On Monday, the Florida Supreme Court upheld the state’s ban on most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. This ruling clears the way for an even more restrictive 6-week abortion ban to take effect in the state next month when Florida will become one of 13 states that ban abortion as early as 6 weeks. The other states are:
- Georgia,
- Idaho,
- Iowa,
- Kentucky,
- Louisiana,
- Mississippi,
- North Dakota,
- Ohio,
- Oklahoma,
- South Carolina,
- Tennessee,
- and Texas.
How the court ruled
The Florida Supreme Court ruled 6-1 to uphold the state’s 15-week abortion ban, which was signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis in 2022.
- The 15-week ban has been in effect while being challenged in court by Planned Parenthood, the ACLU, and others.
- These groups argued that the Florida Constitution’s privacy clause protects the right to abortion.
- The court disagreed, saying that the Florida Constitution’s privacy clause does not “guarantee the right to an abortion through the end of the pregnancy.”
As Justice Jamie Grosshans wrote for the 6-1 majority, “Those legal arguments on the privacy clause’s meaning are, in our view, distinct from the serious moral, ethical, and policy issues that are implicated in the subject matter of this case.”
- The court deferred to the state legislature’s policy decisions, stating “there is no basis under the privacy clause to invalidate the statute.”
- The court applied “longstanding principles of judicial deference to legislative policy choices” in reaching its conclusion.
- The court also rejected the argument that the 1980 amendment to the Florida Constitution’s privacy clause was intended to protect abortion rights.
- The state’s lawyers argued that the clause was mainly meant to cover “informational privacy” like personal records, not abortion.
Florida’s abortion restrictions
A year after the 15-week ban was signed into law, Desantis signed a subsequent 6-week abortion ban, which was written to take effect a month after the 15-week ban was upheld. Florida already had significant barriers to abortion, including:
- mandatory 24-hour waiting periods,
- and parental consent requirements for minors.
Florida law also requires all drugs used in medication-induced abortions to be dispensed only in person or by a physician. The result is that the 6-week ban will make it virtually impossible to obtain an abortion in the state.
The ban will not only impact Floridians but also people across the South who have been traveling to Florida for abortion care since the overturning of Roe v. Wade. Florida had seen a 12% increase in abortions in 2023 compared to 2020, largely due to an influx of patients from neighboring states—such as Alabama and Georgia—with more restrictive laws.
Will the pro-life victory last?
However, the pro-life victory might be short-lived.
- The court also ruled 4-3 to allow a ballot measure to go to voters in November that would enshrine abortion rights in Florida’s constitution.
- Last year, the Floridians Protecting Freedom committee reached the state’s threshold of more than 891,000 state-certified voter signatures to get the issue on the ballot this November.
- For it to pass, it will need to be approved by 60% of voters.
The court found that the ballot initiative “effects a single change to the Florida Constitution on a single subject: the right to make decisions about one’s own pregnancy, including the right to abortion.”
- The court rejected arguments from the state attorney general that the ballot initiative “improperly ‘logrolls’ distinct subjects” by addressing both pre-viability abortions and post-viability abortions for maternal health reasons.
- The court said these were interconnected aspects of the “single subject” of abortion rights.
- The court stated that while “questions may arise as to its interpretation” if the amendment passes, “this is true of the entire text of the Florida Constitution and its subsequent amendments, and processes exist to resolve those questions accordingly.”
- The court said that in regards to the ballot language “there is no lack of candor or accuracy: the ballot language plainly informs voters that the material legal effects of the proposed amendment will be that the government will be unable to enact laws that ‘prohibit, penalize, delay, or restrict’ pre-viability abortions or abortions necessary to protect the mother’s health.”
The 15-week and 6-week bans will remain in effect until the ballot initiative is concluded. Florida’s ballot initiative is but one of several dealing with abortion across the country and will be decided by Florida voters along with recreational marijuana use in November.
