Advocates in Polk County make final push to get abortion amendment on ballot
Jo Shim shivered through a chilly afternoon Tuesday as she stood outside the cafeteria on the campus of Florida Polytechnic University in Lakeland.
Shim is not a student but a Lakeland retiree. She spent a few hours on campus in hopes of obtaining signatures on petitions to place a constitutional amendment guaranteeing the right to abortion on the ballot for the 2024 election.
As it happened, Shim learned that many students had already signed petitions when another organizer visited campus a few weeks earlier, and she only gathered a small number of signatures. But she considered the effort worthwhile as supporters entered what another advocate called a “final sprint” to collect the required number of petitions.
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“I just really think that women need to have access to all their reproductive choices,” Shim said. “I think that it's not really a political issue. It's a very personal issue. Already we know that women aren't even getting, in some states, access to proper treatment for things like miscarriages because of the abortion bans, and doctors are afraid to give that treatment. And we also know that even if abortion is banned, women are still going to have abortions. And they really need to have access to have these procedures safely.”
The statewide petition campaign is a response to laws the Florida Legislature passed and Gov. Ron DeSantis signed in the past two sessions. In 2022, lawmakers enacted a law prohibiting abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy, with limited exceptions.
In this year’s session, the Legislature passed a measure — co-sponsored by Rep. Jennifer Canady, R-Lakeland — that bans most abortions after six weeks of pregnancy. Advocates say that women often do not yet know they are pregnant at that stage.
The Florida Supreme Court is reviewing a legal challenge to the 15-week ban. If the justices uphold the law, this year’s six-week restriction would take effect.
Citizen-led constitutional amendments offer a way to bypass the Legislature and directly adopt laws. Voters in other states, including Kansas and Ohio, have passed ballot measures in recent months protecting abortion rights.
State group, local impact
Floridians Protecting Freedom, the organization leading the petition drive, says it is a coalition of more than 200 local, state and national groups, including Planned Parenthood, ACLU Florida and Florida Rising. The group has deployed both paid circulators and volunteers to gather signatures on forms that must be submitted to the state to place the measure on the ballot for the November 2024 election.
The proposal, titled “Amendment to Limit Government Interference with Abortion,” states, “No law shall prohibit, penalize, delay or restrict abortion before viability or when necessary to protect the patient’s health, as determined by the patient’s healthcare provider. This amendment does not change the Legislature’s constitutional authority to require notification to a parent or guardian before a minor has an abortion.”
Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody, a Republican, has asked the Florida Supreme Court to block the proposed amendment, arguing that the language is misleading and that the measure would allow providers of abortions to regulate themselves. Under state law, the Supreme Court automatically reviews all proposed constitutional amendments for conformity with rules requiring that a measure contains clear language applying to a single topic.
Before a proposed amendment reaches the ballot, supporters must collect signed petitions totaling 8% of the votes cast in the last presidential election, which equates to 891,523. And the petition drive must reach the 8% threshold in at least 14 of Florida’s congressional districts.
Individual petitions must be submitted to Supervisor of Elections offices in the county where the voter is registered. The deadline for verifying signatures is Feb. 1. Florida law gives elections offices 60 days to verify signatures, and supporters were aiming to submit as many petitions as possible by Friday, allowing two months for processing.
The Florida Division of Elections shows that nearly 500,000 petitions had been verified, but a spokesperson for Floridians Protecting Freedom said the number submitted for review is significantly higher. The Polk County Supervisor of Elections Office reported receiving 32,840 petitions for the proposal as of Tuesday afternoon.
Of that total, the office had determined that 17,556 — or 53.5% — contained valid signatures, spokesperson Rachel Harris said. The main causes for invalidation are that the person signing is not a registered voter or the signature does not match one on file with the office, Harris said.
The validation rate is similar to those for other ballot initiatives, Supervisor of Elections Lori Edwards said.
If proponents meet state guidelines for valid petitions and the Supreme Court approves the ballot language, the proposed amendment would require 60% approval from Florida voters.
