Abortion activists target Latino voters in final push for Florida’s abortion amendment

With an amendment aiming to enshrine abortion rights in Florida on the Nov. 5 ballot, advocacy groups on both side of the measure are seeking to cut through the noise in trying to persuade Latino voters.

Using messaging tailored to religion, language and cultural context, groups are trying to equip Hispanic voters with the necessary information on the reproductive rights initiative.

Florida’s Amendment 4, if passed, would reverse Gov. Ron DeSantis’s (R-Fla.) six-week abortion ban and protect abortions before fetal viability or in instances to save the life and health of a patient. Florida is one of the 10 states with an abortion rights question on the ballot this November.

But, if passed, Florida would be one of the only states in the Southeast to provide abortions until fetal viability after the landmark decision Dobbs v. Jackson overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.

The amendment requires a 60 percent supermajority to pass, and recent polls show that, although a majority of voters support the measure, it might not be enough to push it across the finish line.

Florida's 3.3 million eligible Hispanic or Latino voters have the power to swing the outcome on Nov. 5. A New York Times/Siena College poll from October shows that half of Hispanic voters are planning to vote in favor of protecting abortion access, while another 18 percent are still undecided.

The amendment is what state Rep. Vicki Lopez (R) calls a “ticket splitter.” Lopez, who represents areas of Miami-Dade County and is a proponent of the state’s initial 15-week ban, was one of six Republicans in the state House to stray from her party and vote against the six-week ban.

She described the shorter ban as “convoluted” and “very flawed,” stating it was “untenable” for her constituents.

Lopez’s district, which is roughly three-quarters Hispanic, is politically split — in line with the larger Miami-Dade area. She told The Hill that her district is roughly 30 percent Republican, 30 percent Democrat and 40 percent politically unaffiliated.

Specifically, she said that many Catholic and evangelical Latinos face a crossroads with the amendment as advocacy groups from both sides try to sway the community.

“A lot of women don’t want to be vocal about [their vote] because they’re fearful of retribution in their community,” Lopez said. “I can see that there’s a struggle inside the Hispanic community between religion, morals, ethics and feeling like, 'This is my decision and I should be able to make it without interference.’”

According to a report from The Miami Herald, Catholic churches have poured nearly $834,000 into the Florida Voters Against Extremism PAC that backs “Vote No on 4,” the official campaign against the amendment.

That movement is run by five committees, including Florida Freedom Fund, which Gov. DeSantis created to oppose the abortion initiative. South and Central Florida Field Director Debbie Feris said the group’s work in Latino communities largely circles around common spaces such as church.

“We talk about the sanctity of life and that [abortion] is not within our values,” she told The Hill.

More broadly, DeSantis has taken part in a variety of campaigns against the measure, leveraging his gubernatorial power to threaten television stations for airing campaign advertisements in support of the initiative and even launching launch a website with the state health agency blasting the abortion rights cause.

DeSantis’s office did not respond to The Hill’s request for comment.

The official “Yes on 4” campaign, sponsored by Floridians Protecting Freedom, has built a coalition with a variety of groups, including Catholics for Choice (CFC), the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Florida, the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Justice, Mi Vecino and more.

Stephanie Hansen-Quintana, director of organization and movement building at CFC, told The Hill that the group’s work in Latino communities is focused on deep conversations to build a narrative that Catholics can be both pro-choice and faithful.

“People don’t unlearn something that they’ve been learning all their lives from one day to the next,” she said. “But being able to at least engage in conversation to be able to clarify facts, to be able to provide context, to be able to speak their language when it comes to Catholicism and faith most definitely allows for them to either give them the permission to vote yes, or at least to provide information to persuade them in that direction.”

Groups in support of and against the measure have also focused on the language barrier in the state, employing ad campaigns in both English and Spanish. The 2022 American Community Survey reported that, of Spanish speakers in Florida, roughly 43 percent speak English less than “very well.”

Natasha Sutherland, senior adviser to the “Yes on 4” movement, said they consider a variety of factors in their “surgical” approach to the diverse Latino electorate, including linguistic patterns, country of origin, generational differences and individuals’ recency of immigration.

"Folks want to hear from people like them, people that they know and trust, that are part of their network and already in their communities,” Sutherland said. “It’s really just about arming those organizations and those individuals and those community leaders with the information they need so they can really talk about the amendment in a way that really connects with folks.”

Charo Valero, Florida state manager for the Latina Institute, said methods to effectively engage the Latino community in political conversations expand beyond direct translation and instead strive to appeal to unique Latino experiences.

“In English, we talk about [the amendment] as government interference, but in Spanish we talk about anti-abortion political extremists,” she told The Hill. “It’s not about a mistrust of government; it’s about extreme politicians.”

Valero said the Latina Institute has found more success with this message given the state of many immigrants’ homelands. Lopez added that many Latinos in her district have come from countries where communism has “taken hold,” like Venezuela, Cuba and other countries in central America.

“Even if you’re comfortable in your own belief system, sometimes you may not know how to talk to your neighbor or your abuelita about it,” Valero said.

The Latina Institute focuses on Miami-Dade County, which is nearly 70 percent Hispanic or Latino, in its Florida work. Valero said their canvassing and education work focuses on a long-term culture shift and deeper understanding of reproductive justice in the United States.

It has outfitted 50 bus shelters across Miami-Dade County with the message “¡Aborto sí, aborto no, eso lo decido yo!” which translates to “Abortion yes, abortion no, that is for me to decide.” This is also a popular rallying cry among La Marea Verde, or The Green Wave, in Latin America, which is a larger movement to protect abortion access.

Valera said the Latina Institute also is aiming to fill in any gaps for Spanish-speaking residents who have no choice but to consume English media.

“The information they’re hearing from all communication avenues is not balanced. It’s not accurate,” Lopez said.

Lopez pointed to a lack of clarity in the amendment with certain terms, like “viability,” emphasizing how Spanish-speaking voters are at a disadvantage when it comes to understanding the amendment's intricacies.

“People have a right to understand the amendment,” Lopez said. “What is getting lost in this is the politics, unfortunately, and I think it does a disservice to Hispanic voters, particularly those that do not have a good command of the English language.”

Florida statute defines viability as “the stage of fetal development when the life of a fetus is sustainable outside the womb through standard medical measures,” but does not give specific ranges for weeks of pregnancy. Neither the statute nor the amendment defines “health care provider,” which Feris, who backs “Vote No on 4,” said is another point of concern.

“The way the amendment is written, it sounds very reasonable, truly,” Feris said. “Unfortunately, most citizens, including the Hispanic community, are not attorneys, so we don’t interpret things the way the law or attorney would interpret it.”

While Lopez doesn’t agree with Amendment 4 wholeheartedly, she said that abortion access is ultimately “everyone’s issue.”

Still, some proponents of enshrining abortion rights remain “cautiously optimistic” about the outcome on Nov. 5.

“Folks are positive and very receptive and want to learn more about it,” Sutherland from “Yes on 4” said. “I think that the narrative around abortion and the conversation publicly about it has really changed in a really positive way.”