Florida: A Threat to Reproductive Rights
A presidential election tends to suck up most of the oxygen from any current-events discussion, and this year is certainly no different. The upcoming contest will have an outsized impact on the future of women’s reproductive rights. But stashed behind even the Senate, House, and local races is a ballot amendment that demands attention because of the potentially devastating effect it will have on Florida women. According to the St. Augustine Record:
[Amendment 6] would specifically overturn court decisions that have concluded that Florida women have a broader right to privacy than women in other states because since 1980 the state constitution has said that “every natural person has the right to be let alone and free from governmental intrusion into the person’s private life.”
Opponents of Amendment 6 say the proposal is primarily an attempt to negate that provision because it was successfully used to invalidate a law that would have required that parents be notified when their minor daughters seek abortions.
This is nothing short of a full-blown attempt to gut women’s reproductive rights. In addition to rolling back the right to privacy that allows women and their families to make personal decisions, Amendment 6 would limit the insurance coverage that currently exists.
Florida families would be well-served to educate themselves on the consequences of Amendment 6 and to VOTE NO on the ballot in November.
Read the Center for Reproductive Rights’ statement on Amendment 6 >,