Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, accompanied by doctors, holds a press conference to speak out against Amendment 4, which would have constitutionally protected access to abortion in the state.Paul Hennessy/Sopa/Zuma

Six weeks in Florida The ban on abortion will remain the law of the land, as a constitutional amendment on the right to abortion failed Tuesday evening.

With 91 percent of votes counted as of 9:20 p.m., support for Florida Amendment 4 hovered around 57 percent, according to Associated Press projections, short of the 60 percent threshold required for passage. The amendment would have protected the right to abortion until fetal viability, or until approximately 24 weeks of gestation, and after viability if a medical provider has determined that the procedure is necessary to preserve the health of the patient .

The failure of the amendment is not only a loss of political momentum following the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision in 2022; It’s a major victory for Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, who used the power of his office to defeat the measure. “A bipartisan group of voters sent a clear message to the Florida Legislature today,” a representative from Floridians Protecting Freedom, the campaign behind the amendment, said in a livestream Tuesday evening. This message to legislators? “End the ban.”

DeSantis proclaimed victory a few minutes after the polls closed at 8 p.m., “Amendment 4 failed,” he wrote in an article on X.

Supporters of abortion rights spent more in Florida—more than $75 million—than in any other state with similar measures on the ballot. Despite popular support for the right to abortion In this state, the ballot measure faced an uphill battle to victory, in more ways than one.

Clearly, he needed 60 percent support, more than the simple majorities needed to pass abortion protections in red states like OhioKansas and Kentucky. But so does the DeSantis administration challenged the measure in an unprecedented mannerin particular by threatening television channels which broadcast advertisements in favor of the amendment, by publishing a message massive report weeks before the election, accusing Floridians Protecting Freedom of “widespread voter fraud” and using a state agency website as virtual billboard to oppose the amendment.

Since the entry into force in MayFlorida’s six-week abortion ban has upended access to the procedure across the South. Tennessee, Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Kentucky all have near-total bans on abortion, and Georgia and South Carolina have six-week bans. The number of abortions in Florida fell 30 percent during the first two months of the ban, according to the Guttmacher Institute.

The defeat of Amendment 4 marks the first failure of an abortion rights amendment since Dobbs. Voters in seven states passed abortion protections, and voters from nine other states have similar measures on their ballots.