April began with bad news — then good — from the Florida Supreme Court.
By Jayne Butler, Healthcare Issue Group
Under the Roe v Wade U.S. Supreme Court decision in 1973, women could receive abortions up to week 24, with no state interference. However, the Dobbs decision in June 2022 overturned Roe and gave control of abortion laws to the individual states. The Florida Legislature immediately passed a 15-week abortion ban, which has been in effect since.
However, the anti-abortion movement was not satisfied. In April 2023, the Florida Legislature passed and Gov. DeSantis signed into law a 6-week ban. The law did allow for abortions up to 15 weeks for victims of incest, rape or human trafficking — only if they provided evidence such as a restraining order, police report or medical record. After 15 weeks, a pregnancy could be terminated only if the mother was at serious risk or if a fatal fetal abnormality was detected and confirmed by 2 physicians in writing. The law also banned the use of tele-health physician consultations and prohibited a patient from receiving abortion medications via mail.
When Planned Parenthood challenged this law it was put on hold, pending review by the Florida Supreme Court, and the 15-week ban continued to be law.
The bad news: On April 1, the Florida Supreme Court ruled that the 15-week ban is constitutional, effectively ruling that the “right to privacy” was not intended to include the right to an abortion. Therefore, the more recent 6-week ban will go into effect May 1. This means that — starting in May — if a patient in Florida seeks an abortion after 6 weeks, given other nearby state laws, the closest state to Florida where they can seek an abortion would be Virginia.
The good news: Also on April 1, the Florida Supreme Court ruled that Amendment 4’s wording met legal requirements and would therefore be on the ballot in Florida in November. This means all our hard work collecting 1.4 million signed petitions in only seven months was well worth it. Thank you to everyone who signed the petition and solicited additional signatures. This Constitutional Amendment, if approved by 60 percent of Florida voters, will overturn the 6-week ban and return the decision of a woman’s health to her and her physician, period.
The amendment reads: “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 health care 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.”
What can you do?
* Vote YES on Amendment 4 in November.
* Encourage others who support women’s health and bodily autonomy to vote YES on Amendment 4 in November.
* Volunteer to support the Amendment 4 campaign by visiting FloridiansProtectingFreedom.com. You can then sign up for texting parties, postcard parties, phone banks and social media storms.
* Donate. These campaigns are very costly.
* Yard signs, brochures and more also will be available.
* Join the LWVPBC speakers bureau; you can be trained to give a presentation about Amendment 4. A Power Point will be prepared, and we can expect many requests for this from the public.
Our job now is to GOTV — Get Out The Vote. This includes encouraging voter registration and using every tool listed above to increase turnout and to use the “Yes on 4” chant.
We can do this! 💪
