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Florida Health Centers Challenge 15-Week Abortion Ban in State Court
Florida health care providers filed a lawsuit bringing a state constitutional challenge earlier today to House Bill 5, a ban on abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy that threatens to put doctors in jail for providing essential care beyond that point. Abortion providers in the case are asking the court to block the ban from taking effect on July 1.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla.
Florida health care providers filed a lawsuit bringing a state constitutional challenge earlier today to House Bill 5, a ban on abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy that threatens to put doctors in jail for providing essential care beyond that point. Abortion providers in the case are asking the court to block the ban from taking effect on July 1.
Two-thirds of Floridians support the right to abortion and voters have consistently cast their ballot to ensure that the state constitution provides independent protection for the right to abortion. HB 5 is blatantly unconstitutional under the state constitution. In 1980, Florida voters amended the state constitution to provide broad protections for individual privacy rights -- including abortion. And in 2012, voters overwhelmingly rejected Amendment 6 that would have taken those protections away. These protections will remain in place regardless of the U.S. Supreme Court's upcoming ruling on federal abortion rights in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization.
Florida's 15-week ban would have devastating effects on abortion access in the state and surrounding region. Floridians already face burdensome restrictions to getting an abortion -- such as a ban on insurance plans on the state exchange covering abortion; a parental consent requirement that makes it harder for young people to get abortions; and a law that requires people to make an additional, unnecessary trip to an abortion provider before receiving care, which took effect in April. There are also many other barriers to access for people who need abortion care, including: delays in finding out they're pregnant; difficulty affording essential health care; and a lack of nearby providers.
HB 5 will force Floridians to remain pregnant against their will, violating their dignity and bodily autonomy, and endangering their families, their health, and even their lives. The impacts of pushing reproductive health care out of reach in the middle of a maternal mortality crisis will fall hardest on Black women, who are nearly three times more likely than white women to die during childbirth, or shortly after.
Below are statements from plaintiffs and litigators:
Daniel Tilley, legal director, ACLU of Florida:
"This law blatantly rejects Floridians' need for essential abortion care and their strong support for the right to get an abortion. Not only does HB 5 defy the will of the people, it ignores the real life circumstances of people who need an abortion and deliberately puts them in harm's way. With the U.S. Supreme Court threatening to take away the federal right to abortion, we will do everything in our power to block this cruel attack on Floridians' fundamental right to get the care they need."
Nancy Northup, president & CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights:
"The Florida Supreme Court has long held that their state constitution protects the right to end a pregnancy. That means even if Roe falls, abortion should remain protected in Florida, and this ban should be blocked. There are so many reasons that people need abortions past 15 weeks of pregnancy, especially people struggling to make ends meet who need time to secure the funds. Young people in Florida must get parental consent to have an abortion or permission from a judge, which can be a lengthy process. Politicians are simultaneously making it impossible to get an abortion early in pregnancy and then banning abortion later in pregnancy. It's a calculated Catch-22."
Dr. Shelly Tien, MD, maternal-fetal medicine specialist and provider of abortion care, Planned Parenthood of South, East, and North Florida:
"When it comes to pregnancy, birth, and parenting, patients and their families make the best decisions for themselves and their loved ones, consistent with their values and beliefs. Patients may need abortion care after 15 weeks for many reasons, whether it be related to a health condition that develops as the pregnancy progresses, or delays to care directly related to inequitable access to medical care, which is especially pronounced for women and girls living in poverty. Of further concern, restricting abortion access will result in forced pregnancies, forced childbirth, and for some, forced parenting (some families may not feel that making an adoption plan is an option for them). Everyone should have the fundamental right to make these deeply personal decisions that profoundly impact the arc of their lives within the privacy of the physician-patient relationship."
April Otterberg, partner, Jenner & Block LLP
"HB5 unconstitutionally limits an individual's right to access abortion services, a right that is protected by the Florida state constitution. Today's lawsuit seeks to block the implementation of this law and asks the court system to uphold and protect the rights enshrined in the state constitution."
The American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU of Florida, Center for Reproductive Rights, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, and the law firm Jenner & Block filed this lawsuit on behalf of Planned Parenthood of Southwest and Central Florida; Planned Parenthood of South, East and North Florida; Gainesville Woman Care; Indian Rocks Woman's Center; St. Petersburg Woman's Health Center; Tampa Woman's Health Center; and A Woman's Choice of Jacksonville.
The American Civil Liberties Union was founded in 1920 and is our nation's guardian of liberty. The ACLU works in the courts, legislatures and communities to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to all people in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States.
