After a proposed constitutional amendment on abortion rights failed to pass last week, abortion opponents are dropping lawsuits alleging fraud in the petition-gathering process that helped get the measure on the ballot.
Opponents filed the lawsuits last month in various parts of the state and sought to invalidate what appeared as Amendment 4 on the Nov. 5 ballot.
A notice filed Wednesday in Orange County circuit court said plaintiffs were dismissing a lawsuit filed in Orange County.
Alan Lawson, a former Florida Supreme Court justice who represents the plaintiffs, confirmed to The News Service of Florida that similar notices were filed in the lawsuits in other parts of the state.
The lawsuits relied heavily on a 388-page report that the Florida Department of State’s Office of Election Crimes and Security released in October accusing some petition gatherers of fraud.
The report also accused Floridians Protecting Freedom, a political committee that sponsored the constitutional amendment, of illegally paying workers based on the number of signatures they collected.
The report and lawsuits came as Gov. Ron DeSantis, whose administration includes the Department of State, led efforts to defeat the proposed amendment.
Floridians Protecting Freedom Campaign director Lauren Brenzel last month called the lawsuits “a deeply troubling anti-democratic effort” to keep voters from weighing in.
The amendment, which would have enshrined abortion rights in the Constitution, received support from 57.16 percent of voters. That was short of the 60 percent required for passage.
