The Florida Supreme Court has turned down a challenge to the latest financial statement for a November ballot measure that would grant a right to abortion access in the state.
In a 6-1 opinion, the court ruled against Floridians Protecting Freedom, the groups behind the proposed constitutional amendment , and agreed with the state, which argued the pro-abortion advocates missed their chance to question the statement during the Fiscal Impact Estimating Conference (FIEC) meetings over the summer.
"The petitioners actively participated in the Estimating Conference process that they now challenge, without questioning or objecting to the Conference’s authority to issue a revised financial impact statement on its own initiative. For that basic reason, the petitioners waived or forfeited any reasonable claim to extraordinary relief from this Court," the opinion says.
It's the most recent chapter in the legal saga over abortion rights in Florida , a back and forth between anti-abortion and abortion-rights advocates over a measure that would revert abortion rules back to what they were before the U.S. Supreme Court's 2022 Dobbs decision, which overturned Roe v. Wade .
Amendment 4 needs at least 60% of the statewide vote to pass. In a survey of likely Florida voters by the University of North Florida’s Public Opinion Research Lab released this week, 69% of those surveyed said they'd vote yes on Amendment 4, with 23% saying no.
Advocates for both sides argue the fiscal impact statement attached to the abortion measure could sway voters to keep or reject the state's current abortion rules, which limit abortions to six weeks. In July, after the FIEC met three times, the following statement was approved and sent to the attorney general's office:
"The proposed amendment would result in significantly more abortions and fewer live births per year in Florida. The increase in abortions could be even greater if the amendment invalidates laws requiring parental consent before minors undergo abortions and those ensuring only licensed physicians perform abortions. There is also uncertainty about whether the amendment will require the state to subsidize abortions with public funds. Litigation to resolve those and other uncertainties will result in additional costs to the state government and state courts that will negatively impact the state budget. An increase in abortions may negatively affect the growth of state and local revenues over time. Because the fiscal impact of increased abortions on state and local revenues and costs cannot be estimated with precision, the total impact of the proposed amendment is indeterminate."
While the latest revision states the amendment's impact is "indeterminate," abortion rights advocates argued Senate President Kathleen Passidomo and House Speaker Paul Renner did not have the authority to reconvene the panel to write another statement, only the courts could.
After the Supreme Court upheld the Heartbeat Protection Act in April, Passidomo and Renner decided to reassemble the FIEC after the same abortion rights advocates argued and won in trial court that tighter abortion restrictions would cost the state more money and so the measure needed a revised statement.
In this latest case, the backers of the amendment filed what's known as a " petition for quo warranto ." The state argued the pro-abortion rights group was "unhappy" with the latest fiscal impact statement for Amendment 4, and that is why they "contend the process is defective."
"The petition should be denied at the gate because of the sponsor’s 'unreasonable delay' and gamesmanship in seeking relief only after lobbying the FIEC for the revisions it wanted," the state argued.
Floridians Protecting Freedom pushed back and said it could have only filed the petition after the conference made its final call on the revised statement, saying it "could not have challenged (the new statement) until it officially acted without authority."
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Florida Supreme Court allows state warning about 'costs' of abortion amendment on the ballot
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