In an oral ruling Thursday, Second District Court Judge John Cooper said he would issue a state-wide temporary injunction, which will take effect after he signs a written order in a dispute filed by some Florida abortion providers.
The decision is a short-term victory for Florida abortion advocates and comes a week after the US Supreme Court overturned Rowe against Wade and eliminated a half-century-old constitutional right. For now, abortions in Florida will remain legal until the 24th week of pregnancy, making the state one of the most permitted in the South.
DeSantis spokeswoman Christina Pushaw told CNN in a statement that the state intends to appeal the decision.
“Although we are disappointed with today’s decision, we know that pro-life HB 5 will ultimately withstand all legal challenges,” Pushou said.
Abortion advocates and Democrats celebrated Cooper’s decision. In a statement, Florida Democratic Party chairman Manny Diaz said the law was “a gross interference in the personal medical decisions that must be made between patients and their doctors.”
“Politicians like the governor have no business restricting the health freedoms of Florida,” he added.
In the short term, the decision will have far-reaching consequences for women in the south, where so-called trigger laws – bans designed to take effect with the repeal of Roe v. Wade – and bans that are no longer in legal uncertainty are a quick halt to access to the procedure. For years, Florida has been a safe haven for women seeking abortion, and providers expect the state’s 55 clinics to be busy meeting for women from surrounding states, where abortion may soon be illegal.
DeSantis signed new abortion restrictions in April at a megachurch in the Orlando area, surrounded by women and children and applauded by pastors, anti-abortion activists and other supporters.
The law will ban abortion for 15 weeks without exception for women who become pregnant as a result of rape, incest or human trafficking. The law will allow abortion in cases where the pregnancy poses a “serious risk” to the mother or if a fatal fetal abnormality is found and two doctors confirm the diagnosis in writing.
About 75,000 of the 80,000 abortions reported by the state in 2021 were performed in the first trimester, which means that most of the procedures will still be allowed under the new state law. Historically, Florida ranks among the states with the most abortions per capita per year, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.
The law directly challenges decades of legal precedent that defines abortion as constitutionally protected in Florida. The Florida state constitution includes the right to privacy, which the state’s Supreme Court has long interpreted as giving Florida residents freedom of access to abortion without government intervention.
In a court ruling, Cooper said the ban “violates the confidentiality of the Florida Constitution.”
Although the ruling will delay the application of the state’s new abortion restrictions as the case goes through the legal system, the conservative state’s Supreme Court is expected to have the final say. All seven members of the state’s Supreme Court were appointed by the Republican governors, including three elected by DeSantis. Until the case goes to the state’s Supreme Court, there may be a fourth court-appointed DeSantis due to a recent retirement.
Pushhaw said the state’s argument was that Florida’s Supreme Court “had previously misinterpreted Florida’s right to privacy as including the right to abortion. We reject that interpretation because the Florida Constitution does not include – and never has included the right to kill an innocent unborn child. “
The dramatic change in the legal landscape in Florida has left Democrats and abortion advocates pessimistic that long-standing legal protection will withstand this challenge for long.
“We don’t believe this court will see it the way other courts do,” Senate Minority Leader Lauren Buk told CNN recently. “Every part of the protection, that particle of protection is gone.”
CNN’s Alta Spells contributed to this report.
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