize marijuana. And earlier this year, a DeSantis appointee and longtime ally, working with other Republican political appointees on a little-known state panel, put language on the ballot questioning whether the initiative could lead to taxpayer-funded abortions.

As DeSantis engages in an all-out war against the abortion measure, critics say his reliance on state government and taxpayer-funded employees is pushing the legal boundaries of the distinction between campaign politics and state duties.

On Wednesday, Floridians Protecting Freedom, the group sponsoring Amendment 4, and the ACLU of Florida said they will be filing a lawsuit challenging the “misuse of taxpayer dollars to lie to voters about this amendment.”

“Ron has repeatedly used state power to interfere with a citizen-led process to get reproductive freedom on the ballot, and this is their latest desperate attempt before Election Day,” said Nikki Fried, the chairwoman of the Florida Democratic Party. “They are losing, and they know it. They will do anything including breaking the law to sabotage the ballot initiative.”

DeSantis defends tactics in abortion amendment crackdown

DeSantis has defended the efforts to defeat Amendment 4, which would allow abortions in Florida before viability, usually up to 24 weeks of pregnancy, or when necessary to protect the patient’s health, as determined by the patient’s healthcare provider.

When the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration launched a website opposing Amendment 4 , the governor said there is nothing inappropriate about it because “everything that’s put out is factual.” State law bars the government from using its official authority to influence an election or a person’s vote , but he noted that his administration has done similar taxpayer-funded “public service” announcements before .

“It is not electioneering,” DeSantis said this week. “It’s things that can absolutely be done through these public service announcements. And I’m glad they’re doing it.”

His chief of staff, James Uthmeier, who also serves as the chairman for a political action committee that DeSantis launched in November to defeat the pair of amendments, has framed the fight against Amendment 4 as a moral issue.

“It’s not a campaign issue — it’s a fight for what is right, just, and true,” Uthmeier said on the social media platform X last week.

Read more: Florida high court considers claim DeSantis ‘misusing’ office to fight Amendment 4

The governor defended using his election police to question people who signed petitions for Amendment 4, which, if approved, would overturn the state’s six-week abortion ban. That six-week policy, which became law in May, has become part of DeSantis’ anti-abortion legacy, which was part of how DeSantis tried to set himself apart from former President Donald Trump on the campaign trail for the Republican presidential nomination.

The Florida Department of State has asked at least six local supervisors for about 37,000 verified petitions, and investigators have knocked on doors, leaving at least one voter feeling “shaken .”

During a news conference in Miami Lakes on Monday, DeSantis said the officers were “doing what they’re supposed to do.”

Previous fraud investigations hinged on rejected petitions that local supervisors flagged as obviously false or suspicious, but the state did not ask for any of those materials. The state certified the amendment to appear on the ballot in January, and the state began reaching out to county supervisors for petitions only a few weeks ago.

DeSantis’ executive influence on full display

One Republican lawmaker argues the reason behind the governor’s efforts is two-fold: The governor personally believes the measure is bad policy, and quashing the abortion measure would be politically advantageous for DeSantis on the national stage, given that other states have so far supported abortion access when the choice has been presented on the ballot.

“I think for him, these have generally passed in other states,” state Rep. Randy Fine, R-Palm Bay, said in an interview. “So, if he helps defeat it, it would be good for him politically. And if it passes, it would be very bad for him politically.”

This election year, Florida is considered a relatively safe state for Republicans. But polls suggest that a majority of Floridians favor some level of abortion access . The abortion ballot measure needs 60% support to pass in November, a higher threshold than in other states where voters have supported abortion access following the U.S. Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade.

While some polls show Amendment 4 above that threshold, others have it sitting just below. The fight over undecided voters could be where the amendment either succeeds or fails.

“If [DeSantis] is going to put his energy into something, this is the place to do it,” said Fine, who opposes Amendment 4.

State records suggest DeSantis’ efforts to raise money to defeat the abortion amendment have been mixed, with a political committee affiliated with the governor failing to bring in major cash hauls through the end of August. That committee has raised about $3.6 million since it launched in May. This week, the Republican Party of Florida also paid for anti-Amendment 4 political advertisements, suggesting the state GOP may be the one to launch future ads as well.

Pro-Amendment 4 forces, on the other hand, have had little trouble finding resources to support their campaign, raising $12 million in the two months after the Florida Supreme Court allowed the question on the November ballot.

But DeSantis has found success when the state government is involved.

In July, a DeSantis appointee working in tandem with appointees from the Florida House and Senate — who were picked to be on a little-known state panel — voted to rewrite a financial impact statement for the proposed constitutional amendment, questioning whether the amendment would lead to state-funded abortions and warning of additional costs for litigation.

DeSantis’ office paid a professor at the Catholic University of America $300 an hour to speak before the panel that decided to append the financial impact statement to the ballot question, according to the Tallahassee Democrat. The Florida House brought on a conservative Heritage Foundation fellow, paid $75 an hour. The three appointees overrode state economist Amy Baker, who voted against the new language.

Amendment 4 sponsors called the final wording, and the path to get there, a “dirty trick,” noting how different the appended language was from the state’s first analysis.

At a Sunday talk at a conservative Tallahassee church, DeSantis pointed to that impact statement as a “positive aspect,” especially because it would be on the ballot, and not provided to voters from a partisan organization.

The day before that church event, DeSantis doubled down on the need for Republicans to fight the amendment. He said after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned federal abortion protections in 2022, there were people who “talked big when it was easy to do” but “when you get a little bit of heat in the kitchen” were nowhere to be found.

“I could have done that,” DeSantis said. “Honestly with Amendment 4, I could have just said, you know what, it’s on the ballot, people can decide, let the chips fall where they may. But that’s not the right thing to do.”

DeSantis added: “The right thing to do is stand up for what’s right and take a stand.”