Defeating Florida’s Abortion Referendum Was a Win for Women | Opinion

As OB/GYNs, we’ve dedicated our lives to the unique challenge of caring for two patients—a mother and her preborn child—at once. But this year, we found ourselves in a new role: public advocates. Along with a coalition of like-minded doctors, we stood up against a constitutional amendment in Florida that would have endangered our maternal patients and ended the lives of our preborn patients, helping to secure the first defeat of a radical abortion amendment after seven straight pro-life losses.
It was a hard road, especially since strategists tell us it’s harder to convince people to vote “No” than “Yes.”
But we don’t want to talk about the science of elections—we want to talk about the science of women’s health.
You see, there are many reasons this ballot initiative was defeated, and there are many people who worked for this victory. We empowered more than 700 medical professionals, spanning over 50 specialties and practicing across Florida in more than 100 cities from Jacksonville down to Miami and virtually every county, who focused on speaking to their communities about the scientific evidence of what is best for women’s long-term health and well-being. To put it bluntly: it’s unpopular in the medical realm, which has been grossly politicized, to be opposed to induced abortion. To do so requires courage—not just at work, where the repercussions can be severe, but also at home and among friends. You always have to be prepared to make a case for excellent care for women that does not include abortion.
We know that there are many life-affirming physicians from all backgrounds in Florida. Between 76 and 93 percent of OB/GYNs do not perform induced abortions, so we had a large enough pool of people who, while they may not identify themselves as being opposed to abortion, don’t use it as a medical treatment.
Next, we focused on what excellent health care for women actually looks like. And we emphasized that all women, whether they choose abortion or not, deserve the very best health care we can offer along with fully informed consent.
Most abortions are carried out due to very real and very challenging situations that are as complex as the people who undergo them. But when you are opposed to abortion, you don’t get asked about the typical reasons people get abortions. You are asked about the atypical cases: danger to a mother’s life or an adverse diagnosis for the child.
Many people, some doctors included, assume that the answer in these situations is induced abortion. But the scientific evidence points to a different reality.
As OB/GYNs we have told many women that it was time to deliver their child because if we did not, both would potentially die. We then did everything we could with a team of doctors to help them and their child. We have had similar but more difficult conversations with women whose lives were endangered when their child was pre-viable and therefore very unlikely to survive despite our best efforts. Neither of these situations is an induced abortion, which intends the death of their child, our second patient.
For a child with an adverse prenatal diagnosis, again, many people assume that ending the pregnancy is a way of shortening the pain and will make the experience of losing a child less difficult. (This assumption is so strong that Florida permits induced abortion in the case of adverse prenatal diagnosis.) Data indicate, and many women we know tell us firsthand, that the time mothers spent with their child, whether minutes or hours, were the most precious moments of their lives. They feel deep peace knowing that their children only knew love in this life. There’s a reason that nearly 400 perinatal hospice programs exist.
There are of course other extremely difficult situations women may find themselves in, but as OB/GYNs who have practiced life-affirming medicine our whole careers, we have treated women from every background with every kind of experience, and induced abortion was neither medically indicated nor a healing solution for their situation.
Finally, our campaign succeeded because after identifying doctors who agreed with us that now is the time to promote excellent health care for women, we encouraged those doctors to join us and speak out, giving them the tools and opportunities to share their perspectives with confidence.
Critics may say our win was narrow—but a win in Florida was always going to be narrow. South Dakota, where we ran a similar campaign, easily defeated its own abortion expansion amendment. We still have to educate a lot of people about how far we have come over the past several decades in our ability to care for women and their children. Can we do it? With the backing of good laws like Florida’s that allow us to provide comprehensive care for pregnant women, no matter what, and with doctors empowered to speak the truth about that care, this may just be the beginning.
Dr. Christina Francis is the CEO of AAPLOG, the largest pro-life medical association in the world, and AAPLOG Action, its advocacy arm, and a board-certified OB/GYN hospitalist. Dr. Christina Pena is a board-certified OB/GYN and member of Florida Physicians Against Amendment 4.
The views expressed in this article are the writers’ own.