Florida voters will have say on abortions

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — The Florida Supreme Court on Monday cleared the way for the state to ban abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, before many women know they are pregnant, while also giving voters a chance to remove restrictions in November.

The court that was reshaped by former presidential candidate and Republican Gov. Ron Desantis ruled 6-1 to uphold the state’s ban on most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, meaning a ban on six weeks could soon take effect. But under a separate 4-3 ruling, the court allowed a ballot measure to go to voters that would enshrine abortion rights in Florida’s constitution.

The 15-week ban, signed by Desantis in 2022, has been enforced while it was challenged in court. The six-week ban, passed by the Legislature last year, was written so that it would not take effect until a month after the 2022 law was upheld.

Planned Parenthood, the American Civil Liberties Union and others challenged the law in court. They argued the Florida Constitution’s unique privacy clause for more than 40 years has explicitly protected a right to abortion in the state and should remain in force.

Lawyers for the state, however, said when the privacy clause was adopted by voter referendum in 1980, few people understood it would cover abortion. They told the justices the clause was mainly meant to cover “informational privacy” such as personal records and not abortion.

The Florida justices agreed, saying that when voters approved the privacy clause, they didn’t know it would affect abortion laws.

“The debate — as framed to the public — overwhelmingly associated the Privacy Clause’s terms with concerns related to government surveillance and disclosure of private information to the public,” the court wrote. “Prolife and prochoice groups did not join in the fray. These groups are not politically bashful— not now, and not in 1980.”

Desantis, who took office in 2019, appointed five of the court’s seven justices.

Abortion rights proponents were disheartened by the ruling.

“This decision demonstrates how precarious our personal freedoms are in this state,” said Democratic Rep. Anna Eskamani. “It’s so extreme you’re going to see Floridians having to go out of state, probably to Virginia, to get care.”

In Ohio, a 2019 law banning most abortions is unconstitutional following an abortion referendum last year, the state’s Republican attorney general said in a court filing Monday.

The filing comes after abortion clinics asked a Hamilton County judge to throw out the law since

Ohio voters decided to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution last November.

They argue that under the new constitutional amendment, the law, which bans most abortions once fetal cardiac activity can be detected, is invalid. Attorney General Dave Yost, for the most part, agreed.

The state “respects the will of the people,” a spokesperson for Yost’s office said in an email.