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florida supreme court
Election Stakes Surge as Florida Supreme Court Puts Abortion on the Ballot
"Floridians will have the opportunity to reclaim their bodily autonomy and freedom from government interference!" said Florida Planned Parenthood Action.
Apr 01, 2024
The right-wing Florida Supreme Court on Monday effectively greenlighted a six-week abortion ban—but the justices also determined that state voters can weigh in on a ballot measure that would enshrine the right to abortion care in November.
Early last year, the court agreed to hear a challenge to the state's 15-week abortion ban—filed by the ACLU, the Center for Reproductive Rights, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, and others on behalf of healthcare providers. Just a few months later, the Florida Legislature passed and Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the six-week ban. Because of the court's ruling, the stricter ban is now set to take effect in a month.
In response to the court's decisions on Monday,
Slate's Mark Joseph Stern noted that "the justices came mighty close to abolishing constitutional protections for abortion AND barring the citizenry from enacting new ones in one fell swoop."
Reproductive rights advocates pointed to the court's approval of the ban as proof of the need for Floridians to turn out in November for the abortion rights ballot measure, which requires 60% voter support to pass. It 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. This amendment does not change the Legislature's constitutional authority to require notification to a parent or guardian before a minor has an abortion.
"Today the Florida Supreme Court ruled that Amendment 4 meets the requirements for this year's ballot," the Floridians Protecting Freedom campaign, which
spearheaded the fight for the measure, said on social media. "Floridians WILL get a chance to vote to reject government interference with abortion."
The campaign—organized by the ACLU of Florida, Florida Rising, Women's Voices of Southwest Florida, Florida Women's Freedom Coalition, SEIU 1199 Florida, and Planned Parenthood organizations in the state—also promoted its Rally to End the Six-Week Abortion Ban in Orlando planned for April 13.
Florida Planned Parenthood Action also celebrated the ballot decision, saying, "Floridians will have the opportunity to reclaim their bodily autonomy and freedom from government interference!"
Kelly Hall, executive director of the Fairness Project, called the state court's Amendment 4 decision "fantastic news for the movement to defend and expand reproductive rights using ballot measures," which has become an increasingly popular strategy since the U.S. Supreme Court reversed Roe v. Wade in 2022.
"The dedication Floridians Protecting Freedom has shown to fight for abortion rights is remarkable and inspiring, and the Fairness Project congratulates them on this victory," she continued, noting the campaign has gathered over 1 million signatures. "These dual rulings demonstrate why the initiative process is so important."
"Without citizen-initiated ballot measures, the cruel ban affirmed by the Florida Supreme Court today would go into effect with no recourse," Hall added. "Thankfully, voters will have the opportunity to decide in November whether healthcare decisions should be made by doctors and patients, or by politicians and judges."
The Center for Reproductive Rights pointed out that "EVERY SINGLE TIME that states have put abortion directly on the ballot, voters have chosen to protect it, and now, Florida voters will have the chance to do the same."
"A HUGE CONGRATULATIONS to all the reproductive rights advocates in Florida and across the country on this major victory," the center added. "This ballot measure could fundamentally reshape abortion access across the U.S. South and now, the power to make that happen is in the people's hands."
Before DeSantis signed the 15-week ban in 2022—just a couple of months before the Roe reversal, which amplified the efforts of right-wing state policymakers to cut off access to abortion—Florida was long "an oasis of reproductive care in the South."
Reproductive Freedom for All president and CEO Mini Timmaraju stressed Monday that "even as extremists like DeSantis try to impose their backward agenda, the people won't stop fighting for their rights."
Pro-choice Democrats in the state also chimed in. Florida Rep. Anna Eskamani (D-42), said that "the stakes for reproductive rights in Florida are incredibly high. Onward to November for a state where reproductive freedom is a reality for all."
Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, a former Democratic congresswoman now challenging U.S. Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), highlighted her opponent's support for the six-week ban, which she warned would devastate reproductive care in the state.
"We HAVE to vote this November. We have the chance to protect our rights, and we have to vote like it," she said.In addition to the abortion rights amendment, the state Supreme Court ruled Monday that voters can decide on a measure that would let adults legally buy and consume marijuana—which Smart & Safe Florida called a "big win for liberty and cannabis advocates."
Congressman Maxwell Alejandro Frost (D-Fla.) declared: "There you have it Florida! Abortion rights and adult-use marijuana are going to be on the ballot this November. There's so much at stake, we can't stay home."
