Florida will soon put in place a strict ban on abortions after six weeks after pregnancy after the state Supreme Court adopted a major ruling that is expected to reverberate across the entire Southeast.
Justices on Monday upheld the state's current 15-week ban on abortion which means that the six-week ban will now take effect in 30 days. The Florida Legislature made the six-week ban, which was adopted right before Gov. Ron DeSantis launched his bid for President, contingent on the court challenge.
In its 6-1 ruling, the court overturned a 31-year-old decision that found Florida's voter-approved privacy clause meant that legislators were blocked from adopting strict abortion regulations. Planned Parenthood used the privacy clause as the main thrust of its legal challenge against the 15-week ban.
But Justice Jamie Grosshans, who authored the opinion, contended that the initial 1989 ruling was "flawed in several respects." The earlier ruling stated that the court could "conceive of few more personal or private decisions concerning one's body" than one involving abortion. Grosshans said the text of the privacy clause did not justify the reading the earlier court gave it since it does not directly mention abortion.
Justice Jorge Labarga said he "strongly" dissented from the decision and said the court ignored "substantial evidence" that voters understood that the right to privacy included a right to an abortion.
The court has had the challenge to the 15-week ban for months but opted to release the ruling at the same time that justices also narrowly agreed to place a measure on the November ballot that would enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution.
Abortion rights supporters still decried the ruling and said that it would have repercussions inside and outside of Florida. After the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade there had been an uptick in women seeking abortions in Florida because the state's 15-week-ban wasn't as strict as several neighboring states.
"Today's ruling will undoubtedly cause people across the state to suffer," said Kelly Flynn, President and CEO of A Woman's Choice of Jacksonville. "So many of our patients already struggled to access an abortion under a 15-week ban. Now, the lives of even more Floridians will be in danger as basic health care is pushed further out of reach. It is heart-wrenching that we will be forced to turn countless patients away."
House Speaker Paul Renner, speaking to reporters shortly after the court's abortion rulings were issued, defended the looming six-week ban. He pushed back against a description of the ban as one of the most restrictive in the nation since it does allow some exceptions such as for rape and incest.
"It is a compromise that addresses where many Floridians are and is a good place for us," Renner said.
The Republican-controlled Legislature first adopted the 15-week ban in 2022 before the U.S Supreme Court issued the decision that overturned Roe v. Wade. But they shortened it to a six-week ban during the 2023 Session that included many bills that were aimed at helping DeSantis' presidential campaign.
The six-week ban surprised some Republicans, including former President Donald Trump who said "I think what he did is a terrible thing and a terrible mistake."
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