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Florida’s Supreme Court on Monday cleared the way for the state’s six-week abortion ban to go into effect, while allowing Floridians to decide in the fall whether to enshrine abortion protections in the state constitution.
By upholding Florida’s current 15-week abortion ban, the state Supreme Court set in motion a six-week abortion ban approved by Florida lawmakers last year. This law will take effect within 30 days. But in a separate ruling, the court approved language in a state constitutional amendment protecting abortion rights in Florida and putting it on the ballot as Amendment 4 this November, which could overturn both bans. admitted that. Florida’s proposed constitutional amendment must receive support from at least 60% of voters to be approved.
Monday’s ruling makes Florida one of the nation’s most restrictive states on abortion and begins a presidential year battle over reproductive rights in the Sunshine State. Biden’s campaign said Monday that it could “win” Florida, a perennial battleground state that has favored Republicans in recent elections, in November as it seeks to mobilize voters around abortion rights. Ta.
With the measure set to appear on the state’s ballot, Florida joins several other states, including Michigan and Ohio, where voters have placed a direct focus on reproductive rights since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade. will join that state. The initiative could also increase turnout in what is expected to be a close race between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump.
In January, Floridians for Freedom, the coalition behind the ballot initiative, gathered just under 1 million signatures from registered voters to qualify it for review by the Florida Supreme Court. The justices had to decide whether the amendment’s language was clear and unambiguous and would not confuse voters. The court also needed to determine whether the language on the ballot addressed a single subject. Both legal requirements had to be met for the amendment to appear on the ballot.
The text of the amendment that will appear on the ballot is as follows:
“No law shall prohibit, penalize, delay, or restrict abortion before viability or when necessary to protect the health of the patient, as determined by the patient’s health care provider.” This amendment The proposal does not alter Congress’ constitutional authority to require notification of a parent or guardian before a minor obtains an abortion.”
The language was challenged last year by Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody, who asked the court to strike down the amendment, arguing that the language was vague and confusing and intended to deceive voters. Ta.
“The summary on the ballot cannot be said to mislead voters as to the actual wording of the amendment,” the justices wrote in an opinion Monday.
“This is an opportunity to engage in direct democracy to stop these unpopular and harmful policies,” Lauren Brenzel, campaign director for Yes on 4, said in a statement.
“I’m excited that Floridians will have the opportunity to regain their bodily autonomy and freedom from government interference by voting on Amendment 4 this November,” said Brenzel. “Today’s ruling also highlights the important role of Florida’s ballot initiative process, which provides voters with an important opportunity to take control when politicians do not represent our interests.”
Both Biden and Trump reacted to Tuesday’s ruling. In a statement released by the White House, Biden denounced the “extreme” decision, but the Trump campaign said the former president “supports pro-life policies but does not want voters to have the right to decide policy.” “And because we support it, we’re also making it clear that we support states’ rights.” themselves. ”
Florida’s Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, signed a law last April that bans most abortions after six weeks, before many women know they are pregnant.
Under the law, victims of rape, incest, and human trafficking can obtain an abortion up to 15 weeks of pregnancy if the woman provides a restraining order, police report, medical records, or other evidence. .
The bill would also prohibit doctors from prescribing abortions via telemedicine and require abortion drugs to be dispensed by a doctor rather than mailed.
But the bill’s passage stalled after Planned Parenthood and other abortion rights groups filed a lawsuit seeking to overturn a law signed by DeSantis in 2022 that bans abortions after 15 weeks. The law remained limited while legal challenges developed.
The 15-week ban does not include exceptions for rape, incest or human trafficking, and does not include exceptions for rape, incest or human trafficking, and if the diagnosis is confirmed in writing by two doctors, the mother is at serious risk or the The pregnancy cannot be terminated after 15 weeks unless fetal abnormalities are detected.
