Abortion amendment on Florida ballot ‘brutal and dangerous,’ physician says

CNA Staff, Sep 17, 2024 / 12:10 pm (CNA).

A coalition of physicians has sprung into action to oppose a Florida ballot measure that would massively deregulate abortion in the state, including the removal of legal protections currently in place for the unborn.

In an interview with “EWTN News Nightly” anchor Tracy Sabol, Dr. Grazie Pozo Christie, a founding member of Florida Physicians Against Amendment 4, discussed Amendment 4 and its ramifications.

Christie explained that Amendment 4 would allow abortion without restriction prior to the point of the baby being viable outside the womb, usually determined to be between 21 and 24 weeks’ gestation, and would allow late-term abortions in cases of risk to the mother’s health.

The amendment would make the state “a deregulated abortion regime that would equal that of North Korea,” she said.

Amendment 4 would add the following language to the Florida Constitution: “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 health care provider.” 

Christie said the measure was “deceptively written” and could allow nonphysicians to potentially perform abortions in addition to other “dangerous” outcomes. 

“Amendment 4 was written in order to basically invalidate every regulation around abortion, including commonsense health and safety regulations that protect mothers — either women or girls — when they go to access an abortion,” Christie said. 

“It would invalidate parental consent laws in Florida for minor girls,” she continued. “It would open up elective abortion until viability and then after viability for any reason of maternal health — which basically can be manipulated so that elective abortion can be had throughout 40 weeks of pregnancy.”

“It’s a brutal and dangerous amendment,” she said. 

While Amendment 4 retains a 2004 parental notification policy for minors seeking abortion, it would nullify a 2020 law that requires parental consent for minors seeking abortions. 

Florida currently protects unborn babies after six weeks through the Heartbeat Protection Act, which prohibits abortions once the unborn child has a detectable heartbeat.

Coalition has grown to over 300 Florida physicians

Christie and more than 300 other Florida doctors are participating in the Florida Physicians Against Amendment 4 effort.

“We wanted the Florida public to understand that even though the pro-abortion side likes to cite medicine and science and say that this is what’s reasonable for doctors, abortion is not health care,” Christie said of the coalition. “Doctors don’t believe that abortion is health care. We want the Florida public to understand that Florida physicians are against Amendment 4 and that’s because it’s dangerous — not just for the babies that will be eliminated after they can feel pain — but also for mothers and girls.”

The group warns that the proposal would open up abortions through all nine months of pregnancy via the maternal health exception and allow nonphysicians to determine if and when an abortion can be performed, according to its website. It would also eliminate parental consent for minors and remove maternal health and safety regulations, they noted. 

The group advocating passage of Amendment 4, Floridians Protecting Freedom, says on its website that “the overwhelming majority of Floridians think we should all have the freedom to make our own personal health care decisions without interference from politicians.” 

‘The government has to regulate important procedures’

When asked her response to that position, Christie said that “sometimes the government has to regulate important procedures.” 

“You don’t want your health decisions being made by an outfit like Planned Parenthood, without parental involvement for minor girls, without a physician involved in your health care,” she noted. “You wouldn’t want to go get a colonoscopy at a colonoscopy center that wasn’t regulated by the state Department of Health. Why would we open up abortion that way? It’s a very dangerous proposal for everyone involved.”

“Amendment 4 would make Florida an abortion destination for the entire country,” Christie said. “It would make a deregulated abortion regime in Florida that would equal that of North Korea or Cuba.”

Source: https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/259327/abortion-amendment-on-florida-ballot-brutal-and-dangerous-physician-says