Republican women break with party on abortion, gather in Manatee to support Amendment 4

Government interference with abortion rights has galvanized a growing group of Republican women to take a stand against their party and advocate for a new ballot initiative that restricts Florida politicians from meddling in a woman's right to choose.

A group of more than 30 Republican women gathered at the Anna Maria Oyster Bar in Manatee County on Tuesday evening to call for support for Florida Amendment 4, also known as the Right to Abortion Initiative.

Florida residents have been barred from abortion access after six weeks of pregnancy since May. The constitutional amendment, which will appear on the November election ballot, aims to limit the Florida government's ability to interfere with abortion rights. If approved, no law would be able to prohibit, penalize, delay or restrict abortion before viability or when necessary to protect a patient's health.

More: South Sarasota County forum spotlight six proposed Florida constitutional amendments

Also: Abortion advocates, providers fall in compliance with controversial new abortion ban law

Local Republican women speak out in favor of Amendment 4

Some of the women did not want to be publicly identified, and the event restricted photography, because of their associations in local Republican politics.

One of several organizers, Jaymie Carter, has been a Republican for more than 30 years. She estimates supporters of the measure need more than 600,000 Republican votes to meet the required 60% voter approval threshold in the general election.

"There are Republican women out there who do feel the same way as I do, that it shouldn't be a political issue," Carter said.

"I always believed in the Republican platform of small government and the right to privacy," she said. "What's happening now with women's reproductive rights scares me, so I felt that I needed to speak out. So we are organizing a grassroots effort to get the word out. We are trying to educate men and women of what Amendment 4 is all about."

Dr. Amy Macher, Manatee Memoria Hospital emergency department physician, said government policies on abortion are also causing a chilling effect among medical providers, especially those who specialize in obstetrics and genecology.

"From the emergency room standpoint, I'm not having someone where women are coming in and asking me for an abortion," Macher said. "But I personally believe my patient has a right to make a choice. I believe in that right for myself and women in general."

"I think a big thing is what our OBGYNs are facing," she said. "This is a bigger issue for them, what they are dealing with every day, and the repercussions of what they are having to face for not being able to make that decision, or to have to be in fear of facing repercussions or criminalization of helping your patient, which is what we all took an oath to do.

Women's Resource Center CEO Ashley Brown said the organization is putting its money where its mouth is. In response to pushback by local governments in Sarasota and Manatee counties against organizations associated with Planned Parenthood, the resource center has decided to no longer accept county funds.

"We feel it's our obligation as a nonprofit that works to support women that we trust women to make choices that are best for them regarding their employment, regarding their health," Brown said. "It's a personal choice, and the government overreach aspect of it is the most troubling piece."

"We were in a position, and our board supported us, to say 'you know what, we are going to say no thank you to county funding,'" she said. "The government just doesn't need to be involved in that, and we have put ourselves out there to say this is what we believe. This is what we support."

Holmes Beach candidate Carol Whitmore again speaks on abortion

Former Manatee County Commissioner Carol Whitmore once declared she is pro-choice from the dais, where she recounted details about her abortion during a debate over a potential local abortion ban in 2021 that was never approved. She is now a candidate for one of two seats on the Holmes Beach City Commission.

'I am pro-choice': Manatee commissioner publicly shares raw details of her own abortion as ban debated

"I got involved because this happened to me when I was young and I was in high school," Whitmore said. "I had to make that decision. I just feel that you have a right to do what you want to do with your body, and nobody in Tallahassee is going to tell me and many of us what we are going to do."

"There has to be Republicans who aren't afraid to bring up this issue," she said.

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Republican women break with party on abortion, gather in Manatee to support Amendment 4