Florida abortion rights initiative secures enough signatures to be on the ballot this November

Florida abortion rights advocates on Friday said they surpassed the required number of signatures needed to put a referendum that would enshrine abortion rights in Florida's Constitution on the state's 2024 ballot in November.

If the referendum, which needed 891,523 total verified signatures to be placed on the ballot, prevails in November, it will undo Florida's abortion ban and deliver a devastating blow to Florida Republicans, including Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has restricted access to abortion in the state.

«I'm confident that something that's very, very extreme is not gonna be able to pass in Florida,» he said in Cumming, Iowa, on Friday after it was announced that the measure received the requisite number of signatures.

Currently, Florida has a 15-week abortion ban that a six-week abortion ban, caught up in litigation, could replace if the state's supreme court rules it constitutional.

Abortion advocates and Democrats are celebrating the development.

«It's official — nearly 1 million Florida voters have stepped in to protect reproductive rights and access to life-saving health care,» said Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried.

Anna Hochkammer, director of the group Florida Women's Freedom Coalition, told ABC News in a statement on Friday that there was «a grassroots avalanche of support for abortion access across the state.»

«Floridians across the political spectrum want women and girls to have access to modern, safe, dignified healthcare, and when abortion is on the ballot in 2024 in Florida, it will win,» Hochkammer added.

Hochkammer said that her group believes the government should «stay out of personal, complicated health issues.»

But the amendment — which would need 60% of the vote to pass — still faces serious