By Dave Andrusko
Represented by the ACLU, abortion providers in Florida filed a notice with the Florida Supreme Court yesterday asking the court to review their challenge to the state’s new ban on abortion after 15 weeks.
“Groups including Planned Parenthood chapters in Florida won a statewide injunction against the new law just days after it took effect, but the order was automatically put on hold when the state appealed and a lower appeals court signaled on July 21 that it would rule in favor of the state,” Erik Larson reported.
More specifically, no sooner did Judge John C. Cooper issue an order temporarily halting HB 5 then the state appealed his order, automatically putting the law back into effect.
Judge Cooper said Florida’s law was “unconstitutional in that it violates the privacy provision of the Florida Constitution.” He added, “If the United States Supreme Court were to subsequently recede from Roe v. Wade this would not diminish the abortion rights now provided by the privacy amendment of the Florida constitution.”
But, as he said he would, pro-life Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis immediately appealed the ruling.
Whitney White, a lawyer with the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project, told the court on Wednesday that “the ban is ‘legally unprecedented’ because the right to abortion has long been affirmed by the Florida Supreme Court under the privacy provisions of the state’s constitution.”
White added in a statement, “The state constitution is clear that women and anyone who needs an abortion have a right to access that health care.” To deny them that “fundamental right not only ignores long-standing protections under the Florida constitution, it is life-threatening, putting patients’ health, wellbeing, and futures at risk.”
But the Florida Supreme Court is considerably more conservative than it was when it found a “right to abortion” in the state constitution. Gov. DeSantis’s latest appointment to the high court was Judge Renatha Francis who he appointed last Friday. He has appointed four of the seven justices on the high court.