Abortion

Supporters of a proposed constitutional amendment on abortion rights pushed back against the state's arguments in a battle about a "financial impact statement" that will appear on the November ballot with the initiative.

One of the states where abortions increased was Florida. That changed in April, when a ban after six weeks' gestation took effect. The data doesn't yet reflect that change.

Study authors acknowledged that the increase of less than a percentage point is small. But the data suggests that it could number in the hundreds of thousands of women.

The Supreme Court issued orders that said it has “expedited” proceedings in the cases, which involve a battle between Floridians Protecting Freedom and state officials about the financial impact statement.

The Floridians Protecting Freedom committee filed a petition contending that House Speaker Paul Renner, R-Palm Coast, and Senate President Kathleen Passidomo, R-Naples, did not have the authority to direct a panel to revise the statement after a circuit judge rejected an earlier version.

An appeals court Monday declined to take up a fight stemming from a "financial impact statement" that will appear on the November ballot with a proposed constitutional amendment on abortion rights, saying the case is moot because the statement was revised last week.

Republicans were once the party of Obamacare repeal and abortion opposition. They’ve said little about either issue in Milwaukee.

Financial impact statements provide estimated effects of proposed constitutional amendments on government revenues and the state budget. But the disputes about the abortion impact statement come amid a fierce — and growing — political battle which seeks to enshrine abortion rights in the state Constitution.

The 1st District Court of Appeal quickly denied a request filed by Floridians Protecting Freedom, a political committee sponsoring the proposed constitutional amendment.

Amendment 4 supporters accused the members of the Financial Impact Estimating Conference of misleading voters by including that the measure could lead to Medicaid-funded abortions and costly lawsuits.

The state panel is looking at how abortion rights may financially impact Medicaid, litigation and the state's overall economy, to name a few of the issues if voters approved Amendment 4.

This week on The Florida Roundup, we discussed a bill that would have created statewide regulations for vacation rentals, how presidential politics are playing out in Florida after the Biden and Trump campaign stopped by the state, a look at the group forecasting the financial impact of November's proposed abortion amendment, and new condo reforms.