Florida Supreme Court Asked To Consider Blocking 15-Week Abortion Ban After Appeals Court Lets It Stay In Place

Topline

Abortion rights advocates and providers asked the Florida Supreme Court to decide whether the state’s 15-week abortion ban should be blocked in court, after an appeals court allowed the ban to stay in effect—the first test of whether the court will overturn its decades-old precedent protecting abortion rights and let the state enact harsher bans.

Key Facts

The American Civil Liberties Union, Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers asked the Florida Supreme Court to consider a July ruling from a state appeals court, which allowed the ban to remain in effect as the litigation moves forward and denied a request to fast-track the case to the Supreme Court.

The plaintiffs said the Florida Supreme Court has jurisdiction to review the ruling because it directly conflicts with its own precedent, as the state’s highest court ruled in 1989 that the Florida Constitution and its right to privacy protects abortion rights.

A lower district judge initially blocked the 15-week ban, but the state then appealed the ruling and nullified the judge’s order, and courts have since decided to at least temporarily keep the ban in place after it took effect on July 1.

The Florida Supreme Court has become more conservative since its 1989 ruling, so it’s possible the court will overturn its precedent and allow the 15-week ban, which would likely pave the way for the Republican-led state to also enact even harsher abortion restrictions.

While the ACLU’s request Wednesday was for the court to more narrowly consider the ruling on whether the case should be fast-tracked and the ban temporarily blocked—and the court can reject the request—its decision here could signal whether or not justices are inclined to uphold the law and overturn precedent or strike the law down entirely.

Christina Pushaw, press secretary for Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R), told Forbes in an email that the governor “is pro-life, and we believe [the 15-week ban] will ultimately withstand all legal challenges.”

Crucial Quote

“The Florida Supreme Court has reaffirmed Floridians’ right to abortion time and time again, and nothing about the law has changed since politicians overreached in their pursuit to take away reproductive health care,” Whitney White, staff attorney, ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project, said in a statement. “We hope the court honors its prior precedents and takes up our request to put an end to the nightmare patients in Florida have suffered through for over a month.”

Chief Critic

“The struggle for life is not over,” Pushaw told Forbes Wednesday.

Surprising Fact

Florida has the third-highest abortion rate of any state, behind New York and Illinois, according to 2019 data compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The state is one of the only ones in the Southeast that has kept abortion at least largely legal in the wake of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade—with all bordering states now having either six-week or total abortion bans in effect—meaning even more people from out of state are now traveling to Florida for the procedure.

Key Background

Florida is one of a number of states where battles over abortion rights are now playing out in state courts after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and erased federal protections for the procedure. Abortion providers and pro-abortion rights advocates have filed lawsuits in more than a dozen states asking for anti-abortion laws to be struck down under state constitutions, which has resulted in courts at least temporarily blocking laws in Wyoming, Kentucky, Louisiana, North Dakota, West Virginia, Utah and Texas, though some states’ bans have since been put back in effect. Florida is one of five states in which state supreme courts have ruled that abortion rights are protected under the state Constitution, along with Alaska, Kansas, Minnesota and Montana. Republicans are now attempting to challenge many of those precedents, however, and while Kansas voters upheld the state’s constitutional protections in an August ballot measure, Iowa’s Supreme Court has already overturned its precedent and erased protections for abortion rights.

Further Reading

Appeals court won’t fast track Florida abortion lawsuit (Associated Press)

Wyoming Abortion Ban Blocked In Court—Here’s Where State Lawsuits Stand Now (Forbes)

Florida’s firewall against abortion restrictions is in peril (Politico)

Florida’s 15-Week Abortion Ban Blocked In Court (Forbes)