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Florida Abortion Rights Defenders Surpass Target for Ballot Measure
Supporters of the Florida measure—similar to other initiatives across the country—say they are "confident that voters will approve our amendment."
Jan 05, 2024
As of Friday, Florida residents and groups fighting for a state constitutional amendment to limit government interference with abortion care have collected enough signatures to get the measure on the ballot this November.
The proposed amendment to the Florida Constitution states that "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."
Floridians Protecting Freedom is the statewide campaign of residents, healthcare providers, and groups—including the ACLU of Florida, Florida Women's Freedom Coalition, and Planned Parenthood organizations in the state—working to get the measure on the ballot and approved by at least 60% of voters.
According to the Florida Division of Elections, the campaign has over 911,000 valid signatures, well beyond the 891,523 required.
"Once voters get a chance to weigh in, Florida will return to a time when patients and healthcare providers can decide together the best course of action."
"The fact that we only launched our campaign eight months ago and we've already reached our petition goal speaks to the unprecedented support and momentum there is to get politicians out of our private lives and healthcare decisions," said Floridians Protecting Freedom campaign director Lauren Brenzel in a statement.
"Most initiative campaigns never make it this far," Brenzel added. "The ones that do usually spend far more or take much longer to qualify, which is why we're so confident that voters will approve our amendment once they're given a chance to vote."
NBC News reported Friday that "at least 150,000 of the collected and validated signatures came from registered Republican voters, underscoring the broad support for abortion rights across political lines."
Collecting enough signatures isn't the only barrier to actually getting the proposed amendment on the ballot. The Florida Supreme Court on Wednesday scheduled oral arguments about whether to approve the measure's wording for February 7. Republican state Attorney General Ashley Moody and anti-choice groups have challenged the language.
All seven of the Florida Supreme Court's justices were appointed by Republican governors—five of them by Gov. Ron DeSantis. He is a longshot presidential candidate and among state GOP leaders who have ramped up efforts to end abortion access since the U.S. Supreme Court's Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization ruling in 2022.
Abortion is currently banned in Florida after 15 weeks, with limited exceptions. The Florida Supreme Court heard arguments for a challenge to that policy in September but has not yet issued a decision. If the justices uphold the law, a six-week ban signed by DeSantis last year is set to take effect.
With a right-wing U.S. Supreme Court and a divided Congress, Floridians Protecting Freedom is far from alone in turning to a ballot measure to restore and protect reproductive rights at the state level. There are similar initiatives in Arizona, Colorado, Maryland, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New York, and South Dakota, along with a complicated battle in Arkansas.
Since Dobbs, voters have rejected statewide ballot measures aimed at restricting abortion care and supported initiatives to protect reproductive rights—including in November, when Ohio voters approved establishing a state constitutional right to "make and carry out one's own reproductive decisions," including abortion, contraception, fertility treatment, and miscarriage care.
The win in Ohio has made Florida Women's Freedom executive director Anna Hochkammer hopeful about her state. She told Politico this week that "what Ohio did was, it took a lot of people who were doubtful and... didn't really want to believe what the numbers were telling them and gave them permission to believe that this was possible."
"This is an actual grassroots movement in Florida," she stressed. "For a quarter of the money, and a little bit of common sense about what people on the ground want, you can get things done in Florida."
The signature tally has made Dr. Cecilia Grande, a Miami OB-GYN and member of the Committee to Protect Health Care Reproductive Freedom Taskforce, similarly optimistic. She said in a statement Friday that "this is such an important milestone in the effort to ensure doctors like myself can properly care for our pregnant patients facing a wide variety of issues and potential complications."
"Too often, access to abortion and other critical care is politicized at the expense of patients who just need timely and quality healthcare, not politicians trying to score political points," the doctor added. "Once voters get a chance to weigh in, Florida will return to a time when patients and healthcare providers can decide together the best course of action in each unique circumstance."
The voter turnout in Florida and beyond could be significant, given that 2024 is a presidential election year. While support for reproductive rights may help Democratic candidates, Politico noted this week that based on an analysis of five abortion-related measures that have appeared on the ballot since Dobbs, new "initiatives may not give Democrats the lift they are aiming for."
"Voters decisively upheld abortion rights in every single case," Politico explained of previous measures. "But those margins were largely driven by Republican voters who also voted for GOP candidates. And Democratic turnout didn't consistently increase in states with abortion referendums compared to those without."
