Going to the Ballot to Overcome the Abortion Ban
Plus an interview about the Florida Master Naturalist Program
Happy New Year from the Bay Area Navigator. Today’s newsletter features interviews with Amy Weintraub of the campaign to put an abortion-rights measure on the November ballot and Caitlin Robison of the Florida Master Naturalist Program.
CURRENTS
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TOP NEWS
New ‘move over law’ takes effect for Florida drivers. WMNF
Authorities expanding investigation into Florida GOP chair accused of rape. Politico
Ten big issues the Florida Legislature will consider during its 2024 session. WMNF
State urges the Florida Supreme Court to not take up a redistricting challenge. WUSF
Tampa's new water filtration system is expected to help remove forever chemicals. WUSF
Masonite’s $3B buyout for PGT faces competing bid. Tampa Bay Business Journal $
Brightline reports $192 million net loss in first nine months of 2023. Tampa Bay Business Journal $
Homeownership increasingly out of reach for younger Floridians. Axios
Will Wander Franco remain in jail? Judge in Dominican Republic to decide fate of Ray’s shortstop. Fox 13 News
Tampa Bay's Michael Penix Jr. has Washington on the verge of a national championship. WUSF
11 QUESTIONS FOR AMY WEINTRAUB
Amy Weintraub of St. Pete is the reproductive rights program director at Progress Florida, a nonprofit organization promoting progressive values. Foremost on its agenda is the Floridians Protecting Freedom campaign, an effort to amend Florida’s constitution to protect abortion rights. Here’s Weintraub’s take on the state of the campaign.
Circumventing the Florida Legislature to Put Abortion on the Ballot
By Judith M. Gallman
First of all, please explain the amendment
It's called Floridians Protecting Freedom, and it is a statewide campaign to amend our state constitution to protect Floridians’ ability to make personal medical decisions without government interference, particularly a person's ability to end a pregnancy if necessary. We know that because of gerrymandering and the influence of anti-abortion extremists, our legislature is so out of sync with the will of the people. Our only tool in the tool chest — aside from changing the makeup of the legislature, which we will constantly be trying to do — is a constitutional amendment. We are so lucky in Florida to have this tool. Not all states allow the people to petition to put things on the ballot. If the campaign is a success, we get on the ballot, and the electorate agrees with us as we predict they will, this will be a permanent answer to the problem that we have.
Why does Florida need such an amendment?
In 2022, the Florida legislature passed its first abortion ban, the 15-week abortion ban, and that was followed last spring, in 2023, by the most restrictive six-week abortion ban in the country. This is out of sync with the will of Floridians. Poll after poll has showed that close to 70 percent of Floridians believe that people should have access to abortion care. And so we have to have this to circumvent the extreme restrictions that the legislature is year-after-year imposing.
What would life in Florida be like for a pregnant person if the six-week ban takes effect?
It's going to be very difficult for people with problematic diagnosis during pregnancy. They are going to have to travel out of state for care at great expense and at taking time away from their regular life. We already see this happening with the 15-week ban. There are people who get bad news after 15 weeks. There are cases where people have to continue the pregnancy to deliver and have a baby that dies within an hour. And they could have received care by their own OB/GYN, and not had to go through that whole experience. But the law denies them that right. Other people have traveled out of state. And those kinds of stories are going to be happening all the more often when a six-week ban is imposed. Most people don't even know they're pregnant at six weeks, much less have all of the tests that come with pregnancy to make sure that the pregnancy is healthy.
Any thoughts about the state AG’s attempt to throw out the amendment?
Our coalition legal team is full of constitutional law experts and ballot initiative experts. They are so ready to defend our language. It was put together by experts from across the state and nation. We believe that it is 100 percent constitutional. None of the arguments that Ashley Moody has come up with were unexpected, and we are so ready for oral arguments — just waiting for them to be scheduled by the Supreme Court.
The primary objections are related to viability and healthcare definitions?
Yeah. This whole idea of viability being too general or not understandable is poppycock. Viability has long been understood in medicine and in law, even in our Florida constitution, it is defined. So she's just pulling at straws.
What are the political implications of the amendment on the ballot in a presidential election?
We know that this will, as it has in other states, drive voter turnout. And this is not a partisan issue. People don't approach abortion care as Republicans or Democrats or no party affiliates. They approach a healthcare provider, needing abortion care, as a patient who needs help. When I'm personally collecting petitions, the number of people from the right, Republicans who are eager to help get this on the ballot and fill out the forms, has been very, very delightful. It will drive voter turnout. That's a great thing, because that is participation in democracy, and that's the way that we, as Americans, need to be headed.
What convinces you that people are in sync with your movement?
