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CNA Staff, Nov 5, 2024 / 20:50 pm (CNA).

A proposed pro-abortion amendment in Florida failed to pass on Tuesday, bringing an end to an effort to enshrine broad abortion access in the state constitution and serving abortion advocates with a major defeat in the 2024 election. 

The failure of Amendment 4 offers a sharp rebuke to the pro-abortion lobby, which poured more than $100 million into Florida in an effort to enshrine abortion in the state constitution and negate the state's Heartbeat Protection Act, one of the most pro-life laws in the country. 

Prior to the Tuesday vote there were indications that the measure might fail. Less than a week before Election Day, polling indicated that support for the ballot measure was just short of the requisite 60% it needed to pass.

By 8:30 p.m. on Tuesday, with roughly 90% of the vote counted, returns showed Amendment 4 with about 57% of voters in favor, failing to clear the 60% threshold.

"Amendment 4 has failed," Gov. Ron DeSantis said on X on Tuesday night.

One of 10 states with abortion on the ballot in 2024, the Florida contest was watched closely as a possible bellwether for the abortion fight in the U.S. The measure was vocally opposed by both DeSantis and the Catholic Church in Florida.

On Tuesday night, the Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops said it was "profoundly relieved at the defeat of Florida's pro-abortion Amendment 4."

"This is a positive outcome for Florida and all efforts to promote the flourishing of our state," the bishops said.

The bishops noted that though the amendment failed, "a majority of Floridians voting in the general election supported it."

"While significant gains to protect women and preborn children in recent years will remain in place, abortion in Florida will continue at a very high rate under our current laws," they said.

"Much work remains to open hearts and minds to the dignity and goodness of life in the womb and at every stage," the bishops continued. "We will continue to proclaim in our churches and in the public square the value of every human life and to highlight that there is a better way forward for women, families, and society than abortion."

If passed, the Florida rule would have established abortion access through all nine months of pregnancy. 

It directed that "no law shall prohibit, penalize, delay, or restrict abortion before viability or when necessary to protect the patient's health."

It offered no guidelines in determining a patient's "health," rather leaving that assessment up to "the patient's health care provider."

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