JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (BP) – A ballot initiative in Florida would drastically loosen the state’s restrictions on abortions, according to Southern Baptist leaders and other pro-life advocates who are highly critical of the measure and are asking voters to reject it.

Florida currently bans abortion after six weeks of pregnancy, a restriction that took effect earlier this year. Amendment 4, known as the “Right to Abortion Initiative,” would instead allow for abortions up to viability, or around 24 weeks. However, the initiative’s vague language would allow abortion at any stage of pregnancy, pro-life advocates say.

The amendment reads, “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.”

One problem among many with the amendment, according to Florida Baptist pastor Aaron Burgner, is that “patient’s health” can be broadly interpreted to include even emotional or mental wellbeing, providing cover to abort a perfectly healthy unborn child.

“You can have (an abortion) essentially for any reason as long as you can find a doctor that’s agreeable that this is a health problem,” Burgner said.

Since the 2022 Dobbs case in which the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, abortion advocates have rallied at the state levels to remove as many restrictions as possible. Seven states have passed ballot measures related to abortion since then, with pro-life measures losing every time.

Florida is one of 10 states with abortion initiatives on the ballot this fall, along with Arizona, Colorado, Maryland, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New York and South Dakota. While almost all the measures in those states require only a 50% vote to pass, Florida’s takes a 60% approval.

“In Florida, life is on the ballot, and voters who care about the most vulnerable among us, the preborn, need to turn out in droves and vote ‘no’ on Amendment 4,” said Miles Mullin, vice president and chief of staff at the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission. “Currently, Florida has some of the best protections in the nation for preborn children. But if this amendment passes, it would turn Florida into one of the most pro-abortion states in the country. At a time when virtually no politicians are willing to take up this issue at the federal level, that would set the pro-life movement in Florida back decades and lead to the tragic death of countless thousands of babies.”

Amendment 4 in Florida gained traction earlier this year when the state’s six-week abortion ban took effect. Burgner, pastor of Lakes Church in Lakeland, Fla., and president of the Florida Baptist Convention’s (FBC) State Board of Missions, said Planned Parenthood and the American Civil Liberties Union are the two major abortion proponents funding the amendment and pushing hard for its passage.

“If it failed in Florida, it would be the first state it’s failed in,” Burgner said. “That’s what we’re praying for, that God would give us grace in that area on this amendment, on voting it down.”

Florida Baptists jumped into the fray shortly after the amendment was approved for the ballot, when obstetrician and gynecologist Bill Lile, a member of Olive Baptist Church in Pensacola and founder of the pro-life ministry ProLifeDoc, produced and released a video warning Christians about the insidious nature of the amendment.

In addition to moving the restriction from six weeks to 24 weeks and the ambiguity of the language about a patient’s health, the amendment also removes the state’s requirement for parental consent, swapping it instead for parental “notification.”

If the amendment passes, “abortion in Florida would be constitutionally protected, paid for by the taxpayers of Florida at any gestational stage for any reason,” Lile told Baptist Press. “And there’s no law that could correct this. There’s no executive order by the governor, which could correct this.”

Lile said amendment proponents are throwing millions of dollars behind its passage and are being dishonest about what the amendment really is.

“They could never get this amendment to pass if they were to just be honest and say, ‘This is an amendment that will allow for abortion at any stage gestational stage for any reason,’” Lile said. “It would never pass. So, they have to use deception.”

Lile’s video warning about the amendment launched Florida Baptists into action. Burgner got the state convention involved, with the FBC initially releasing a statement of opposition, and more recently, a resolution of opposition. One More Child, Florida Baptists’ ministry to vulnerable children and their families, has partnered with the FBC to mobilize churches and encourage Florida residents to “Vote No.”

“Amendment 4 is deceptive and extreme,” said Mary Lou Hendry, director of sanctity of human life for One More Child, in an article published by the FBC. “We need to rise up in love and in truth because we don’t want anybody to be uninformed. We are in the days of deception; that’s why the Gospel is necessary.”

Though Republicans in Florida have dominated the state government in recent years, rejection of this amendment is by no means certain – even with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ strong opposition. Burgner attributes that to the deceptive tactics of amendment backers and “the fact that Republicans aren’t the conservatives that we once knew.”

“They’re more moderate,” Burgner said. “While there might be a Republican majority in our state, it doesn’t mean that they’re convictional in nature in how they’re voting.”

The amendment’s passage would deal a sharp blow to pro-life efforts in Florida. Lile said such an outcome would be tragic.

“We’ve taken the lives of 64 million babies since 1973, and the number’s going up because of the abortion pill,” he said. “That’s doing evil in the sight of the Lord. So, we’re not just defending the individual baby and meeting the needs of these individual moms. We’re really trying to preserve the country that we grew up with for our kids and grandkids.

“The kingdom of God is not diminished because a bunch of immoral people made an immoral decision,” Burgner said. “However, it’s demoralizing in the fact that we’ve fought so hard for so many years, and so many people have done so many good things to get to where it is at six weeks.”

Burgner said it’s helpful to remember that God is sovereign regardless of the amendment’s outcome. But Christians still have an obligation to fight for righteousness.

“We’re in a spiritual battle, and we were never promised it was going to be easy and it wasn’t going to be an actual battle,” he said. “We need to push forward and fight all the harder for glorious things and for righteousness. And I think the darker culture gets as far as the kingdom is concerned, the more transparent and light the gospel is.”

More information on the amendment is available from the ERLC’s explainer and from One More Child.

(EDITOR’S NOTE: Tim Ellsworth is associate vice president for university communications at Union University in Jackson, Tenn.)