Democratic President Joe Biden, who supports abortion rights, is seeking reelection and former U.S. President Donald Trump is the leading GOP candidate, despite his criminal cases and arguments that he is constitutionally disqualified from holding office again. The Washington Post reported Friday that top anti-choice advocates are now "plotting actions that they believe a Trump administration would take as early as next year to crack down on abortion."
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Abortion Rights Groups Bring 'People's Voice' to Florida Supreme Court, Demanding End to 15-Week Ban
"The people of Florida have said over and over that their right to control their own bodies and make their own healthcare decisions should remain a protected right in the Florida Constitution," said one advocate.
Sep 08, 2023
Abortion providers and reproductive rights advocates demanded that that Florida Supreme Court consider "the will and the well-being of the people" in the state on Friday as an attorney for the ACLU argued before the court that it should block the 15-week abortion ban signed into law by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis last year.
The court heard oral arguments in Planned Parenthood of Southwest and Central Florida, et al. v. State of Florida, et al., in which the reproductive rights organization has argued that the 15-week ban—as well as a six-week ban signed by DeSantis earlier this year, which would go into effect if the current law is upheld—violates the state constitution.
Whitney White, staff attorney for the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project, represented the plaintiffs and argued before the court that Floridians have repeatedly affirmed that the right to obtain abortion care is protected by the the state constitution's privacy clause, which was added to the document via a referendum in 1980.
"In 2012," noted the ACLU, "voters overwhelmingly rejected Amendment 6, which would have taken those abortion protections away."
The group argued that the language in the constitution and those votes—along with a poll taken last year that showed two-thirds of Floridians support abortion rights—demonstrate that the Supreme Court must block House Bill 5, the 15-week ban.
In court, White said that for more than a year, H.B. 5 has been "violating fundamental rights and subjecting pregnant Floridians to serious and unnecessary risks to their health and indeed their lives."
"Now the state is asking this court not only to allow these harms to continue, but to in fact hold that there is no protection for abortion under the Florida Constitution whatsoever, and indeed hold that there is no protection for any decisional privacy rights at all," she said.
She told the justices that doctors across the state "are finding their hands tied by H.B. 5, and it is forcing them to wait for patients who are experiencing treatable medical pregnancy complications to deteriorate to the point of, for example, experiencing life-threatening conditions like sepsis before providers can intervene and feel confident that they can provide care."
"In another case," White said, "a provider was forced to deny care to a 14-year-old rape survivor—a child who had already been traumatized by the assault and now had to bare the additional trauma of continuing a pregnancy against her will."
"These injustices have been ongoing for a year, and if this court doesn't step in now there's an even more dangerous six-week ban waiting in the wings," she continued.
By sharing the stories of doctors and patients while defending a viewpoint held by the majority of the Florida population, White brought "the people's voice" to the state Supreme Court, said Stephanie Fraim, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Southwest and Central Florida.
"Across the state, Floridians are outraged that the government continues to interfere in their personal medical decisions," said Fraim. "The people of Florida have said over and over that their right to control their own bodies and make their own healthcare decisions should remain a protected right in the Florida Constitution. Moreover, the Florida Supreme Court must respect the decades of precedent that make this law clearly unconstitutional. Floridians understand that this ban is a gross overreach into their lives, and they will not stand for it. We will continue to fight for our reproductive rights through all possible avenues."
DeSantis—who is also running for the GOP's presidential nomination in 2024—appointed five of the seven justices to the Florida Supreme Court; only one justice was appointed by a Democratic governor. During the oral arguments, Chief Justice Carlos Muniz referred to Roe v. Wade at one point as "an abomination."
Considering the makeup of the court, abortion rights advocates have expressed fear that the justices are likely to uphold H.B. 5 and allow a six-week ban to be enforced, which would put abortion almost entirely out of reach across the Southeast, remaining legal only before 12 weeks of pregnancy in North Carolina and six weeks, before many people know they're pregnant, in Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina.
Like advocates in states including Arizona and Nebraska, rights groups in Florida are working to place a referendum on abortion access on 2024 election ballots.
"Florida prides itself on individual freedom without government interference and abortion bans directly contradict who we are," said Kelly Flynn, president and CEO of A Woman's Choice of Jacksonville. "This 15-week abortion ban undermines the care we provide to patients who come to our clinic, often under complex and difficult circumstances. Many patients in Florida aren't able to receive an abortion by 15 weeks, let alone six weeks, due to financial obstacles, logistical hurdles, and navigating overlapping policies designed to make it harder to provide and access care."
"We remain committed to providing abortion care to Floridians," said Flynn, "and attaining abortion justice for all."
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