Florida physicians are coming out in support and in opposition to abortion-rights amendment

There is perhaps no more intense and emotional issue on the ballot his fall in Florida than Amendment 4, the proposal to enshrine in the Florica Constitution the right to an abortion up until the point of viability.

The ballot summary for the amendment says 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.”

The emphasis on health care has emboldened medical professionals to organize themselves both in support and opposition to the measure.

Dr. Alexandra Levy is an OB/GYN in South Florida and one of more than 100 health care providers — including physicians, nurses, and other clinicians — who have signed a letter posted on the Yes on 4 website voicing support for the proposal.

“You do not want the government and politicians making any decisions about your health care,” Levy told the Phoenix on Thursday. “You want that decision to be made between you and your doctor.”

Levy is critical of the state’s recently implemented six-week ban on most abortions in the state, with exceptions for rape and incest up until 15 weeks. She calls it “essentially a total ban.”

“It’s just a more palatable way to phrase it,” she said. “A six-week ban is dangerous and there is no way to legislate medical exceptions.”

Floridians Protecting Freedom, the advocacy group formed to get Amendment 4 on the ballot and ultimately passed, collected signatures of physicians supporting the ballot initiative. Levy acknowledged that “everyone has concerns putting themselves in this process” but that ultimately she had no choice but to go public.

“Unfortunately, there are people who use fear to scare people from speaking out, but I think this is probably the most important issue of my time, so I will be speaking out,” she said.

A group of physicians who oppose the proposal has also formed.

Florida Physicians Against Amendment 4 is led by Dr. Richard Sandler, a pediatric gastroenterologist in Orlando. He said the group consists of a few hundred physicians with hopes of building up to a few thousand.

“Our stance is to lead a physicians’ voice to help Vote No on Florida and Do No Harm Florida and the governor’s group — to provide a physician’s voice,” he said, referring to some of the political committees formed to raise money against the amendment.

The group’s website leads with the argument that Gov. Ron DeSantis and other critics of the proposal have considered their most effective talking point: the allegation that the measure would “permit abortion through all nine months of pregnancy.”

“To me, the most powerful [argument] is abortion until birth, because even the pro-choicers are typically not in favor of that,” Sandler told the Phoenix. “And certainly, the majority of voters are not in favor of that, that’s clear. But they’re not reading this amendment to realize this is what’s being allowed. It’s not explicitly what’s in there. You have to read between the lines a little bit, which makes it harder to explain, but it’s there.”

‘Deceptively worded’

Sandler, like other critics of the proposed amendment, argued it is “very deceptively worded,” and contends that too many terms in the ballot language are ambiguous.

“It’s so brief. It’s so vague. So many terms undefined,” he said. “And there is so much money and deception that is behind it.”

Levy calls such criticisms “unscientific fear mongering.” She insists the term viability is “complicated” but that ultimately a determination that needs to be left up to patients and their doctors — adding that a health care provider “is a specific term for a physician, nurse practitioner, or physician’s assistant.”

Sandler intends for his group to produce billboards with a photo of physicians promoting a No on 4 vote, messaging through social media, and reaching out to churches to get parishioners to register to vote and understand what the group argues the ballot measure would do, “because still most people will vote ‘yes’ on this if they don’t know any better, if they don’t know what’s in it.”

Meanwhile, a report released this week showed that the number of women getting abortions actually went up in the first three months of this year compared with before the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, with Florida leading the way. That was before the six-week ban took effect, as reported by the Associated Press.