Florida abortion amendment raises $12M in 2 months since making ballot
Backers of a proposed Florida constitutional amendment to protect abortion access brought in more than $12 million in the two months since it officially made the ballot, a massive spike in donations as the group works to raise awareness ahead of the November election.
The numbers offer the first glimpse into fundraising since the Florida Supreme Court on April 1 decided to greenlight the amendment, as well as a proposed amendment allowing recreational marijuana, for the 2024 ballot.
From the start of April to the end of May, the campaign pushing the abortion amendment brought in $12,280,649 from over 16,000 donations, according to data filed with the Florida Division of Elections. That includes nearly half a million dollars of in-kind donations from organizations like the ACLU of Florida offering up staff time to the campaign.
The nearly $12 million raised in the latest quarter brings the total amount raised by the group to about $32 million. In two months, the group, Floridians Protecting Freedom, raised more than half of the amount it had brought in in the entire preceding year.
“Floridians are already reeling from the devastating impacts of the
May 1 implementation of Florida’s extreme abortion ban,” campaign director Lauren Brenzel said in a statement, referring to the state’s new ban on most abortions after six weeks of pregnancy. “Seeing increased financial support for the Yes on 4 effort provides us a glimmer of hope. Regardless of income or background, every Floridian deserves the freedom to make their own health care decisions without government interference, including abortion, and we’ll keep up the fight to make that a reality.”
The latest numbers from the group show an
uptick in out-of-state donations over prior periods. About 68% of donations this period came from within Florida. Before the Florida Supreme Court decision, about 82% of all donations over the length of the campaign were from within Florida.
Major organizations like Planned Parenthood and the ACLU of Florida have donated to the effort, but the campaign has also gotten thousands of smalldollar donations. The group’s median donation from when it launched in April 2023 to now is $25, and about 93% of all donations the campaign has received are $200 or less.
The largest contribution in the latest filings was a $2.8 million donation from the left-leaning nonprofit Tides Foundation, which is based in San Francisco.
The group also received a million dollars each from other left-leaning groups including Advocacy Action Fund out of California and Open Society Action Fund out of Washington, D.C.
The Fairness Project, a D.C.-based organization that works on a variety of progressive ballot measures, also donated over $1 million, and Sixteen Thirty Fund, which provides the grants to The Fairness Project, also donated $1 million.
Amendment 4 would undo Florida’s current six-week abortion ban by saying no law should “prohibit, penalize, delay or restrict” abortion before viability, which is generally estimated to be around 24 weeks of pregnancy.
Gov. Ron DeSantis opposes the amendment. Amendments need 60% of voter support to pass.
In a recent Fox News poll, 69% of Florida respondents said they would vote for the abortion access amendment, although other polling shows favorability is a little more varied, with some polls having support below 60%.
The same poll found that 66% of Florida respondents said they would vote for an amendment to legalize marijuana use, which is another proposal that will go in front of voters in November.
Backers of the recreational marijuana initiative, which will be Amendment 3 on ballots, have been largely financed by major marijuana companies instead of by grass-roots support.
That group raised
$5.2 million in the past two months, according to the latest campaign finance reports. Overall, the campaign has raised over $60 million.
Most of that came from marijuana dispensary Trulieve, which has almost entirely financed the initiative. It gave another $5 million to the effort in the latest reports. But more marijuana companies that operate in Florida have jumped in to donate in the past few months.
All have something to gain if voters approve the November amendment. Unless the Florida Legislature makes a change, companies that are currently able to sell medical marijuana will be the only ones that can sell marijuana to recreational buyers.