Florida ballot initiative to extend abortion rights fails

The ballot initiative had required at least 60 percent of votes cast in order to pass, a high hurdle to clear in the conservative southeastern state. The defeat, which was reported by US media, marks the first pro-abortion rights ballot measure to fail since the US Supreme Court in 2022 overturned Roe v Wade, the ruling that had given women a federal right to the procedure. News network NBC reported that the measure, known as Amendment 4, received 57 percent of the vote, failing by three percentage points.