Florida Supreme Court considers abortion amendment

The Florida Supreme Court holds a hearing on a proposed abortion amendment to the state Constitution, and the economy is set to be a key issue in the 2024 presidential election.

Florida Supreme Court considers abortion amendment

Will an abortion rights amendment make it on the November ballot in Florida? That was the subject of arguments today in Florida’s Supreme Court.

Floridians Protecting Freedom says it has the required signatures to place amendment 4 on the ballot.

But Florida’s Attorney General Ashley Moody is arguing the language is too vague.

The judges also are weighing a challenge to a 15-week abortion ban. And that ruling will also decide the fate of the six-week ban that was passed the following year.

Abortion rights supporters and opponents gathered outside the Capitol today. State lawmakers on both sides of the debate spoke after the court hearing.

“Look at all the people who are standing here behind me. There are folks who feel strongly on either side. But over a million Floridians signed these ballot petitions. This is the voice and the will of the people of Florida to protect a woman’s right to choose. And it would be wrong for the court to override that. Especially given that the language and the summary are so clear,” State Rep. Fentrice Driskell said.

“The earth is the Lord’s. It does not belong to these baby killers. We’re here because we’re humans. Welcome to planet Earth, where we love people, from the womb to the tomb. And as lawmakers, we are doing everything possible to defend life,” State Rep. Webster Barnaby said about the proposal.

Chair of the Florida Democratic Party Nikki Fried discussed whether she was worried about the proposal getting denied by the court.

“Their job was again to examine it through the lens of a single subject and make sure it’s not confusing to the electorate. Every other argument or going into other parts of our constitution is not relevant. It is very simple, the people of the state are asking for an opportunity to vote on this issue, and the people deserve that chance,” Fried said.

The court must rule by April 1.

If the Supreme Court approves the wording in the amendment, it would appear on the November ballot where voters would have the final say.

According to Florida law, it would need at least 60% approval to pass.

Floridians struggle to afford food as economy takes center stage in 2024

As we move closer to the 2024 election, it’s important to understand issues important to voters up and down the I-4 corridor, an area that could be key to who wins in November in Florida and the nation.

The economy, and concerns about inflation, remain a top concern among voters.

A recent government report shows inflation is slowing down, and a University of Michigan survey shows consumer sentiment jumped up in the last two months by 29%, the most it has since 1991.

But some in Central Florida continue to struggle to with costs of living, including covering the cost of food, which could have an impact on how people vote.

By the time this truck rolled in, there were already about 100 cars lined up waiting

Some drivers lined up just after midnight to be first in line for the first-come first serve food drive.

Amey Wilkins is in the fourth line of cars from the front, and she’s ready to wait as long as she needs to.

“It’s cold when you come in the morning time, but later on it gets warm,” Wilkins said.

She says with higher grocery prices she can no longer afford the food she needs.

“I try to add up in my head how much it costs for the groceries, and whatever is there and I don’t think I can take it, I have to put it back,” she said.

Wilkins isn’t alone. Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida says searches for food assistance have doubled in the last year. So the cost of living is on the minds of many Central Floridians heading into the 2024 election.

“It’s the economy, the economy’s got to get better, because the prices are going up. It’s hard when you have a fixed income,” Wilkins said.

About two years ago she began coming to this twice-monthly food drive at Patmos Chapel in Apopka.

Church volunteers load up trunks full of several boxes of fresh produce and frozen meat, enough food for a couple of weeks.

Arnel Smalley says demand picked up during the pandemic, and has only grown since.

“When God said when they were hungry we gave them food, when they were thirsty we gave them something to drink, that’s what we’re trying to do here. If people are hungry, people are thirsty, we want to make sure we’re giving them ample opportunity to come through the line,” Smalley said.

He says the church went from serving about 200 families to 600 families. Most drivers here aren’t picking up food for just themselves. Wilkins shares her food with several other families.

“Even when I’m ready to deliver food I’m like, Amey you’ve got to this, get up let’s go, they need this just as much as you need it,” Wilkins said.

Wilkins says because of health problems, she could no longer work as a caretaker in a hospital. But she never lost her urge to help others.

“I care about people. I try to help whoever needs help. Friends who eat meat, whatever meat I have, I give it to them, and whatever food I don’t use, I give it to them. So, it’s a helping hand, just like I’m getting a helping hand,” she said.

She stocked up with food to last for about two weeks. But with the fluctuating cost of gas, it’s still a struggle. She can’t do this forever. She says prices need to come down.

