JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The clock is ticking and two different groups with opposite goals say your support could save lives.
A petition to put supporting abortion access to a vote in Florida is getting closer to reaching the number of signatures needed to be put on your ballot, but only 50 days are left for advocates to collect over 200,000 more signatures to meet the threshold and an opposing campaign is counting the days too.
At events around Jacksonville, you may have been asked to sign a clipboard with the petition supporting abortion access or you may have been given a card for a campaign against abortion access called “Decline to Sign.”
Nubian Roberts with Florida Rising may have been holding the clipboard. She’s confident the petition will get enough signatures.
“We are moving very close to those numbers and we are expecting a great outcome at the end of the day,” Roberts said.
Advocates must get 891,523 signatures by Feb. 1. Then you could see the Florida Constitutional amendment on your November ballot.
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.”
“When we start letting legislators tell us what we can do with our bodies, we’re treading on a dangerous, dangerous path,” Roberts said.
Andrew Shirvell with Florida Voice for the Unborn is confident the petition will not get enough signatures. His organization started their own campaign passing out information cards in their “Decline to Sign” campaign.
“It’s crucial to continue to urge all Floridians with a functioning conscious to the decline to sign this evil petition that’s being circulated,” Shirvell said.
He says thousands of his campaign's cards are circulating in Jacksonville. You may have had one handed to you in town.
"We’ve been building up to this last phase of our campaign,” he said.
Each campaign says theirs will save lives and the clock is ticking on both of them.
Roberts and Shirvell both believe a decision will come down from the Florida Supreme Court within a month that will decide after how many weeks an abortion will be banned. Right now a 15-week ban is in place.
Florida Supreme Court opinions are published 11 a.m. on Thursdays. You can find them here.