Editor\u2019s Note: The Florida Baptist Convention and One More Child are partnering to mobilize our faith community to vote \u201cno\u201d on Amendment 4, the Right to Abortion Initiative, which will be on the state ballot Nov. 5. For more information, visit onemorechild.org\/voteno<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n In this article, hear from Southern Baptist leaders about why voting\u00a0\u201cno\u201d on Amendment 4 will save the lives of thousands of unborn children in Florida.<\/em><\/p>\n JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (BP) \u2013 A ballot initiative in Florida would drastically loosen the state\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n Florida currently bans abortion after six weeks of pregnancy, a restriction that took effect earlier this year. Amendment 4, known as the \u201cRight to Abortion Initiative,\u201d would instead allow for abortions up to viability, or around 24 weeks. However, the initiative\u2019s vague language would allow abortion at any stage of pregnancy, pro-life advocates say.<\/p>\n The amendment reads, \u201cNo law shall prohibit, penalize, delay, or restrict abortion before viability or when necessary to protect the patient\u2019s health, as determined by the patient\u2019s healthcare provider. This amendment does not change the Legislature\u2019s constitutional authority to require notification to a parent or guardian before a minor has an abortion.\u201d<\/p>\n One problem among many with the amendment, according to Florida Baptist pastor Aaron Burgner, is that \u201cpatient\u2019s health\u201d can be broadly interpreted to include even emotional or mental wellbeing, providing cover to abort a perfectly healthy unborn child.<\/p>\n \u201cYou can have (an abortion) essentially for any reason as long as you can find a doctor that\u2019s agreeable that this is a health problem,\u201d Burgner said.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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 percent vote to pass, Florida\u2019s takes a 60 percent approval.<\/p>\n \u201cIn 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 \u2018no\u2019 on Amendment 4,\u201d said Miles Mullin, vice president and chief of staff at the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission. \u201cCurrently, 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.\u201d<\/p>\n Amendment 4 in Florida gained traction earlier this year when the state\u2019s six-week abortion ban took effect. Burgner, pastor of Lakes Church in Lakeland, Fla., and president of the Florida Baptist Convention\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n \u201cIf it failed in Florida, it would be the first state it\u2019s failed in,\u201d Burgner said. \u201cThat\u2019s what we\u2019re praying for, that God would give us grace in that area on this amendment, on voting it down.\u201d<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n In addition to moving the restriction from six weeks to 24 weeks and the ambiguity of the language about a patient\u2019s health, the amendment also removes the state\u2019s requirement for parental consent, swapping it instead for parental \u201cnotification.\u201d<\/p>\n If the amendment passes, \u201cabortion in Florida would be constitutionally protected, paid for by the taxpayers of Florida at any gestational stage for any reason,\u201d Lile told Baptist Press. \u201cAnd there\u2019s no law that could correct this. There\u2019s no executive order by the governor, which could correct this.\u201d<\/p>\n Lile said amendment proponents are throwing millions of dollars behind its passage and are being dishonest about what the amendment really is, falsely arguing, among other things, that it would keep doctors from treating an ectopic pregnancy or a miscarriage.<\/p>\n \u201cThey could never get this amendment to pass if they were to just be honest and say, \u2018This is an amendment that will allow for abortion at any stage gestational stage for any reason,\u2019\u201d Lile said. \u201cIt would never pass. So, they have to use deception.\u201d<\/p>\n Lile\u2019s 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\u2019 ministry to vulnerable children and their families, has partnered with the FBC to mobilize churches and encourage Florida residents to \u201cVote No.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAmendment 4 is deceptive and extreme,\u201d said Mary Lou Hendry, director of sanctity of human life for One More Child, in an article published by the FBC. \u201cWe need to rise up in love and in truth because we don\u2019t want anybody to be uninformed. We are in the days of deception; that\u2019s why the Gospel is necessary.\u201d<\/p>\n Though Republicans in Florida have dominated the state government in recent years, rejection of this amendment is by no means certain \u2013 even with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis\u2019 strong opposition. Burgner attributes that to the deceptive tactics of amendment backers and \u201cthe fact that Republicans aren\u2019t the conservatives that we once knew.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re more moderate,\u201d Burgner said. \u201cWhile there might be a Republican majority in our state, it doesn\u2019t mean that they\u2019re convictional in nature in how they\u2019re voting.\u201d<\/p>\n The amendment\u2019s passage would deal a sharp blow to pro-life efforts in Florida. Lile said such an outcome would be tragic.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve taken the lives of 64 million babies since 1973, and the number\u2019s going up because of the abortion pill,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s doing evil in the sight of the Lord. So, we\u2019re not just defending the individual baby and meeting the needs of these individual moms. We\u2019re really trying to preserve the country that we grew up with for our kids and grandkids.<\/p>\n \u201cThe kingdom of God is not diminished because a bunch of immoral people made an immoral decision,\u201d Burgner said. \u201cHowever, it\u2019s demoralizing in the fact that we\u2019ve 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.\u201d<\/p>\n Burgner said it\u2019s helpful to remember that God is sovereign regardless of the amendment\u2019s outcome. But Christians still have an obligation to fight for righteousness.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re in a spiritual battle, and we were never promised it was going to be easy and it wasn\u2019t going to be an actual battle,\u201d he said. \u201cWe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n More information on the amendment is available from the\u00a0ERLC\u2019s explainer<\/a>\u00a0and from\u00a0One More Child<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Tim Ellsworth Editor\u2019s Note: The Florida Baptist Convention and One More Child are partnering to mobilize our faith community to vote \u201cno\u201d on Amendment 4, the Right to Abortion […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":88,"featured_media":50558,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[270,19,45,25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48291","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-florida-baptist-childrens-homes","category-news","category-statewide","category-stories"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/88"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48291"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48291\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":69342,"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48291\/revisions\/69342"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}