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House GOP Vote to Take Back Funds for NPR/PBS Imperils 'Future of Public Broadcasting'
"President Trump is determined to destroy any news outlets that hold him accountable for his actions," said one free press advocate.
Jun 13, 2025
The U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday narrowly approved a rescission package that would take back funding for PBS and NPR, as well international aid programs—a move that supporters of public media quickly decried.
Earlier in June, the Trump White House formally asked Congress to rescind over $9 billion in approved spending, the vast majority of which would go toward foreign aid programs. However, it also includes a take back of more than $1 billion in already approved funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), the congressionally funded and created company that supports public media in the United States. CPB distributes nearly all of those funds to local television and radio stations, according to NPR. The funding clawback impacts funding for the next two fiscal years.
"Public media delivers unmatched value to the American taxpayer," said Patricia Harrison, president and CEO of CPB, in a statement on Thursday. "It serves every family in every part of America."
The package passed with a 214 to 212 vote. All House Republicans except for four voted in favor of the measure, and all Democrats voted against it. It now heads to the Senate.
"From life-saving emergency alerts to local reporting and storytelling, and educational resources that support families, job seekers and teachers—these services exist because public media is committed to serving everyone, regardless of income or zip code. In many rural and underserved areas, the loss could be total," Protect My Public Media, a grassroots advocacy campaign focused on preserving federal funding for public media stations, wrote in response to the House vote. The group is driving emails to the Senate to urge lawmakers to vote against the package.
Co-CEO of the advocacy group Free Press Action, Craig Aaron, said Thursday that there is broad support for federal funding for public broadcasting.
"President [Donald] Trump is determined to destroy any news outlets that hold him accountable for his actions. As they prepare to vote on his request, senators need to know that supporting public media is healthy for their communities and our democracy. Publicly funded news outlets act as counterbalances to a commercial media system that too often puts profits before the public interest," Aaron said.
Big picture, Free Press Action says that the House vote puts the "future of public broadcasting in doubt."
In addition to slashing federal funding for NPR and PBS, the package would cut money for peacekeeping efforts, dollars for health programs that fund activities related to child and maternal health, HIV/AIDS, and infectious diseases, and funding for climate projects.
Lisa Gilbert, co-president of the watchdog group Public Citizen, highlighted some of these other cuts, as well as those to public media, and added that "Republican senators should reflect on how the rescission package threatens to blow up the annual appropriations process."
"The minority party has no reason to agree to bipartisan appropriations legislation if the president and one party alone can undo the deal," she said.
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War Profiteers Benefit as Nuclear Weapons Spending Soared Above $100 Billion Last Year
New analysis reveals that global nuclear weapons spending "could feed all of the 345 million people currently facing the most severe levels of hunger globally, including starvation, for nearly two years."
Jun 13, 2025
The world's nine nuclear-armed nations spent more than $100 billion on their atomic arsenals last year—up 11% from 2023—with the United States accounting for both the largest share and biggest increase in expenditures, a report published Friday by the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons reveals.
The new ICAN analysis identifies a $9.9 billion increase in global nuclear weapons spending in 2024, with the U.S.—the only country to ever carry out a nuclear attack on another nation—spending $56.8 billion, more than the combined expenditures of the eight other countries with nukes. In addition to the U.S., Russia, China, France, the United Kingdom, India, Pakistan, Israel, and North Korea have nuclear arsenals. The $5.3 billion annual spending increase by the U.S. was also more than any other nuclear power.
All that spending on doomsday weapons padded the profits of major arms makers. According to the report:
In 2024, at least twenty-six companies working on nuclear weapons development and maintenance held significant contracts for their work. These companies earned at least $43.5 billion in the year and hold at least $463 billion in outstanding contracts. In 2024, new contracts worth around $20 billion were awarded to these companies. The companies identified in this report paid lobbyists in France and the United States more than $128 million to represent their interests last year. They also had 196 meetings with high-level U.K. officials including 18 with the prime minister's office in 2024.
"Nuclear-armed countries could have paid the United Nations' budget 28 times with what they spent to build and maintain nuclear weapons in 2024," the report states. "They could feed all of the 345 million people currently facing the most severe levels of hunger globally, including starvation, for nearly two years."
Noting that "98 countries have signed, ratified, or acceded" to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), ICAN—which was awarded the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize for its work on the landmark accord—asserted that "it is up to each government, and the citizens of that country, to decide which path they will choose."
ICAN asserted that the stakes are higher than at any time in a generation.
