Fla. Voters Sent 'Strong Message' With Defeat of Antiabortion Measure, Letter States

November 16, 2012 — In rejecting a ballot initiative (Amendment 6) last week, "Florida voters sent a strong message that when politicians deny insurance coverage for abortion, they play a dangerous game of 'keep away' with women's health," Harry Knox, president and CEO of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, writes in a letter to the editor of the New York Times (Knox, New York Times, 11/15).

The measure would have amended the state constitution to explicitly exclude a broader right to privacy than is protected under the U.S. Constitution and ban public funding for abortion in most cases (Women's Health Policy Report, 11/7).

"Politicians should not interfere with a woman's personal medical decisions, but should instead respect that it's her decision to make with her family and her faith," Knox writes.

"Holding back benefits from someone who is eligible, just to make it impossible for her to have an abortion, as Amendment 6 would have done, is unconscionable," he continues, adding, "It is time that we put a woman's health and her moral agency ahead of political agendas" (New York Times, 11/15).