For decades, Florida courts have blocked legislative attempts to restrict abortion in the state. In 1989, the state Supreme Court ruled that the state constitution’s privacy clause “clearly implicates a woman’s decision whether to continue her pregnancy.”
These long-standing protections have made Florida a mecca for women seeking abortions across the South, as neighboring states have moved to restrict abortion procedures over time. In 2020, Florida had 19.1 legal abortions per 1,000 women, the highest rate of any state in the nation.
But on Monday, a five-member DeSantis-appointed court allowed the ban to move forward, walking away from decades-old protections linking a woman’s right to an abortion to the state constitution’s privacy clause.
“The majority concludes that the public’s understanding of the right to privacy did not include the right to abortion. However, given Roe’s dominance in the public sphere, “It is inconceivable that voters did not associate abortion with the right to privacy,” the opinion states.
This change will have a profound impact on abortion access in the southeastern United States. In six weeks, Virginia will become the closest state for Florida women to seek abortion access, while many Southern states have near-total bans on abortion.
“This ruling is a significant setback for human rights in our state,” said Alexandra Mandado, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of South, East and North Florida.
“This sets a dangerous precedent for government intrusion into our personal lives and medical decisions. This decision creates a near-total abortion ban and limits access to care for Floridians.” “This puts vulnerable communities at risk, especially low-income people in rural areas and those who face discrimination,” Mandad said in a statement.
The court also approved Amendment 3 ballot language Monday that will allow Florida voters to decide whether to legalize recreational marijuana in November.
A constitutional amendment could allow adults 21 and older to use recreational marijuana. This would allow people to possess up to 3 ounces of marijuana.
Moody filed a challenge to the proposal in the state Supreme Court in November 2023. She questioned the language of the amendment and its potential violation of the requirement that voting efforts stick to a single subject. The justices rejected both arguments in their majority opinion.
The amendment would also need approval from 60% of voters to pass.
In 2016, Florida voters legalized medical marijuana through a constitutional amendment, but a year later, then-Florida Governor Rick Scott signed a law banning all forms of marijuana smoking.
But DeSantis’ first bill he signed as governor in 2019 re-legalized smokable medical marijuana in Florida.
A CNN investigation last year raised questions about DeSantis’ record on dealing with special interests and campaign donors after he was courted by marijuana interests who helped finance his campaign. The investigation revealed that DeSantis had repeated contacts with players in the state’s emerging cannabis industry, sometimes for his own benefit and sometimes theirs, and the new law would later be introduced in several states in Florida. It turns out it’s helping to fuel what is becoming a billion-dollar industry.
In a new memo on Monday, the Biden campaign said it was “more likely to win Florida this term than in 2020” as it seeks to mobilize voters around abortion rights, contrasting the Trump and Biden campaigns’ records. “We are in a strong position to do so.”
“Don’t get me wrong, Florida is not an easy state to win, but especially with President Trump’s weak and cash-strapped campaign and the serious problems within the coalition,” Biden campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez said in a statement. “This is a winnable state for President Biden, given its vulnerabilities.” Note.
Trump has led the state twice before, narrowly defeating Hillary Clinton by about 100,000 votes in 2016, but widened that lead in 2020, beating Biden by 51.2 points. % vs. 47.9%.
Still, the Biden campaign ended February with $71 million in available cash in major campaign accounts, more than double the $33.5 million in cash reserves held by the Trump campaign and In addition, he believes there is room to overturn the Biden campaign’s policies. State Blue comes in November.
“As we’ve seen in election after election, protecting abortion rights is mobilizing a diverse and growing base of voters to lift or sink Democratic votes,” Chavez said. Rodriguez wrote Monday, pointing to the Florida Supreme Court’s Monday ruling on the abortion bill. Fixed.
This story has been updated with additional information.
CNN’s Steve Contorno, DJ Judd, Scott Glover, Randi Kaye, Nelli Black, Michelle Lou and Brandon Griggs contributed to this report.