"With two major wars involving nuclear-armed states in Ukraine and Gaza, as well as nuclear tensions escalating between India and Pakistan and on the Korean Peninsula, the risk that nuclear weapons could be used in combat is widely regarded as the highest it has been since the Cold War and possibly ever," the group warned Friday in a separate statement. "In response, the nuclear-armed states are clinging to the doctrine of deterrence which is based on brinkmanship and the threat to use nuclear weapons, exacerbating the risk of conflict."
Susi Snyder, ICAN program coordinator and report co-author, said Friday that the global crisis of nuclear proliferation and out-of-control spending can be solved, but that "doing so means understanding the vested interests fiercely defending the option for nine countries to indiscriminately murder civilians."
"The good news," she added, "is a majority are going in another direction. Ninety-eight states, supported by over 700 civil society organizations, have either signed, ratified, or directly acceded to the... TPNW that came into force four years ago."
This year's ICAN report highlighted the "hidden costs" of nuclear weapons.
"It's an affront to democracy that citizens and lawmakers in countries that boast of their democratic credentials are not allowed to know that nuclear weapons from other countries are based on their soil or how much of their taxes is being spent on them," ICAN policy and research coordinator and report co-author Alicia Sanders-Zakre said. "It is time for these democratically elected leaders to heed the call of their people to remove nuclear weapons from their countries and work for their total elimination."
Responding to the report, Oliver Meier, policy and research director at the European Leadership Network, a London-based think tank, said, "At a time when better transparency and accountability of nuclear weapon states range high on the agenda of many non-nuclear weapon states, the absolute secrecy and lack of engagement on the costs of Russian and NATO nuclear sharing arrangements are an anachronism."
"In democratic societies, legislators and other stakeholders must have opportunities to review these arrangements, including relevant expenditure," he added.
The day before ICAN published the report, Ben Cohen, co-founder of Ben & Jerry's ice cream, was joined by retired military officers and national security experts in Washington, D.C. for the launch of Up In Arms, a four-year campaign "to bring common sense to the Department of Defense and the country's budgetary bottom line."
"There will be no peace, there will be no security, until we start using our resources to provide for the needs of our people at home and around the world," said Cohen. "And we have the money to do it, at no additional taxpayer expense. If we take half the money budgeted for the Pentagon and invested in the things people need and want, the American Dream can become a reality again."
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Trump-GOP Budget Bill 'Takes From the Poor and Gives Most to the Rich,' CBO Analysis Confirms
A new report from the Congressional Budget Office estimates that the Republican legislation would cut household resources for the bottom 10% and boost them for the richest 10%, making it "uniquely regressive."
Jun 13, 2025
A new distributional analysis released Thursday by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office provided the latest confirmation that the GOP's sprawling budget bill would be highly regressive, further enriching the wealthiest households while leaving low-income families significantly worse off.
The CBO estimated that, if enacted, the House-passed Republican reconciliation package backed by President Donald Trump would slash household resources for the bottom 10% of the income distribution by roughly $1,600 per year over the next decade, primarily due to the bill's massive cuts to Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
Households in the top 10%, by contrast, would see their resources increase by around $12,000 annually, the CBO found.
On the left: Bill Clinton’s 1993 deficit reduction bill - taxed the rich and gave to the poor while reducing deficits
On the right: Donald Trump’s 2025 deficit increase bill - takes from the poor and gives most to the rich while increasing deficits pic.twitter.com/mdUiBiTR7u
— Bobby Kogan (@BBKogan) June 13, 2025
Chuck Marr, vice president for federal tax policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, toldThe New York Times that the extent to which the Republican bill would redistribute wealth upward is unprecedented in his experience.
"I've never seen anything that simultaneously really goes after poor people and then really helps rich people," said Marr.
The new CBO analysis adds to the growing body of reports detailing the harms the Republican reconciliation bill would inflict on poor households. Last week, the nonpartisan body estimated that the Republican bill would strip health coverage from nearly 11 million Americans while exploding the national debt by $2.4 trillion to give tax breaks to the ultra-rich.
The CBO has also found that the Republican attack on SNAP would take food benefits from more than a million people across the United States.
"The GOP reconciliation bill is something we haven't really seen before, and as a result it's uniquely regressive," wroteNew York Times reporter Emily Badger, the lead author of an analysis contrasting the Republican bill that's currently before the U.S. Senate with past legislation dealing with the U.S. tax code and safety net.
"To the extent that some prior bills have also been regressive," wrote Badger and her co-authors, "they still haven't looked quite like this."
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