In the process, he's also spreading a lie.
In an October 18 post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, DeSantis falsely claimed Amendment 4 undermines "the foundation of parental rights in Florida" by removing the requirement for parental consent for minors.
"Florida has the strongest protections for parents' rights, but Amendment 4 would change that," he tweeted on X that day. "I've signed legislation to defend the rights of mothers and fathers to be involved in medical decisions concerning their own children. A school nurse cannot give your child an mRNA shot or even a Tylenol without your consent — and that's how it should be.
"But Amendment 4 would remove the requirement for parental consent for minors seeking an abortion, a serious procedure that can have long-term consequences for both physical and mental health."
In fact, passage of the amendment would do no such thing.Florida has the strongest protections for parents' rights, but Amendment 4 would change that. I've signed legislation to defend the rights of mothers and fathers to be involved in medical decisions concerning their own children. A school nurse cannot give your child an mRNA shot… https://t.co/Pk3MmhtZCl
— Ron DeSantis (@RonDeSantis) October 18, 2024
Where Is the Lie?
The initiative, which will require a 60 percent majority on November 5 in order to pass, states, "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. This amendment does not change the Legislature's constitutional authority to require notification to a parent or guardian before a minor has an abortion."That wording echoes language from the U.S. Supreme Court's 1973 ruling in Roe v. Wade. That includes the mention of fetal "viability" — the standard most doctors use to define the point during pregnancy when a fetus can survive outside the uterus without medical support (generally around 24 weeks).
The amendment's language makes no mention of parental consent.
And yet DeSantis claimed in his tweet that "Amendment 4 would remove the requirement for parental consent for minors seeking an abortion."
Three days later, flanked by Florida doctors who likewise oppose Amendment 4 at a press conference in Coral Gables, the governor repeated that claim, asserting, "If Amendment 4 was adopted, it will eliminate Florida's parents' rights for parental consent for minors and abortion."
But What About "Consent"?
"This amendment was drawn on purpose to look like Roe," Louis Virelli, a Stetson University law professor, tells New Times. The only substantive difference, Virelli says, is the mention of parental notification, which the authors intentionally tacked on in recognition of a legislative amendment to the state constitution that voters approved in 2004.Other than the nod to notification, "It's just 1973 all over again," Virelli says. If the amendment passes, "It's just re-instituting the national status quo" from 50 years ago.
That, or the current law of the land in Florida, where the cutoff point for legal abortions is six weeks after a woman's last menstrual period. That is an interval at which some women might well be unaware they're pregnant. (A study by the Journal of Clinical Epidemiology found that half of respondents began experiencing pregnancy symptoms around the end of the fifth week, and 90 percent by the eighth week.)
Viewed in that light, DeSantis' false claim seems to be a clear indication that he wants no part of the actual issue Florida voters will confront on November 5: whether to return to the Roe v. Wade era or to engrave into the state's constitution a veritable prohibition on a woman's right to terminate a pregnancy.
More to the point, it may be that DeSantis is well aware that 62 percent of Americans support the standard ushered in by Roe.
So, Does Consent Figure in Florida Law at All?
It does — but only for the past four years or so, when the legislature added it to the state statutes in 2020. And only meaningfully since April, when the Florida Supreme Court reversed decades' worth of precedent in proclaiming that a woman's constitutional right to privacy does not extend to abortion, paving the way for the six-week ban, which went into effect on May 1.Not only that, Virelli notes, but the consent law itself was technically unconstitutional when it was enacted.
That goes back to 1989 when the state's high court ruled that a law requiring minors to secure parental consent prior to undergoing an abortion violated the right to privacy.
Three years later, in 1992, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Planned Parenthood v. Casey that parental consent was constitutional in such situations, but the conflict has never been resolved in Florida.
"From 1989 on, Floridians seem to have been relatively happily living under a regime with no parental consent law," Virelli adds. "I think people don't understand that there was no parental consent law prior to April of this year."
If voters approve Amendment 4 on November 5, the conflict regarding parental consent will almost certainly be addressed by the Florida Supreme Court. And while one can't assume how the court's seven justices might rule, it's worth noting that Gov. Ron DeSantis has appointed five of them to their post.
As Virelli puts it, "This court is a favorable place for the government to make their argument."
The fact remains, however, that passage of Amendment 4 would not repeal the parental consent law.
Ipso facto, anyone who says it does is either misinformed or lying.
(Same goes for people who'd have us believe that Amendment 4 would open the door for tattoo artists to perform abortions. It would not.)
