Florida Supreme Court Upholds 15-Week Abortion Ban, Allows Ballot Initiative to Move Forward
- April 05, 2024
The Florida Supreme Court refused April 1 to block the state’s 15-week abortion ban after finding the law passed constitutional muster.
In the 6-1 decision, the high court overruled its prior case law that the Florida Constitution’s privacy clause guaranteed the right to receive an abortion through the end of the second trimester. Those decisions, the opinion said, relied on reasoning the U.S. Supreme Court has since rejected in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Org., 597 U.S. 215 (2022).
Planned Parenthood of Southwest and Central Florida, on behalf of seven abortion clinics and one medical doctor, challenged the 15-week abortion ban arguing it violated the privacy clause, which was added to the Florida Constitution in 1980. They asked the court to enjoin the ban as unconstitutional.
“[W]e cannot conclude that in 1980 a voter would have assumed the text encompassed a polarizing definition of privacy that included broad protections for abortion,” the high court said. “Based on our analysis finding no clear right to abortion embodied within the Privacy Clause, Planned Parenthood cannot overcome the presumption of constitutionality and is unable to demonstrate beyond a reasonable doubt that the 15-week ban is unconstitutional,” the high court held. Planned Parenthood of Southwest and Central Fla. v. Florida, No. SC2022-1127 (Fla. Apr. 1, 2024).
In a statement, the Center for Reproductive Rights noted that the Florida Supreme Court ruling also cleared the way for a more restrictive six-week ban to take effect 30 days after the decision.
Meanwhile, in another decision, the Florida Supreme Court approved the language of a ballot initiative to protect abortion rights in the state. The amendment provides that “No law shall prohibit, penalize, delay, or restrict abortion before viability or when necessary to protect the patient’s health, as determined by the patient’s healthcare provider.”
The Florida Attorney General petitioned the high court concerning the validity of the language used in the citizen-led amendment. The high court’s ruling will allow the amendment to appear on the November 5 ballot.