College students play roles
One of the leaders of the petition campaign is Taylor Aguilera, a Lakeland resident and a graduate of Lake Region High School. Aguilera, 28, serves as interim organizing director for Floridians Protecting Freedom.
“This has just been unlike anything I've ever been a part of before, and it's such an important moment, with this six-week ban that's getting ready to take effect,” said Aguilera, a mother of two. “The government really has done way too much with interfering with Floridians’ personal medical decisions. So I am really honored to be a part of the movement that is going to work to restore that protection.”
Floridians Protecting Freedom features another Lakeland resident, Deborah Dorbert, in a section of personal stories on its website. Dorbert developed Potter’s syndrome, a rare fetal anomaly, during pregnancy but was denied an early termination, even though doctors told her the fetus would not survive after birth because of undeveloped organs.
Dorbert’s saga, as reported in The Ledger and other outlets, gained national attention.
The Lakeland Women’s Health Center, the only clinic in Polk County offering elective abortions, has served as a hub for the local petition effort.
Donna Windsor, a leader with the Pro-choice Action League and a volunteer escort at the clinic, said she and others have collected signatures at the clinic, which also serves as a dropoff point for others gathering petitions. Some groups affiliated with the local Democratic Party have sought signatures at such events as the monthly First Friday gathering in downtown Lakeland, Windsor said.
Aguilera, a veteran of political campaigns and a Planned Parenthood employee on leave from her job, has coordinated petition drives at college campuses across the state. During the summer, she directed a student organizing summit, training students from Florida’s 12 public universities on organizing petition efforts.
“And that absolutely set a wildfire across the state, with campuses of students getting involved,” Aguilera said. “They were leading petition drives on their campuses regularly — engaging, walking around with clipboards or having tables set up.”
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Some college students returned to their campuses and led “mini-summits” at which they trained other students on collecting signatures, Aguilera said.
“So it's really been encouraging and inspiring to see specifically what's transpiring on our college campuses in the state in regards to restoring abortion access and protecting that freedom,” she said.
Aguilera said her efforts have gone beyond her paid role with Floridians Protecting Freedom.
“My friends and family have become accustomed to, anytime we get together, I'm dropping off packets so they can go talk to their networks,” she said, “or if I haven't seen them in a while, I'm asking them if they'd signed. And I've also been a part of some efforts out in the community as well.”
Drive reaches final stage
Shim began volunteering with the petition campaign in May and estimates that she has collected hundreds of signatures, regularly setting up a table outside local libraries, locations also targeted by paid signature-gatherers. She and other volunteers have carried clipboards to Pride in the Park, an annual event in Lakeland’s Munn Park celebrating the LGBTQ community, a Juneteenth celebration in Winter Haven, a back-to-school event in Davenport, local road races and a gamers conference at RP Funding Center in Lakeland.
“I would say probably our best event was Pride in the Park because it was early in the campaign and was a good group of people to sign on to the issue,” Shim said.
Bearing in mind the potential 60-day delay for verifying petitions, Shim said that local advocates plan to make their final push for signatures at the Lakeland Christmas Parade on Dec. 7.
Shim said she has encountered varying reactions during her petition activities.
“A lot of people just say, ‘No, thank you. Not today,’” she said. “This is Polk County, so we're pretty conservative here. And then some people say, ‘Oh, yes, I'll sign that,’ others are very enthusiastic. So it's usually one or the other.”
Shim said she avoids engaging in arguments or debates with those who oppose the measure.
“Really, everybody has been very civil and polite, even if they didn't agree with the issue,” she said. “And we do try and stress that it's just to go on the ballot so that everybody can decide. But still, generally speaking, if somebody is not in favor of abortion being available, then they don't want to sign it.”
Aguilera expressed confidence that supporters will reach their signature goal.
“There's been overwhelming support for this initiative out in the community, and even here in Lakeland,” she said. “That's been really encouraging. The fact of the matter is that over 70% of Floridians agree with access to abortion. They don't agree with the government interfering with personal medical decisions.”
Gary White can be reached at gary.white@theledger.com or 863-802-7518. Follow on X @garywhite13.
This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Advocates in Polk County make final push for abortion amendment
