Justices block 24-hour wait for abortions
State’s high court rejects 2015 law for second time.
TALLAHASSEE — In another in a string of rulings siding with abortion-rights advocates, the Florida Supreme Court on Thursday blocked a 2015 law that would have required women to wait 24 hours before having abortions.
Thursday’s 4-2 decision was the second time the state high court kept the law, approved by the Republican-dominated Legislature a nd s i g ned by Gov. Ri c k Scott, from taking effect.
A L e on C ount y c i rc ui t judge issued a temporary injunction blocking the law from being implemented, but the 1st Distric t Court of Appeal overturned that dec i sion a year ago. The Supreme Court then issued a stay temporarily blocking the law while it considered the matter.
The appeals court pointed to a lack of evidence to support the temporary injunction, saying in part that the circuit judge “failed to make sufficient factually supported findings about the existence of a significant restriction on a woman’s right to seek an abortion.”
But in Thursday’s majority opinion overturning the appellate decision, Justice Barbara Pariente wrote that enactment of the law “would lead to irreparable harm.”
The law would require women to make at least two visits to a health care provider before being able to have the procedure, Pariente noted.
“The mandatory delay l a w i mpa c t s o n l y t h o s e women who have already made the choice to end their pre gnancies,” she wrote for the majority. “Indeed, under Florida’s pre-existing informed consent law, a woman can already take all of the time she needs to decide whether to terminate her pregnancy, both before she arrives at the clinic and after she receives the counseling information.”
The law would require women seeking an abortion “to make an additional, unnecessary trip to their health care provider” that “could impose additional harms by requiring a woman to delay the procedure or force her past the time limit for the procedure of her choice,” Pariente wrote.
Shortly after the law was passed, the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida filed the challenge on behalf of a Gainesville abortion clinic and a group of medical students. The lawsuit maintained that the waiting period is an unconstitutional violation of the right to privacy.
Pariente was joined in the majority by Chief Justice Jorge Labarga and Just i c e s R . F r e d L e wi s a n d Peggy Quince. Dissenting were Justices Ricky Polston and Charles Canady. scourge that is creating new tragedies daily.”
Mast’s 80-second speech included some of the same st ati stic s shared by Palm Beach County Commissioner Melissa McKinlay last week in her letter urging Gov. Rick Scott to declare a public health emergency.
While Mast was on the House floor in Washington, McKinlay was in Tallahassee attending a presentation by State Attorney Dave Aronberg to the Florida House of Representative’s Children, Family and Seniors subcommittee.
Aronberg and assistant state attorney Al Johnson gave an overview of recom- mendations from the county’s Sober Home Task Force on changes to state laws that will help crack down on overdose deaths and on shady operators of sober homes.
“This is not your grandfather’s heroin. This is heroin spiked with cheap potent Chinese fentanyl. That’s why you are seeing so many deaths,’’ Aronberg said.
Johnson told the subcommittee that research by The Palm Beach Post found that heroin-related hospital costs in Florida had reached more than $1 billion in 2015 — $4.1 million a day.
H e s a i d P a l m B e a c h County Fire Rescue estimates it costs at least $1,500 for each drug run, including the truck and personnel. “If you have 5,000 runs, we’re talking about $7.5 million just for Palm Beach County alone,” Johnson said.
On Tuesday, Sen. Marco Rubio joined three other U.S. senators in introducing the STOP Act to close loopholes that currently allow the importation of synthetic drugs such as fentanyl and carfentanil.
“From Palm Beach to Sarasota to Orlando to Pensacola, fatal overdoses attributable to heroin, fentanyl, and carfentanil are destroying families and communities,” Rubio said. “I’m joining my colleagues in reintroducing this bipartisan legislation because we need to do everything we can to stop these drugs from entering the country.”