Karlie Kloss—Florida Woman—Wrote About Accompanying a Mother to Her Abortion

In November, Florida will vote on Amendment 4, a ballot measure that could enshrine a right to abortion in the state Constitution, and repeal the state’s six-week ban that took effect in May. In order to pass in November, the measure needs a least 60% of the vote and is currently polling at 56%. While Donald Trump, who’s spent the last several months wedging his foot deeper and deeper into his mouth on reproductive rights, seemingly refuses to comment on Amendment 4, the ballot initiative has found a champion in supermodel and abortion rights activist Karlie Kloss.

In a new op-ed in the Miami Herald, Kloss, who’s married to the brother of Trump’s son-in-law, calls on Floridians to vote for the amendment, and her emphatic endorsement begins with a highly personal story. “Last month, I sat beside a patient I’ll call Sarah at the Michael Benjamin abortion clinic in Tamarac, Florida,” Kloss said. “Sarah was one of the lucky ones. She found out she was pregnant and made an appointment before the state’s new draconian deadline banning abortion after six weeks.” Kloss explains that many people don’t even realize they’re pregnant at six weeks, and it doesn’t help that Florida law imposes a waiting period that could stop someone, who might be on the brink of the six-week mark, from getting care in time.

“Sarah tearfully explained that she was already a mom, and she and her husband were struggling financially to care for their four children, one of whom is physically disabled and requires around-the-clock care,” Kloss wrote. “Sarah’s story was one of many I heard that day and are unfolding right now across the state.”

Kloss’ op-ed also details the plight of clinic workers across Florida: “A small but mighty determined staff works around the clock to provide care to the patients they can—and they refuse to turn away those they legally cannot,” she wrote. “Instead, they’re helping patients whose pregnancies are beyond six weeks secure appointments and funds to travel the 11-hours by car to the nearest abortion clinic in North Carolina, or fly directly from Fort Lauderdale to Chicago or Washington D.C.” The Brigid Alliance, an organization that helps abortion seekers cover all costs of abortion-related travel, told Jezebel in May they’ve gone from supporting an average of 40 abortion-seeking clients per month in 2019 to now serving 150 per month, and that the average distance clients need to travel has also increased by 30% between 2022 and 2023, from 1,000 miles to 1,300 due to the spread of abortion bans.

While Kloss was particularly affected by Sarah’s story, as she details in the op-ed, she’s been advocating for reproductive rights for most of her life. As a teenager, she volunteered as a clinic escort at a Planned Parenthood clinic near her hometown in St. Louis, then launched the Gateway Coalition organization in 2022 to direct funding to Midwest groups that provide abortion care. “I’ve visited many abortion clinics, met with countless patients and the incredible doctors serving them, but I was still deeply moved and surprised by what I saw in Tamarac,” Kloss wrote, again calling on Floridians to vote for Amendment 4. 

Florida law requires a ballot initiative to receive at least 60% of the vote to pass, and polls for Amendment 4 from the last few weeks differ pretty sharply. One poll from the end of July showed 69% of Florida voters poised to vote for the ballot initiative, while a poll from earlier this month showed just 56% support. The stakes couldn’t be higher—for Florida and the entire South. Before May, when the six-week ban took effect, Florida was the last state in the region to offer abortion care (at least through 15 weeks.) The state provided 80,000 abortions in 2023, and almost a tenth of these were out-of-state patients. In June, the Florida Access Network abortion fund said callers on average now have to travel over 900 miles for abortion care, and Stephanie Loraine Pineiro, executive director of FAN, called Florida’s ban “the biggest change in the abortion access landscape” since the 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health decision.

Kloss concludes her op-ed on a hopeful note, citing how in “red and blue [states] alike,” reproductive rights ballot measures have all triumphed since Dobbs. “Why? Because abortion is not a partisan issue. It is healthcare,” she wrote. “It’s an economic issue. It’s an issue that families like Sarah’s should decide for themselves—not state legislators with no understanding of their daily lives.”