Supreme Court upholds Florida’s 15-week abortion ban, and puts access amendment on November ballot

Florida’s Supreme Court issued two rulings on abortion on Monday, upholding the state’s 15-week ban — and thus allowing a six-week ban to go into effect — while also saying Floridians can vote in November on an abortion-access amendment.

The state’s highest court said the wording in the proposed Amendment 4 is clear and unambiguous enough that Florida voters can decide on abortion access.

In upholding the state’s current 15-week ban on abortion, the court stated that the right to privacy included in Florida’s constitution does not include abortion. The result: In 30 days, a six-week ban on abortion, known as the Heartbeat Protection Act, will go into effect and remain unless Florida voters approve Amendment 4.

Amendment 4 would protect access to the procedure until viability, which is estimated to be about 24 weeks of pregnancy. The initiative must receive support from 60% of Florida voters to be approved. If it passes, it would go into effect on Jan. 7, 2025.

The six-week ban, approved by Florida lawmakers in 2023 and on hold pending a decision on the 15-week challenge, will go into effect on May 1. It will be one of the most restrictive in the United States, requiring two doctor’s visits 24 hours apart.

The Florida Supreme Court’s decision on abortion restrictions consciously rejects precedents under which it once held that the privacy clause “guaranteed the right to receive an abortion through the end of the second trimester.” The ruling redefines “privacy” in legal terms that exclude an expectant mother’s decision to continue or terminate a pregnancy.

The ruling also cited the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision that found the U.S. Constitution does not guarantee a federal right to an abortion. Because the Florida high court’s previous rulings on medical privacy relied on the federal Roe v. Wade decision, and Roe v. Wade was overturned by Dobbs, Florida is now free to interpret its privacy clause on its own merits.

The court rulings on Monday triggered statements from politicans, doctors and activists on both sides of the abortion debate.

Advocates for reproductive freedom said they will now begin to make voters aware of what’s at stake.

“The attitude and will of Floridian is clear by the signatures collected … people want this choice on the 2024 ballot,” said Emma Collum, founder of the Reproductive Freedom Collective of Broward County. “Any other decision would have been overreach and against the will of the people.”

Collum said she will now work with the many volunteers “on both sides of the aisle” to educate local voters about the amendment.

“Many individuals still don’t realize Roe v. Wade was overturned, let alone what’s happening with abortion rights in Florida,” she said.

Read the Florida Supreme Court’s decision to allow voters to decide on abortion access

Along with the rulings on abortion, the Florida Supreme Court on Monday also issued an opinion in favor of allowing an amendment on the November 2024 ballot to legalize recreational marijuana for adults 21 or older.

Following the Monday rulings, Florida House Speaker Paul Renner, R-Palm Coast, held a news briefing to warn Florida voters about both amendments.

“Voters need to be cautious because these amendments go farther than they appear on first glance,” he said.”I believe both will be voted down. These are activist-driven amendments and should be rejected by voters.”

Anti-abortion advocates released a statement saying the court’s upholding of restrictions is the direction Florida voters want. “Today’s victory for unborn children who have a heartbeat and can feel pain is in line with the views of the majority of Floridians who want to protect babies and serve mothers and families,” said SBA Pro-Life America State Policy Director Katie Daniel of Tampa.

With a six-week ban now set to take effect on May 1, South Miami gynecologist Dr. Cecelia Grande referred to it during a news briefing as “basically a complete ban.”

“This represents a big problem,” she said. “More than half of my patients do not have clue they are pregnant by six weeks.” She added that the six-week ban will be concerning for doctors who will now have to provide further documentation when medical problems arise, and be particularly detrimental for women who are underinsured or uninsured.

Lauren Brenzel, campaign director of Floridians Protecting Freedom, said while her organization pushes forward to get Amendment 4 approved, the group also will work to help Florida women who want abortions after May 1 travel to other states to get them. North Carolina will be the closest southern state with less restrictive abortion access with its 12-week cutoff.

Florida’s abortion access history

Abortion access fell to individual states to determine after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and eliminated the federal constitutional right to abortion.

Floridians Protecting Freedom had gathered and verified enough petition signatures to meet the requirements to get Amendment 4 on the November ballot. The committee announced the abortion-rights initiative in May after the Republican-controlled Legislature and Gov. Ron DeSantis approved a law that prevents abortions in Florida after six weeks of pregnancy.

After the signature threshold is met for a proposed amendment, the Florida Supreme Court must decide whether the wording of ballot titles and summaries — the parts that voters see when they make a decision — meet legal tests.

Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody contended that justices should keep Amendment 4 off the ballot.

Supreme Court justices heard arguments from both sides last month, with proponents arguing Florida voters would know what they are agreeing to and that abortion access should be decided by the people of Florida rather than lawmakers. Moody’s office argued the wording is too sweeping, ambiguous, and has implications voters would not realize.

The court stated it is “obligated to uphold the proposal unless it is ‘clearly and conclusively defective.'”

Organizers of the ballot initiative say they are confident in the outcome now that abortion access will be determined by voters.

“Most initiative campaigns never make it this far. 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,” said Brenzel, director of the campaign to put abortion access on the 2024 ballot in Florida.

An abortion ban tempered only by the right to vote on it | Editorial

If approved, Amendment 4 would nullify Florida’s current 15-week abortion ban that Gov. Ron DeSantis signed into law in 2022, and block the six-week ban that legislators passed last year and will go into effect May 1.

“The Florida Supreme Court decisions today are causing severe whiplash for millions of women in Florida and the south,” said Florida Congresswoman Lois Frankel. “On the one hand, the Court is allowing a devastating, dangerous law to go into effect in 30 days, banning abortions before most women even know that they are pregnant. At the same time, the court will allow Floridians to overrule this treacherous law in the November election.”

Frankel echoed the sentiment of abortion-rights advocates on Thursday who issued statements saying women in Florida must have the freedom to make their own decisions rather than letting politicians make health decisions for them.

There has been a major push across the country to put abortion-access questions to voters since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade on June 4, 2022, and removed the nationwide right to abortion. If approved by voters, Florida would become the eighth state to guarantee women the right to abortion in its constitution. So far, out of seven states that have voted on abortion access since Roe v. Wade was overturned, all seven have approved it, including conservative states like Kansas, Kentucky, and most recently Ohio. Referendums to guarantee abortion rights are set for Maryland and New York.

Any change in abortion access in Florida would be felt out of state as well because the Sunshine State traditionally has been a haven for women in the southeastern U.S. seeking abortions. Nearby Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi ban abortion at all stages of pregnancy. Georgia and South Carolina prohibit terminating pregnancies once a heartbeat can be detected.

Staff writer Rafael Olmeda contributed to this report.

Sun Sentinel health reporter Cindy Goodman can be reached at cgoodman@sunsentinel.com.

Here’s how the justices voted on the abortion issues:

Justices voted 6-1 to uphold the constitutionality of the 15-week abortion law signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis in 2022 with only Justice Jorge Labarga issuing a dissenting opinion. The ruling redefines “privacy” in legal terms that exclude an expectant mother’s decision to continue or terminate a pregnancy. It veered away from precedent set in the 1980s that said the state’s right to privacy protected the a decision to terminate a pregnancy.

Justices voted 4-3 to allow Amendment 4 on the ballot. The justices concluded the amendment does not violate the single-subject criteria, meets the word count requirement, and fairly informs the voter of the chief purpose of the amendment. In its conclusion, the justices said “no rehearing will be permitted.”