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Amendment 4, which will appear on the Florida November 2024 ballot is an extreme
proposal that legalizes full-term abortion with no protections for the preborn child,
including when the child is capable of feeling pain. This proposed amendment to our
state constitution would prohibit all restrictions on abortion before viability and create a
broad exception that any “healthcare provider” could exploit to allow abortion up to
birth.
I urge all Catholics and people of good will: vote “No” on Amendment 4!
This is not to “impose our views” but to “make our proposal” about what is necessary
for human flourishing in society. By insisting that every human being matters, we bring
to public policy debates on issues of human dignity, justice, and peace an understanding
of the human person that while founded on the Christian Scriptures, is also accessible to
human reason. In making our proposal, we hope to persuade our fellow Floridians to
vote “No” on Amendment 4!
Thus, we oppose Amendment 4 and urge all the voters of our state to join in our
opposition and reject this extreme and ill-conceived proposition.
Even those who do not agree with the Church’s teaching that human life begins at
conception should find reasons to oppose this amendment. The amendment, for
example, would effectively overturn or seriously jeopardize common-sense state laws
that have regulated abortion for years. These include basic health and safety
requirements for clinics where abortions are performed, requiring a physician to
perform abortions, informed consent requirements, laws limiting public funding of
abortion, and parental consent requirements before a minor’s abortion.
As Catholics, we believe that human life is sacred and that the dignity of the human
person is the foundation of a moral vision of society. In urging a “No” vote on
Amendment 4, we wish to protect not only the unborn child – the weakest, most
innocent, and defenseless among us – but we also seek to protect countless women
from the harms of abortion. Unborn children matter – and so do their mothers. Our
Respect Life Ministry with its Pregnancy Assistance Centers helps provide women with
life-affirming alternatives to abortion. It compassionately offers counseling and access
to healing for those who have regretted a past abortion.
Catholic teachings on the rights and dignity of every human being from conception to
natural death stand in stark contrast to a tendency in our world to define classes or
categories of people as “problems” and thus “dehumanize” them. Such reductive
thinking led to the successive genocides of the 20th century and rationalizes the
continued killing of the unborn. Last year, there were more than 83,000 abortions in
Florida alone! These are 83,000 reasons why all Floridians should reject Amendment 4
and vote a resounding “No”!
