Florida doctor criticizes misleading financial impact statement on abortion rights ballot measure

Supporters of Amendment 4 say the financial impact statement’s language that will appear next to the ballot measure is designed to confuse voters, calling it a “sham.” 

Florida doctors, abortion rights advocates, and Floridians Protecting Freedom’s “Yes on 4” campaign are calling the language of the financial impact statement that will appear alongside Amendment 4 on the ballot this November “a dirty trick,” describing the statement as “highly politicized and unlawfully inaccurate to mislead voters.”

The proposed Amendment 4, which seeks to protect abortion rights under the state constitution, states that 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.” 

Abortion rights supporters began the initiative effort after Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Republican-controlled Legislature in 2023 passed a law banning abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, before many women even know they’re pregnant. The ban went into effect in May, after being upheld by the Florida Supreme Court. If 60% of Florida voters vote “yes” to approve the amendment in November, it would override the ban, restoring abortion rights in the state. 

But in what is being viewed as an effort to derail the amendment, the panel of economists that approved the financial impact statement that will appear alongside the measure on voters’ ballots claims that multiple Florida laws could be challenged as unconstitutional if Amendment 4 were to take effect, resulting in lost tax revenue and high litigation costs. 

Additionally, two representatives, one for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and another for House Speaker Paul Renner that were part of the Financial Impact Estimating Conference (FIEC) pushed to include information in the statement about the possibility that passage of the amendment could lead to Medicaid-funded abortions.

Supporters of the amendment, however, say the financial impact statement’s language is designed to confuse voters. Lauren Brenzel, Campaigns Director for Yes on 4, called the economists’ hearings a “sham.” 

‘This reads like an extreme anti-abortion platform’

Dr. Mona Mangat, a St. Petersburg physician and Board Chair of the Committee to Protect Health Care, also denounced the statement’s language, saying that financial impact statements are “supposed to be neutral, but this one reads like an extreme anti-abortion platform.”

“A previous analysis of Amendment 4, by the same financial impact estimating conference last year, determined that it would have a positive financial impact because it ends the current abortion ban that is harming Floridians,” she told Floricua in an in interview. “This new version is clearly politicized and intended to discourage Floridians from voting for Amendment 4 — but supporters like me are confident voters will see through it.

Dr. Mangat views the statement as a way to try and mislead voters into voting against the ballot measure, which she supports. She also criticized the state’s six-week abortion ban, which she said is putting patients at risk.

“As a physician, I know that when it comes to issues as personal and complicated as pregnancy, politicians are never more qualified to make health care decisions than patients and their doctors,” Dr. Mangat said. “Politicians have no place in our exam rooms. By supporting Amendment 4, we can put decisions back where they belong: With patients and their physicians, who took an oath to act in their best interest.”

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Currently, providers like herself are unable to do their jobs due to the six-week ban, Dr. Mangat said.

“Every pregnancy is unique and requires different medical considerations and care. But under Florida’s ban, doctors risk prison time just in trying to treat our patients,” she said. “No matter how you personally feel about abortion, we can all agree that government has no place in forcing a rape victim to carry her perpetrator’s child to term. But Florida’s abortion ban has no real exception for rape.”

While the six-week ban allows abortions up to 15 weeks for victims of rape, the term “rape” is not defined in Florida statutes, creating concern that doctors will be reluctant to provide abortions under the exception for fear of being prosecuted. To qualify for the exception, rape victims must also provide a “a copy of a restraining order, police report, medical record, or other court order or documentation providing evidence,” but doesn’t give any direction to medical professionals on how much evidence or which kind of “documentation” is enough.

This sort of government overreach is what Dr. Mangat is encouraging Florida voters to vote against.

“Here in Florida, we value our freedom and respect each other’s ability to do what’s best for ourselves and our families Amendment 4 is about getting the government out of these personal and private decisions. Amendment 4 is about respecting our freedom to make our own health care decisions and do what’s right for ourselves and our families,” she said. “From our exam rooms to the ballot boxes, politicians are intent on butting into Floridians’ private lives. This entire financial impact statement process only further demonstrates why decisions around abortion should be left to patients and their doctors, not politicians.

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