Florida’s Fourth Amendment protecting abortion rights has failed.

The winning streak has come to an end. For the first time since the Supreme Court struck down federal abortion rights in 2022, voters rejected a bill seeking to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution, even though Floridians voted overwhelmingly to approve the measure.

This has always been a difficult task: Florida requires at least 60 percent support for proposals to amend the state constitution, the highest threshold for any measure considered by voters in the last two years. With 86 percent of the votes, Amendment 4 received the support of 57 percent of voters, while 43 percent voted against.

Beyond the practical challenges, organizers also had to contend with an unprecedented state-sponsored campaign to repeal the measure.

Governor of Florida Ron DeSantis has poured enormous effort and political capital into trying to derail the measure, after signing back-to-back bans on legislation limiting abortions—first at 15 weeks and then at six weeks. DeSantis used the full weight of state government in the campaign to ensure that the election process would fail.

Its government agencies spent millions of dollars of public money TV and radio advertisements are spreading misinformation about the measure, and the state has also created a website claiming that Amendment 4 “threatens women’s safety.” DeSantis and the Heritage Foundation united add misleading language—a purported “financial impact statement”—to the ballot, claiming that the amendment would “result in significantly more abortions and fewer live births per year in Florida” and that it “could negatively impact the growth of state and local income” after some time.”

DeSantis sent his squad of election thugs to knock on the doors of Florida voters who had signed petitions in support of the amendment, and then, just weeks before the election, his Office of Election Crimes and Security released a report accusing organizers of submitting “a large number of forged signatures or fraudulent petitions,” months after organizers paid the state of Florida to verify those signatures.

His office ordered the Department of Health’s lawyer to send cease-and-desist letters to television stations airing pro-4th Amendment ads, threatening criminal penalties. (The lawyer resigned in protest when asked to send additional letters.) His administration’s Faith and Community Initiative advanced bus tour of the opposition through official channels.

Shortly after officials began reporting election results, DeSantis published on X: “With Florida polls closed, Amendment 3 has failed. Amendment 4 failed.”