Election Night 2024 was never going to be a great night for pro-lifers. But one bright spot came in Florida, where the pro-abortion Amendment 4 went down to defeat.
Credit goes first of all to Florida’s sensible requirement that ballot measures to amend the state constitution should require the assent of 60 percent of the electorate. Amendment 4 garnered 55 percent support, which would have been enough to win in other states. But that itself reflects the fact that it lacked the broad consensus that ought to be required before taking an issue out of the ordinary legislative process.
More states should adopt a similar threshold for amending their state constitutions — not just on abortion but on every issue. Representative democracy is a good system, which allows for the give-and-take of politics over time, and should be overridden only when there is a supermajority for protecting those rights that are truly fundamental.
But a close second in the list of victory’s fathers goes to Ron DeSantis, who put a lot of his political capital on the line to stump for a pro-life position that many other Republicans feared to defend. Leadership matters, and voters respect the courage of conviction. Let that be a lesson for pro-life politicians going forward.