Florida Supreme Court rejects overturning 15-week abortion ban, but will hear case

Tallahassee, Florida. On Monday, the Florida Supreme Court in a 4-1 decision denied a request for a temporary stay of the 15-week abortion ban, but agreed to raise the lawsuit.

Planned Parenthood, the American Civil Liberties Union, and some abortion providers challenged the Florida Legislature’s law, seeking an injunction. They argued that the right to have an abortion was protected by the Florida Constitution.

A law passed in March 2022 and signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis in April 2022 reduces legal abortion from 24 weeks to 14 weeks without excluding rape or incest.

“While we are glad that the court has not completely closed its doors, we are dismayed that it has allowed this dangerous ban to remain in place and harm real people every day until this case is finally resolved,” Whitney White said. , staff lawyer for the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project. “We hope the court will act quickly and follow 40 years of precedent and the will of the people to stop this unconstitutional 15-week abortion ban that has caused chaos and devastation in the state since it went into effect in July.”

Clinics and physician Shelly Xiao-Ying Tien filed the lawsuit on June 1, 2022.

On July 5, 2022, Leon County District Court Judge John C. Cooper issued a temporary injunction, saying the new law would be blocked due to the 1989 Supreme Court ruling that Florida’s right to privacy protected abortion.

The state immediately filed an appeal, and the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals blocked Cooper’s decision in August 2022, keeping the 15-week deadline in place.

In September, Attorney General Ashley Moody’s office urged the Supreme Court to deny the motion for a stay.

“A Florida privacy clause gives the right “to be left alone and free from government interference in a person’s private life,” Moody’s office lawyers wrote in one of the documents. “This wording is naturally intended to limit government surveillance and intelligence gathering, but not to establish the freedom to destroy unborn (or any other) life.”

The Florida Supreme Court has previously upheld the right to abortion in the state, citing a privacy clause in the state constitution that extends this right to abortion.

But DeSantis appointed more conservative judges.

Judges Charles Canaday, Ricky Paulston, John Curiel and Jamie Grosshans were in the majority.

Judge Jorge Labarga disagreed: “Given the longstanding precedent of this (Supreme) Court, I conclude that the applicants have fulfilled the strict burden required for this Court to leave the decision of the First Circuit Court of Appeal pending before this Court.

Chief Judge Carlos Muniz and Judge Renata Francis did not participate.

Lawmakers plan to pass legislation during the 2022 legislative session that would further restrict access to abortion.

Senate President Kathleen Passidomo, D-Naples, has proposed the state move to a 12-week ban with exceptions for victims of rape and incest.

About 2% of the nearly 72,000 abortions reported in Florida in 2019 were at 14 weeks or later, according to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

On Sunday, Vice President Kamala Harris appeared in Tallahassee to support abortion rights on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade. Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in state rulings.

Content Source

Dallas Press News – Latest News:
Dallas Local News || Fort Worth Local News | Texas State News || Crime and Safety News || National news || Business News || Health News

texasstandard.news contributed to this report.

Related Articles

Back to top button