Poll after poll supports our position. We did extensive research before we even began the campaign, which didn't begin until last May, because we wanted to be sure. We did our own focus groups, we did our own polling, all of that sort of stuff. There are lots of other independent polls. One that came out of Florida Atlantic University in 2022 that showed 67 percent of Floridians support access to abortion. But also I'll mention the outpouring of support we have received — the fact that we've been able to successfully collect these petitions when so many people from other movements said we were crazy to get started so late. But we are going to succeed because Floridians support this. And the number of volunteers that have come forward is unprecedented. There's never been a ballot initiative that has seen this growth in a movement.
Isn’t a constitutional amendment a tough way to go, even if you viewed it as the only alternative?
It was, and it is very, very difficult. It's difficult because it costs millions of dollars and requires so much people-power. The legislature does not like the people being allowed to put things on the ballot. And they have put up barrier after barrier to us being able to successfully petition. For example, one thing is that it's not just a simple majority, like every other election in Florida to elect them. We have to get 60 percent of the electorate to agree. There was a movement in the last session within the legislature to try to get it to 67 percent. That's what zealots they are when it comes to reproductive freedom. But before we get to the ballot, we have to petition, and the petition process is onerous. We have to get almost 900,000 Floridians to fill out a petition form and sign it. Then those forms have to be validated by the voters’ county supervisors of elections, or SOEs. That costs money, money to collect, because so many petitions are required. It cannot be a volunteer-only campaign. We have to raise millions of dollars to pay people full time, thousands of petition-gatherers, full-time, to be out throughout the state, trying to connect with voters to get them to complete these forms. There has to be a huge volunteer effort, because we can't afford to just have it be a paid effort. Just to keep up, we've raised $14 million.
Where are you at on signatures, and what’s the likely prognosis?
The state came out Friday, Dec. 8, with new numbers, and right now, we're at 77 percent collected. So we've collected 687,696 — so almost 700,000. Feb. 1, 2024, is the deadline for the county SOEs to turn their numbers into the state, but they have to go through a huge validation process. Our deadline is the end of December. We're 77 percent of the way there regarding validated petitions, but there are hundreds of thousands of petitions that have been collected and that are in the process of being validated. So we are extremely hopeful and optimistic that if we can keep up the momentum that we currently have, we will make our goal. We will know when the Florida Division of Election shows that we have a hundred percent of the ballots we need to collect. We're feeling very positive about things. We are very optimistic that we are going to have the number of validated signatures required.
Would you like to talk about anything else?
What I find when I'm out interacting with voters about this is the idea that every pregnancy and every circumstances is unique. Floridians know that, and that this constitutional amendment will ensure that politicians cannot get between a patient and their healthcare provider any longer on this issue. We want doctors involved with this, not politicians. We don't turn to politicians for answers when we have cancer or when we need birth control or when we need an appendectomy. So we don't need to turn to them for reproductive healthcare either.
Do you think this is an issue that many men don't understand because they're not the child bearers?
There is this old feminist adage, ‘If men could get pregnant, abortion would be a sacrament.’ I say that in jest, of course. I do see that our government bodies are made up with huge majorities of males, and that's part of our problem. It's not representative. The real needs and issues that Floridians face are often pushed aside for political reindeer games. However, I will say that the number of men who've been willing and eager to sign these petitions has been astounding and affirming. We have men who are out collecting petitions with us as volunteers. Of course, we can't win this without men, because we need 60 percent of the vote. Men are affected by unintended pregnancy too, and they have a stake in this.
This interview was edited for length and clarity.
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8 QUESTIONS FOR CAITLIN ROBISON
Caitlin Robison is the coordinator of the Florida Master Naturalist Program, a statewide adult education program about Florida’s natural environment. She’s also a yoga instructor who studied anthropology, philosophy, Spanish, and sustainable development at Rollins College and landed at the University of Florida for a Ph.D. program. “Research on a university scale was not for me, candidly. I started working with the program while I was in grad school as a temporary job to be able to help out with the bills … and I've been working as the program coordinator for the Florida Master Naturalist Program since.” It’s a good fit for Robison, whose undergraduate research was on decolonizing climate discourse and how to include indigenous perspectives in the fight against climate change. The outdoors is her genuine happy place, and she said her position has helped her more deeply connect with the trees, dirt, and water.
Getting Connected With the Natural World
By Judith M. Gallman
What is the Florida Master Naturalist Program?
The Florida Master Naturalist Program is an adult environmental education program devoted to creating a conservation ethic and a general awareness and excitement about our natural world here in Florida. Our niche is really young professionals, working professionals, and retirees. We have a large audience. Our first classes debuted in 2001. We have classes all over the state in every region devoted to in-class learning and field trips to grab more people and bring them into this common goal of safe and healthy environments in Florida.
How does the program work? Are there programs like this in other states?
