How the DeSantis administration is targeting Florida’s Amendment 4 on abortion

To address the growing tension and misinformation on this issue, Teenage fashion spoke with Lauren Brenzel, director of the Yes on 4 campaign. During the interview, we asked Brenzel about the difficult road to getting Amendment 4 on the ballot for voters, which included a lengthy statewide petition process, and how young people in Florida and the entire country should learn from the state’s attempts to censor the campaign.

This conversation has been shortened and slightly edited for clarity.

Teen Vogue: A central claim of many conservatives and pro-lifers is that they want abortion to be a states’ rights issue. What has this process shown you in terms of the complexity of this process in Florida compared to when abortion was federally protected?

Lauren Brenzel: It’s been an incredibly difficult journey since day one of release. The reality is that politicians seem to be most comfortable with states’ rights when they control the process rather than the people having a say in their constitution. We have seen numerous attempts by our government to try to silence the will of the people and now it is very important that everyone comes out and votes for this because the only power we have is to reach the 60% (vote) threshold (must pass constitutional amendment).

TV: A federal judge has told the DeSantis administration to stop threatening Florida television stations over Yes on 4 ads. Florida Democrats also filed criminal complaints against the state after the Florida Public Health Agency ran an ad directing viewers to an anti-Amendment 4 website. What is your reaction to all this?

LB: All of this is trying to silence abortion patients, and it’s setting a really disturbing precedent. We need to hear from the people affected by abortion. We cannot trust our politicians to continue to be a voice on this issue; patients and providers must be the voice. We know that the government is not ready to listen to stories about abortion because that is what wins the hearts and minds of people. After all, ordinary people see abortion as a public health issue, not a political one.

We really tried not to get distracted and stayed focused on the main message, which is that we need to pass Amendment 4 because there is no other way to end Florida’s strict abortion ban (any time soon)… We won (a favorable decision) a federal lawsuit that led the ACLU of Florida and other advocates to stop the Department of Health from trying to threaten criminal (charges) against television stations for running ads for Caroline…