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Pro-lifers can’t celebrate, though, as the justices also ruled that a vaguely worded ballot measure can go before the voters this fall, which, if passed, would make it difficult, if not impossible, for the legislature to effectively restrict abortion.
The Florida Supreme Court handed down two rulings Monday that will ultimately put the state’s abortion laws in the hands of voters in November.
One of the cases arose from a legal challenge by Planned Parenthood against Florida’s law passed in 2022 that banned abortion after 15 weeks except in cases of risk of death or serious physical impairment to the woman.
In 1989, the state’s Supreme Court had ruled that the state constitution provided the right to an abortion under the right to privacy. The court used the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Roe v. Wade as its basis.
On Monday, the Florida Supreme Court reversed the previous decision, noting numerous flaws in the court’s previous ruling including the fact that Roe v. Wade has since been overturned.
The court ruled that there is no right to an abortion under the state’s constitution and permitted the 15-week abortion limitation to go into effect. The court’s decision will also allow the state’s law restricting abortion to six weeks’ gestation to go into effect within 30 days.
Florida once had some of the most liberal abortion laws in the Southeast due to the state supreme court’s 1989 ruling. The number of abortions in the state had also increased since the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, the case that overturned Roe and returned the right to make abortion laws back to the states. Women from neighboring states have been traveling to Florida to have abortions that are prohibited in other states.
The most recent Supreme Court ruling appears to be a victory for pro-lifers and babies, but it could also be short-lived. That’s because the justices also ruled that a proposed constitutional amendment could be placed on the ballot this November that would allow voters to decide whether there is a right to an abortion in Florida.
The proposed ballot amendment 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.”
The court ruled that the ballot amendment’s text was clear and could be placed on the ballot in November.
Some argue that the text of the ballot measure is vague and may confuse voters.
Justices Meredith Sasso and Jamie Grosshans were two of three justices to dissent, writing:
“The summary does not give the voter any clarity on the decision they must actually make or reveal the amendment’s chief purpose. Instead, it misleads by omission and fails to convey the breadth of what the amendment actually accomplishes—to enshrine broad, undefined terms in our constitution that will lead to decades of litigation.”
Justice Renetha Francis also dissented, saying that the ballot amendment “hides the ball” and that it actually intends to grant an “almost unrestricted right to an abortion.”
Mat Staver, founder of Liberty Counsel, says the amendment would essentially eliminate any limits on abortion. “The language that the voter reads does not apprise the voter how broad this amendment is, that every law will be gone, including health-and-safety regulations. The voter has no clue that, by saying Yes, they’re abolishing all the laws, including [those concerned with] health and safety,” Staver stated.
He argued,
“After viability, any law that you would pass, like for late-term abortion, can be overridden because it provides a health care provider with veto power over any post-viability law if the health care provider deems it necessary to protect the health of the woman,” he argued. “A health care provider can say, for any reason, health not being defined, includes everything, for any reason: ‘This law cannot prohibit abortion.'”
The concept of viability is undefined, usually being thought of as when a baby could survive outside the womb, historically around 24-25 weeks’ gestation. However, in recent years, preemie babies are surviving earlier and earlier, with the world’s youngest surviving premature infant still thriving after having been born at just 21 weeks and one day gestation.
The proposed amendment was introduced by Floridians Protecting Freedom, which has already spent over $17 million on its campaign while receiving over $17 million in contributions. Three Planned Parenthood organizations have donated over $1 million each to the effort.
The court’s overturning of a horrible decision made decades ago is something to be very excited about. There is no right to an abortion in Florida’s current state constitution, and it is good that the court recognized that. Now laws duly enacted by elected representatives may go into effect.
But let’s pray it doesn’t end up being a short-lived and hollow victory.
That’s because the Supreme Court has left the door open for abortion to come back with a vengeance in Florida. Its other ruling on the ballot measure is extremely worrisome for the pro-life movement, especially when you consider the language of the amendment and the track record on these types of votes since the fall of Roe. Americans’ views on abortion are inconsistent, and voters are often confused by the language surrounding abortion. Americans support limitations on abortion, yet they also tend to favor ballot amendments such as this one that are vaguely defined and subjective. What Americans fail to understand is that such a ballot amendment doesn’t just legalize abortion, but it actually stops the legislature from enacting any effective limitations on it.
Abortion proponents have largely succeeded in other states by spending big dollars and using language that obscures what the proposed amendments will actually allow. Abortion proponents lie and say that without a constitutional right to an abortion, women will not be able to have abortions even if their life or their health is in danger and that they will not be able to access miscarriage care.
Every state in America allows for an abortion if the life of the mother is at stake. Every single one.
All states allow for miscarriage care. All of them.
To the voters of Florida, if you favor any limitations on abortion at all, you have to vote no on this ballot amendment. By doing so, you will ensure that your elected representatives can carefully debate and enact abortion laws and protections that fully reflect the will of the people.
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