Backers of Florida abortion amendment struggle with failure despite widespread support

MIAMI -- After the polls closed, the votes had come in, and the watch party had died out, organizers across the coalition to legalize abortion in Florida lingered inside Ball & Chain bar in Little Havana on Tuesday night, wondering how they had won a majority but lost the race.

More than 57% of Florida voters had come out in support of a proposed constitutional amendment to end Florida’s six-week abortion ban — enough to pass in most states, just not this one. Over 6 million people voted for the measure.

“It’s a weird feeling to win by 15% and still lose,” said Pinecrest Councilmember Anna Hochkammer, who also serves as the executive director of Florida Women’s Freedom Coalition, one of the groups behind the amendment. “To interpret the results on Amendment 4 as anything other than a repudiation of the abortion ban is a mistake.”

After the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the right to an abortion in 2022, pushing its regulation to the states, abortion is legal with minimal restrictions in 27 states and the District of Columbia. On Tuesday, Maryland, New York, Colorado, Nevada and Montana all approved measures protecting a right to abortion access. Missouri voted to overturn a ban, and Arizona to overturn a 15-week restriction.

Florida joined Nebraska and South Dakota in defeating abortion-access ballot measures.

The current law in Florida bans abortions after the six-week gestational age — or six weeks from the last menstrual period — when most women aren’t aware that they are pregnant. It allows for a few exceptions after that, including to save the life of the mother and in cases of rape, incest, or human trafficking if the woman can provide documentation as evidence. Other than in emergency situations, two physicians have to certify in writing that the abortion is necessary to save the mothers life.

Throughout the race, the administration of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis poured state resources into defeating the amendment, launching a state-sponsored website against it, leading an investigation into ballot petitions, putting out advertising against it and threatening to sue television stations over an ad featuring a woman’s abortion story.

Though Amendment 4 failed Tuesday night, it received about 1.4 million more votes than DeSantis did in his November 2022 reelection bid. Five months after earning his second term, DeSantis signed Florida’s Heartbeat Protection Act.

“Every infection, every bad outcome, every dead woman, is going to end up at the feet of the Legislature,” Hochkammer said, staring at an electoral map on her laptop at 10 p.m.

A coalition of supporters and organizers had booked Ball & Chain from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. to watch the election results come in, and about 125 people had registered.

Mindy and Katie Aguirre both grew up in Miami, volunteered for the campaign, and spent Tuesday at polling stations. Now the sisters stood at a table in the bar, talking about their daughters. Mindy has three children, and Katie has two daughters that are 2 and 4 years old.

“I possibly want to have a third child, and I unfortunately don’t feel safe having one in Florida,” said Katie, 35, her voice breaking. “You hear about the women in Texas dying, and it’s rough. It’s rough to look at your daughters, and tell them that they have less rights than their grandmother. And also for you as a parent, to feel like you can’t do what you want to do.”

Daniela Martins, a board member at the Women’s Emergency Network, said that last week she picked up a call from a woman “wailing” in the waiting room of one of their partner clinics. The woman had been raped and was eight weeks pregnant, and had just seen an ultrasound that showed she was too late to have an abortion.

The Women’s Emergency Network provides women who cannot otherwise access an abortion with the resources to access reproductive care. Martins said that most of the women who come to the group looking for an abortion already have children. Others are survivors of rape — some of whom, she said, are young and facing sexual violence within their family or home.

“Every time that I meet someone who is misinformed about this issue, my first instinct is to invite them to come with me, and see the things that I’ve seen,” she said. “They play politics with our bodies and it’s heartbreaking.”

At 11 p.m., the music picked up, and the bar resumed its usual scene, as new people trickled in.

Allie Owen, the finance director for the Florida Women’s Freedom Coalition, gathered Amendment 4 signs, flyers and shirts, and headed out the door. As she walked out, a man followed her.

“What is this about?” he asked, pointing at the sign in her hand.

“Ending the abortion ban,” she said.

“Oh, you mean to kill babies?” he said.

“No, to protect women,” she responded. He repeated the question, she put her hand up, and as he started yelling, she called a bouncer to intervene. The man went back inside, joining the party that had taken over the bar.

“I cannot tell you exactly how badly this is going to go for women who want more than anything to become a mother, and how dangerous their pregnancies are going to be, or rape victims,” Owen, 30, said with tears falling down her cheeks.

“The entire nation is going to be looking at what Florida is going to do to show up for the women and girls of this state that are no longer safe here,” she added. “And we’re going to do it. There’s at least 57% of us that can bet on that.”