We've served as a model for some other master naturalist programs around the country. They're all run a little bit differently. Some of them are more community-based and build connections and networks. Dr. Martin Main, our founder and program leader, has designed a very detailed and expansive curriculum. There's three core courses based on different ecosystems in the state: freshwater, coastal, and upland. Those are all 40 contact hours. They require three field studies as well as 10 to 12 in-class presentations. Those three courses are a crash course basically in all of the species and conservation issues in each of those different ecosystems. The other courses are our special topics courses and cover land stewardship and restoration. Those are all 24 contact hours, but they're structured in the same way. So as opposed to 12 presentations, you'll have four or five, and then the similar two, three field studies. It's a pretty big time commitment. The courses need a final project and some interpretation elements. Now we've branched out to have some skill-based classes, like wildlife monitoring or habitat evaluation. You're going to learn those skills and tools to do that kind of conservation work as opposed to just learning about the different ecosystems.
Do you receive a credential?
It is within its own realm. We have our own designation based on how many classes you take, and you can become an advanced master naturalist if you take all the classes. There's different designations. Teachers and environmental educators sometimes use our classes. Some can use them as continuing education units. They've been broadly recognized as a training facility, a resource camp.
Who is the program for?
It's geared towards any citizen over 18. We even have people who are not from Florida. We've had folks from across the country and even across the world take some of our classes and be able to look at their own environments and say, ‘OK, this doesn't look like Florida necessarily, but how can we draw similarities between the oak that we find here?’ Those kinds of questions we have in South Florida are different from North Florida, which are different from Alabama, et cetera. Because of the nature of a 40-hour contact class, there are limitations to who can take the classes, but we try to mitigate that with scholarships we offer to help incentivize groups that may not have all that time. We have environmental educators, teachers, young professionals, college students, and an older group of folks who have flexibility in their schedule.
What's the secret to the program’s longevity?
First would be the people that are engaged. Our graduates and our instructors are some of the most like-minded and goal-oriented and committed people. There's this air of community and connection and excitement. No one has to take this class, right? You don't need it to graduate; you don't need it for continuing education. People in the program really want to learn and want to either continue to get connected or start to get connected with the natural world. My ethics in life is guided by trees, and we have graduated over 20,000 people who are also inspired and empowered by the trees or the water and are building a group of engaged citizens that continues to grow. The other part would be our founder and our leader, Dr. Martin Main. He has a unique ability to galvanize groups and to put inspiration into people to work toward a goal while having a family feeling. As a professor and in his professional career, he's done everything you could imagine, field studies and positions-wise, but this is his purpose, and people want to rally around that.
Who are the teachers?
We've got almost 200 instructors — about 170 instructors and about 60 instructor teams. Each instructor team is established by a lead instructor, and they can bring on as many assistants and associates as they need. The lead instructor delivers the majority of the material and crafts the schedule. Some of our lead instructors are county extension directors and agents. County extension offices are fertile breeding grounds for FMNP instructors. They'll bring on other members, agents, or program assistants who are in college or grad school. They'll help facilitate the logistics. We've got folks who own their own eco tourism businesses or nature centers. We have all different kinds of partnerships. One of the biggest elements that differentiates the program is the amount of connections that are formed. We have instructors in most counties.
What does the Florida Master Naturalist Program do for someone?
We held a class for law enforcement officers, and we had someone from wildlife conservation and different groups come in and talk. Later, one law enforcement agent shared he was at the beach and saw folks trying to take home some animals and some plants. They thought, ‘Oh, a little shell. There's nothing in there.’ Instead of going up and saying, ‘Hey, you're not allowed to do that! Give me that,’ this agent turned it into a whole conversation about what the species was and the history behind it, which he had learned from class. It turned into a big conversation. The people weren't from Florida, but they got to learn a little bit about the environment, and they immediately put everything back. That shows the impact these classes can make on one person's approach. That affected an entire family who took that story to another state and who knows what happened. The agent said that the program helped him feel better about his job every time that he went to work. He was able to see different organisms, different ecosystems working together, and he also had an opportunity to educate more people.
Anything else?
It's a really unique environment to work in and to learn in. It’s the excitement and the energy that people have, which is just not common in a university setting where there is all this doom and gloom around the environment. That's tough not to have, but our mission is to change that narrative and to get people excited about change and transformation — just learning, getting outside, and feeling good about it. But to check us out, our website is the best place, MasterNaturalist.org. You can check out all of our current classes there. Scholarship opportunities also. We’re making our scholarships easier starting in 2024. It's an inclusive scholarship, so any person that has financial need can give us their name, and we help take some of the burden off them
This article has been edited for length and clarity.
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ABOUT US
Editors: Judith M. Gallman and Stephen Buel
Informative articles, as always!