A Florida Supreme Court ruling means a six-week abortion ban will soon take effect in the state. But the Court also gave voters an opportunity to restore reproductive rights on the November ballot.
In two decisions it released on April 1, the Florida Supreme Court gave both sides of the abortion issue something to cry and cheer about. In a 6-1 decision, the court ruled that the Florida Constitution’s “right to privacy” does not prevent the enactment of abortion bans. The original case involved the 15-week abortion ban that Governor Ron DeSantis proposed and the Republican-controlled legislature approved in 2022. Now the green light also applies to a six-week abortion ban the state enacted last year when DeSantis was running for president as a hard-core anti-abortion candidate. Within 30 days, abortions after six weeks of pregnancy (with very limited exceptions) will be illegal in the third-largest state. As the Washington Post reports, the impact will extend beyond Florida’s borders:
More than 80,000 women typically get abortions in Florida every year — accounting for approximately 1 in 12 abortions in the country.
Now, most of those women will need to find somewhere else to go.
With the Florida Supreme Court’s decision Monday night upholding an existing 15-week ban and allowing a strict new six-week ban to take effect in 30 days, the court has cut off nearly all abortion access across the South, where all other states have either implemented similar bans or outlawed abortion entirely since Roe v. Wade was overturned.
There was a silver lining: In a second decision, a narrow 4-3 majority of the court ruled that Florida voters will have a chance to approve a state constitutional amendment restoring abortion rights in November. The majority opinion rejected arguments that the ballot measure was too confusing or complicated. Florida requires a 60 percent supermajority for voter approval of constitutional amendments, and the vote will likely be close. But the drive to approve it could provide a potential boost for Democratic candidates from Joe Biden on down based on highly motivated pro-choice turnout.
Taken together, the two decisions raise the stakes for November, as abortion-rights authority Jessica Valenti observes:
[R]ecent polling showed that 62% of voters support the measure — including a majority of Republicans. And that was before this decision banning abortion at 6 weeks, which is sure to infuriate Floridians.
The Florida abortion rights advocates that I’ve spoken to think that this new ban is going to be a disaster for Republicans come November. It’s not just that they’re feeling confident about the ballot measure; the assumption is any Republican running for reelection is going to be absolutely hammered on abortion rights. As they should be.
In Florida, as in the rest of the country, anti-abortion Republicans have been caught in a trap of their own devising. While they finally succeeded in their quest to end Roe v. Wade, the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision reinjected abortion policy into national and state politics and energized their opponents. In some states, like Alabama, Republican politicians have been forced to either repudiate their ancient allies in the anti-abortion movement or embrace polices like fetal personhood that large majorities of voters oppose. In other states, Republicans are all but begging voters to slap down their extremist policies at the ballot box. For years, Republicans have sowed the winds of anti-abortion activism, protected from the consequences of their positions by the U.S. Supreme Court. With that protection gone, they are reaping the whirlwind.
