Yes On 4
Amendment 4: The Power of Choice
By Jenna Jackson | August 27, 2024
Picture it – it’s morning and your alarm is ringing. You had the idea the night before to get up early, to get in some exercise, to make a healthy breakfast, all before showering, dressing, and going off to work. Now, with the buzzing of the alarm in your ears, you recognize you didn’t get as much sleep last night as you hoped. You could hit the snooze button and give yourself a little more time. Which is better? The wonderful thing is the choice is up to you.
Every day we make choices that affect and shape who we are. The power of choice is one of the things that makes us human. And unfortunately, right now in Florida, there are measures in place that limit women’s most personal and profound choices – not simply whether to rise or snooze. And the Black community knows more than most what it looks like to have rights and freedoms stripped away from us.
On May 1, 2024, an abortion ban went into effect in Florida, removing a woman’s right to make her own personal health care decisions. This ban is dangerous and extreme and has no real exceptions for rape, incest, or if the health of the woman is compromised. It puts pregnancy, a personal, intimate, and complicated choice into the hands of politicians, who are not more qualified to make healthcare decisions than women and their doctors. And it puts both women and doctors at risk – women scrambling to receive care and putting their lives in danger, especially if they have pregnancy complications, and doctors risk going to prison for treating the patient in front of them. And we know a lot of these laws disproportionately affect Black women and the Black community.
We need to get the government out of our personal healthcare decisions. We have the choice in affirming the health, safety, and real-life needs of women, by saying “Yes” on Amendment 4, which 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.”
We have the power to take our rights and freedoms back. We can vote and say that we trust women and their doctor, family, and community to make the best choices for their life. No more restrictions – reproductive care is a fundamental freedom.
Video Source: https://www.jacksonville.com/videos/news/politics/2024/05/01/vice-president-kamala-harris-in-jacksonville-speaks-womens-body-rights/73531013007/ – Kamala Harris; “…fundamental freedom to make decisions about one’s own body and not have their government tell them what they’re supposed to do.”
Disclaimer Pd. pol. adv. provided in-kind by Florida for All Action Fund, Inc., a project of Florida Rising, Inc., 10800 Biscayne Blvd. Ste 1050, Miami, FL 33161.
