Florida Supreme Court puts abortion amendment on ballot
Florida voters will get to decide in November whether abortion rights should be guaranteed in the constitution, the state’s Supreme Court ruled Monday.
The amendment would require access to abortions up to the viability of the fetus, which scientists and the medical community have long placed at about 24 weeks, the end of the second trimester. It would need the approval of 60% of the voters.
Florida currently allows women to get abortions past 15 weeks only in instances of rape, incest, life-threatening conditions and fatal fetal abnormalities. Medical professionals have previously told the Orlando Sentinel that the law is difficult to interpret, and there have been instances where women were denied abortions despite threats to their health.
The amendment summary, in part, states, “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.”
It would not change the law requiring that parents be notified before minors can have an abortion.
“The court understands how important these decisions are and that Floridians are watching and hoping to vote on this,” said Rep. Anna Eskamani, D-orlando, before the release of the ruling.
She noted that House Speaker Paul Renner and the sponsors of the six-week ban Desantis signed into law last year scheduled a news conference after the court released its opinion.
“No doubt they will continue to highlight their extreme dangerous positions,” Eskamani said.
“That will ultimately hurt them because the people of Florida overwhelmingly don’t support these policies. This doesn’t reflect the opinion of most Floridians. They’re just tone deaf.”
The Supreme Court’s only role was to decide if the wording was unambiguous, but during oral arguments in February, the justices and lawyers got into a discussion about viability.
Chief Justice Carlos Muñiz wondered whether a fetus would be protected under a provision in Florida’s constitution guaranteeing the right to life to “all natural persons.”
But the Florida Supreme
Court ruled in 1978 that a fetus was not a “person” under the state’s wrongful death statute.
Attorney General
Ashley Moody has argued that the wording was too vague for voters to understand what they are voting on. Supporters of the amendment said the language was clear.
Floridians Protecting Freedom submitted nearly 1 million signatures to put the issue on the November ballot.
The court’s opinion will affect voter turnout if it goes on the ballot or not in November, said Aubrey Jewett, a political science professor at the University of Central Florida.
“It’s expected to increase turnout among Democrats” if it makes the ballot, Jewett said, especially Democratleaning voters — young people, women, and independent voters.
“Polls show a strong majority of Floridians feel very passionately about the issue and want the opportunity to vote on it,” he said. “Republicans have a tendency to show up either way.”
John Stemberger, newly named president of Liberty Counsel Action, said last month a coalition of antiabortion groups is prepared to oppose the measure if it does make the ballot.
Since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade abortion decision in 2022, many states have severely limited or banned the procedure, including most of the states bordering Florida. The closest places that allow pregnancies past 15 weeks are Illinois and Washington, D.C.
Florida has long had among the laxest abortion restrictions in the Southeast, a status solidified since the Roe ruling. As a result, Florida has become a destination for women seeking to end their pregnancies. Of 78,250 recorded abortions last year, over 7,000 were for outof-state residents. In 2020, about 4,000 patients were from out-of-state.
Voters in seven states — California, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Montana, Ohio and Vermont — have sided with abortion rights supporters on ballot measures, according to the Associated Press.
Even without the passage of this amendment, groups including Planned Parenthood and the American Civil Liberties Union are arguing in a lawsuit against the 15week ban that a 1980 privacy clause in Florida’s constitution already protects the right to abortion.
The clause, in part, states “Every natural person has the right to be let alone and free from governmental intrusion into the person’s private life except as otherwise provided herein.”
The state Supreme Court has previously interpreted this clause as protecting abortion, but the court’s makeup has changed dramatically since then. Of the seven-member court, five justices were appointed by Gov. Ron Desantis.
It’s unknown when the court will issue their ruling on the 15-week ban’s constitutionality.