MIAMI – A Florida law banning abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy violates the protection of confidentiality in the state constitution, a state judge ruled on Thursday, a day before the new restrictions take effect.
Judge John K. Cooper of the Second Judicial District Court in Tallahassee ruled that the law, signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis in April, would not be implemented for the time being. Florida currently allows abortions for up to 24 weeks, making the state an asylum for women seeking the procedure from all southeastern states with stricter restrictions.
Judge Cooper said he would issue a temporary ban for the entire state. It will not be binding until he signs a written order, something the judge said would not happen on Thursday. The ban takes effect at midnight.
Judge Cooper granted relief requested by Planned Parenthood, the Center for Reproductive Rights and the American Civil Liberties Union after a two-day hearing revealed the nation’s differences over abortion rights. The hearing began on Monday, three days after the Supreme Court overturned Rowe v. Wade, abolishing the constitutional right to abortion nearly 50 years later.
The state is expected to appeal Judge Cooper’s decision. The issue is likely to be before the Florida Supreme Court, which has in the past cited an amendment to confidentiality that voters wrote in the 1980 state constitution to block the entry into force of other restrictions on abortion. But Mr DeSantis changed the form of the court after a few retirements and made it much more conservative. He appointed three of the seven judges to the court. The other four judges were also appointed by the Republican governors.
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Similar lawsuits are being fought in other states, where various plaintiffs claim that the constitutions of their own states provide specific protection for abortion. On Thursday, a Kentucky judge temporarily blocked an abortion ban caused by a Supreme Court ruling that overturned Rowe v. Wade last week. This law, passed in 2019, required an almost complete ban on the procedure and has already led clinics to reject patients.
As in Florida and other states, the plaintiffs’ attorneys argue that the Kentucky Constitution protects the right to abortion. Ultimately, however, the court battle in Kentucky may be short-lived. In November, voters there will consider a measure establishing that there is no state constitutional right to abortion.
Florida’s 15-week abortion ban, which does not include exceptions for rape or incest, is similar to the Mississippi status in the Supreme Court’s case, which overturned Rowe v. Wade.
The administration of DeSantis claims that limiting abortions will protect the health of mothers who will no longer face the increased risk of the procedure later in pregnancy.
“They can get them sooner, which is safer,” said James H. Percival, deputy attorney general.
But the plaintiffs’ lawyers objected that many women seeking an abortion after 15 weeks did so because of difficult circumstances that prevented them from trying the procedure earlier, including learning about a fetal abnormality from the types of tests they could not. be performed until later pregnancy. The current 24-week ban in Florida aims to limit abortions once fetuses are viable outside the womb.
“Neither the interest in maternal health nor the interest in fetal life can support the ban before fetal viability,” said Whitney Lee White, an ACLU lawyer.
Judge Cooper insisted in court that the issue in Florida was the state constitution. “I’m here to challenge my right to privacy in Florida,” he said Monday. “I’m not here to sue Rowe against Wade.”
But much of the evidence still focuses on the safety of abortion, when life begins, and when the fetus may feel pain. More than 79,000 abortions were performed in Florida last year.
Dr. Shelley Tien, a gynecologist who performs abortions at a planned parenting clinic in Jacksonville and an Arizona clinic, testified that women who seek an abortion after 15 weeks often do so amid a crisis.
“Women and girls who need an abortion after 15 weeks tend to have the most challenging and insurmountable circumstances in life,” she said, citing poverty, domestic violence and complications in a planned pregnancy.
Testifying on behalf of the state, Dr Ingrid Skop, a senior research fellow and director of the Charlotte Lozier Institute’s Abortion Research Organization, described abortion as “significantly more difficult and dangerous after the 15th week of gestation” and criticized the condition. of data collection throughout the country.
“We greatly underestimate the complications of abortion,” she said.
In a separate case, a synagogue in South Florida also challenged the 15-week ban.
In the days following Roe’s repeal against Wade, Republican leaders in Florida hinted at following additional abortion restrictions, without specifying how far they could go.
Florida will “work to expand protection for the benefit of life,” Mr DeSantis said in a statement last Friday. He avoided abortion issues at a public event on Monday.
Opinion polls show that, unlike some other southern states, a majority of Florida residents support maintaining the legality of abortion.
Alexandra Glorioso contributed to a report from Tallahassee, Florida.
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