In just one week, Florida voters will head to the polls to decide if they want to enshrines the right to abortion in Florida’s constitution, through a ballot measure that Gov. Ron DeSantis and his administration have spent months fighting in the courts.

If passed, Amendment 4 — officially titled the “Amendment to Limit Government Interference with Abortion“– would block any law to restrict abortion before fetal viability, which is usually around 24 weeks, according to experts. The amendment would repeal the current six-week abortion ban, which was signed after Roe v. Wade was overturned. in 2022.

Florida is one of the 10 states who will have reproductive rights questions on the ballot after the overturning of Roe v. Wade left the issue up to the states.

MORE: Abortion-related questions will appear on the ballot in 10 states this November

A recent New York Times/Siena College poll found that 46 percent of Floridians surveyed support the measure, while 38 percent oppose it, with 16 percent refusing to answer or saying they don’t know. To pass on November 5, the ballot measure will require 60% approval of those who vote.

The governor and his allies waged an intense campaign against the ballot initiative.

“When you’re dealing with constitutional amendments, the default should always be no,” DeSantis said at a news conference last week, joined by a dozen doctors. “You can always change the usual policies and legislation. Once it’s in the constitution, it’s forever. You really have zero chance of ever changing it.”

Earlier this month, the Florida Department of Health sent letters to television stations across the state — including ABC affiliates — asking them not to air an ad endorsing the ballot initiative and threatening criminal charges against broadcasters who they did not comply. The ad featured a Florida mother describing how she was diagnosed with brain cancer two years ago when she was 20 weeks pregnant.

“The doctors knew that if I didn’t terminate my pregnancy, I would lose my baby, I would lose my life and my daughter would lose her mother,” Florida resident Caroline Williams said in the announcement, saying she believed she would. dead if she had been diagnosed under the current six-week abortion ban, which entered into force at the beginning of this year.

After Floridians Protecting Freedom, the group behind the ballot initiative, sued the state for threatening “criminal proceedings” against the broadcast stations, a federal judge issued a restraining order against Florida’s surgeon general, barring the Department of Health from threatening the stations .

“To put it simply for the state of Florida: It’s the First Amendment, stupid,” U.S. District Judge Mark Walker wrote in the ruling.

John Wilson, the Health Department attorney who signed the letters to the television stations, resigned two weeks ago, saying in an affidavit that DeSantis’ lawyers wrote the letters and ordered him to send them under his name.

“I resigned from my position as general counsel rather than comply with directives … to send additional correspondence to media outlets,” Wilson said in the affidavit. “Broadcasters’ right to free speech is rooted in the First Amendment. Threats to broadcasters for airing content that conflicts with government views is dangerous and undermines the fundamental principle of freedom of expression.”

DeSantis’ critics say the letter threatening the broadcasters may not have been the only attempt at intimidation by his administration.

MORE: Florida voters will be able to consider abortion rights measure in November, court says

Last month, two Florida residents reported that law enforcement from the Office of Election Crimes & Security, a unit DeSantis created in 2022, knocked on their doors and asked them about petitions they had signed for to get the amendment on the November ballot, Miami. the Herald reported.

“I did indeed sign a petition calling for abortion rights to be put on the ballot in Florida,” resident Isaac Menasche said in a Facebook post. “The experience shook me. What disturbed me was (the officer) had a file on me that contained my personal information.”

DeSantis defended the actions of the Election Crimes unit, saying at a news conference last month that there have been “a lot of complaints” about a group that supports Amendment 4.

“They’re doing what they’re supposed to do,” DeSantis said of elections Crime Unit. “They follow the law.”

The Election Crimes Unit also released a report last month alleging that Freedom Defending Floridians committed petition fraud to reach the 891,523 signatures needed to place the amendment on the ballot. The group has denied any wrongdoing.

MORE: Abortion rights ballot measures lead in polls

“These lawsuits, which come on the heels of the state of Florida’s latest attempt to undermine Floridians’ right to vote on Amendment 4, are desperate,” said Lauren Brenzel, director of the Yes on 4 campaign, which supports the amendment. “Ask yourself, why is this happening now — over half a year after more than 997,000 petitions were verified by the state of Florida and less than a month before the election — that these anti-abortion extremists will to rejudge the collection of petitions. process?”

“It’s because our campaign is winning and the government and its extremist allies are trying to do everything in their power to keep Floridians from having the rights they deserve,” Brenzel said.

The fight is intensifying over Florida’s ballot measure that would guarantee the right to abortion until the fetus is viable originally appeared on abcnews.go.com