“So many times when I fill my car up with gas, $50 worth of gas, and I have to take my runs to take food to other people, I’m like, God you’ve got to send me a blessing,” she said.

The organizers of that food drive report they used to allow people to pick up food for five or six families, but they’re having to limit that now to food for two to three families, so they make sure there’s enough food to go around.

Stories like Wilkins’ throughout Central Florida could have an impact on the presidential election. Despite some strong economic numbers, it’s really the public and the voters’ perception of the economy.

Biden’s approval is at an all-time low.

But a University of Michigan poll shows consumer sentiment is improving. That could be a sign that voters are having more faith in President Joe Biden to handle the economy, which could bode well for him in November.

Harris prepares for abortion to be key issue in election

Democrats have plotted a full-court press on the issue in the wake of the Supreme Court’s ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health in June of 2022, which overturned the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision guaranteeing the right to an abortion. Since the ruling, the abortion rights movement has seen major victories when the issue has been on the ballot, including in traditionally red states like Kansas and Ohio, and Democrats credited their stance on abortion with stronger-than-expected results in the 2022 midterms, which saw Democrats expand their margin in the U.S. Senate and only narrowly lose the House of Representatives.

“When we’ve seen it on the ballot … since this case came down over a year ago, from Kansas to California, Ohio to Virginia, red states, blue states, the American people voted in favor of freedom,” Harris said in Thursday’s interview. “I think that a lot of people who are now coming to realize the harm that has actually resulted from this ruling, do feel a level of compassion and don’t believe it’s right that people are suffering the way they are.”

“The highest court in our land took a constitutional right that had been recognized from the people of America, from the women of America, which is the ability and the freedom that a woman should have have to make decisions about her own body,” the vice president said. 

The interview comes as Harris — who has been the Biden administration’s point person on the issue since the Dobbs decision — has been criss-crossing the country on a tour aimed at promoting abortion rights, a key issue for Democrats ahead of November’s election. Harris’ “Fight for Reproductive Freedoms” tour kicked off in the battleground state of Wisconsin last month and brought her to San Jose, Calif., earlier this week as the administration — and the president and vice president’s reelection campaign — seek to keep the issue of abortion at the forefront of Americans’ minds before they head to the ballot box.

“So many women have been suffering, and many, most, silently suffering,” Harris said Thursday. “I’ve met women who’ve had miscarriages in toilets. There are women who have been denied emergency medical care during a miscarriage because the the people who worked at the hospital were so afraid that they might be sent to jail. And do you know why? Because around our country laws are being proposed and passed that include providing prison time for doctors or nurses that give emergency or even give any kind of reproductive health care.”

“It is a big issue that is happening every day,” Harris said.  

Abortion was also the topic of Biden and Harris’ first joint campaign event of the year, a rally in northern Virginia one day after the 51st anniversary of Roe v. Wade last month.

“Former President Trump hand-picked three Supreme Court justices because he intended for them to overturn Roe,” Harris said at the event in Manassas, Va., last month. “He intended for them to take your freedoms. He is the architect of this healthcare crisis. And he is not done.”

The choice to focus their first 2024 rally on abortion rights signaled the president’s reelection campaign is counting on the issue remaining salient in 2024 as Biden faces low approval ratings, struggles to convince voters the economy is doing well under his leadership — despite several recent indicators of Americans’ growing satisfaction with financial conditions — and navigates multiple global crises, including escalating conflicts with Iran-backed militant groups in the Middle East and tensions at the U.S.-Mexico border.

While Democrats have employed this full-court press on abortion, any measure to restore the provisions of Roe v. Wade face an uphill battle, thanks in part to the Senate’s 60-vote legislative filibuster threshold. (It’s a similar reason why former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, one of the top contenders for the Republican presidential nomination, said last year it was “not honest” for her then-rivals to promise a national abortion ban, telling CBS’ “Face the Nation” that “Nothing’s gonna happen if we don’t get 60 votes in the Senate.”)

Harris acknowledged that Democrats need to have a stronger majority in both chambers of Congress to codify abortion protections.

“What the Supreme Court took away, Congress can put back in place,” Harris said. “But we do need a majority in Congress who will agree that … the government shouldn’t be telling her what to do.”

“We’ve got to trust women to know what’s in their own best interest and to consult who they deem right to help them navigate a very difficult decision,” she said. “But the government shouldn’t be telling them what to do. It’s 2024. We’ve got laws on the books that don’t let women make decisions about their own bodies, so we need to have a majority in Congress who just agree with that point.”

Harris’ tour continues next week in Savannah, Ga., another crucial battleground state that Biden narrowly won over Trump in 2020.