Court allows six-week abortion ban in Florida
What happened
Florida became a major abortion rights battleground this week, after the state supreme court in two decisions greenlit both a near-total abortion ban and a November ballot referendum to enshrine abortion rights in the Florida constitution. In one decision, the justices—including five appointed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis—ruled 6-1 that the privacy clause in Florida’s constitution does not invalidate the 15-week abortion ban passed in 2022. The ruling also allows the six-week abortion ban that DeSantis signed in April 2023 to take effect next month. That law makes exceptions for rape, incest, and human trafficking—but only until 15 weeks, and only with documented proof of the crime. Until now, Florida was a haven for abortion access in the South, where most states enacted bans after Roe v. Wade was overturned.
Still, voters could overturn the ban if they approve the referendum that the state supreme court, in a separate 4-3 decision, allowed to proceed. The referendum would amend the state constitution to ban restrictions on abortion before fetal viability at around 24 weeks. The ruling makes Florida the 10th state with an abortionrelated ballot initiative in November’s elections. Abortion access has prevailed in every state where it has been put to a vote— although the Florida measure requires 60 percent to pass, while others required a simple majority—and Democrats hope the issue could drive blue turnout in an increasingly red state. “Florida is not an easy state,” said Julie Chávez Rodríguez, President Biden’s campaign manager, “but it is a winnable one.”
What the columnists said
Florida women will soon live under one of America’s “most draconian abortion bans,” said Mark Joseph Stern in Slate. Most women don’t even know they’re pregnant at six weeks. Some may be able to drive 10-plus hours to Virginia to get an abortion. But others, including some with health conditions that preclude pregnancy or those with wanted pregnancies gone tragically wrong, must “wait until they are close enough to death to terminate.”
DeSantis may yet find that his six-week ban was a “strategic mistake,” said The Wall Street Journal in an editorial. He signed that especially restrictive measure when he was a presidential hopeful trying to impress Iowa evangelicals. Polls show that most Floridians are comfortable with a 15-week ban, but when faced with the “all-or-nothing-choice” of six weeks versus 24 weeks, they may well pick 24.
Meanwhile, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee is still scrambling “to find a safe position,” said Chris Brennan in USA Today. Donald Trump supported a national 15-week ban— until he didn’t. He said the six-week law was “too harsh”—and then bragged about making such bans possible by nominating conservative Supreme Court justices. When asked about the Florida court’s decisions, he said he would state his position next week. But with support for abortion rights rising nationally, the chances of him discovering a magic, crowd-pleasing compromise are slim. “This is going to follow Trump everywhere he goes.”