Florida Supreme Court upholds abortion ban, allows abortion in constitution on November ballot

By Skyler Lee - Posted at Pregnancy Help News:

Published April 3, 2024 

The Florida Supreme Court isued two-abortion-related rulings on Monday. One decision will allow a law banning abortion after 15 weeks to take effect, which in turn means another law banning abortion from six weeks can also go into effect. However, that may only be the case until the election in November, as the other decision allows the questions of abortion as a constitutional right to officially be on the ballot.

Governor Ron DeSantis had signed HB 5, the Reducing Fetal and Infant Mortality bill in April 2022, the law making it to the state Supreme Court after an injunction was tossed out. The Heartbeat Protection Act, HB 7, was passed and signed into law in April 2023, contingent upon whether the state Supreme Court upheld HB 5. HB 7 is thus set to take effect 30 days from the ruling.

One day, two Supreme Court decisions

Florida’s Supreme Court ruled in Planned Parenthood of Southwest and Central Florida v. State of Florida April 1 and issued an advisory opinion to the state Attorney General on a separate abortion-related matter.

Planned Parenthood v. Florida addressed whether the “right” to abortion was protected under the state constitution’s privacy clause. Clarity was needed to determine whether Florida’s 15-week abortion ban could constitutionally remain in effect.

In this case, the Court ruled 6-1 that abortion was not protected under the state’s privacy clause despite the precedent set in In re T.W., and upheld the state’s 15-week abortion law, with Justice Jorge Labarga dissenting.

The Justices referenced Dobbs in this decision, stating in the ruling, “We conclude there is no basis under the Privacy Clause to invalidate the statute. In doing so, we recede from our prior decisions in which—relying on reasoning the U.S. Supreme Court has rejected—we held that the Privacy Clause guaranteed the right to receive an abortion through the end of the second trimester.”

In a separate decision, the Court also issued an advisory opinion addressing the state Attorney General’s concerns regarding the validity of a proposed citizen initiative amendment to the Florida Constitution.

In the opinion, the Court ruled 4-3 that the Amendment to Limit Government Interference with Abortion could be placed on the ballot in November.

Continue here.

See also:

• Fetal Personhood Fight Spurred by Florida Abortion Ballot Ruling (bloomberglaw.com)