Florida amendment that would have included abortion protections in the constitution failed Tuesday and remains in effect Florida bans most abortions after six weeks of pregnancy.

Amendment 4 received nearly 57% of the vote, a majority, but not enough to meet Florida’s high bar of 60% for passage of the amendment. In almost any other state, this would have been a victory.

Lauren Brenzel, the campaign director behind Amendment 4, said Tuesday night in St. in St. Petersburg.

The amendment’s failure is a blow to a coalition of abortion access groups. Raised more than $108 million To ensure that changes are made and accepted on ballot papers. This also means that women in the South, whose states severely restrict abortion, cannot turn to Florida for sanctuary. Florida is one of 10 states with abortion rights on the ballot this year, and Florida has the highest bar for passage.

Amendment 4 would protect the right to abortion until the period of viability, which is usually the 24th week of pregnancy. Florida law bans most abortions after six weeks. Since this law went into effect in May, Florida has We stopped performing thousands of abortions every month when abortions were allowed up to 15 weeks.

The amendment appeared to provide a majority vote in many conservative counties in Florida Former President Donald Trump won Tuesday, including Lake, Polk, Brevard and Volusia. In Miami-Dade, which spurred Trump into action, the amendment received more than 58 percent of the vote.

The amendment’s defeat is a win for Gov. Ron DeSantis, who opposed the amendment. focused the power of the state government on defeating him.

“Tonight, Florida once again set an example for the rest of the country,” Taryn Fenske, spokesperson for the Vote No on 4 campaign, said in a statement. “Florida’s plan proves that you can defeat the Soros-backed, dark-money, out-of-state abortionists with a strong, vocal leader who is willing to publicly stand up for what is right despite the barrage of arrows.”

In the last few months before the election, DeSantis traveled around Florida to host news conferences urging people to vote no and depicting the change this way: It’s too extreme, even for people who support abortion access.

The state’s health agency has run ads and created a website to counter pro-Amendment 4 speech; Another state department threatened TV stations with criminal prosecution if they did not take down a pro-Amendment 4 ad. (A federal judge said this action violated the First Amendment.)

DeSantis pressured Florida Republicans to donate to oppose the amendment and relied on his faith and community initiative to oppose it. DeSantis also appointed a close ally to help prepare a fiscal impact statement included with the amendment on the ballot, raising questions about whether the change would force the state to support abortion with public funds. Supporters of the amendment called this statement a “dirty trick.”

And the DeSantis administration conducted an unprecedented review of already verified petition signatures used to place the amendment on the ballot, and then He released a report accusing the Amendment 4 campaign of “rampant” petition fraud.

Amendment supporters said the state report was another tactic to undermine support for Amendment 4.

If abortion access groups want to make a similar change in the future, it will likely be more difficult: DeSantis’ election security office has already called for challenges to Florida’s ballot initiative process.

On Tuesday, Brenzel issued a challenge to state lawmakers to consider a majority of voters on the amendment.

“Today, a bipartisan group of voters sent a clear message to the Florida Legislature,” Brenzel said. “We order you to end Florida’s extreme abortion ban this legislative session.”

Even after the contest was announced, organizers and activists declared the result a small victory on the long road to restoring reproductive freedoms in Florida. Sarah Parker, one of the Amendment 4 coalition members, encouraged those attending the campaign’s watch party to continue the fight.

“We will not let this moment overshadow every one of our efforts,” Parker said.

Parker added: “This is not over for a minute, not a second.”

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