September 9, 2023
The Florida Supreme Court, remade by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, is heading for a crucial period of decisions. Perhaps the decision whose impact will be most acutely felt, especially in times of need, is the court’s expected decision to uphold the state’s 15-week abortion ban, after which the six-week total abortion ban passed last legislative session will go into effect. Arguments in the case were formally made before the court just yesterday.
The court’s decision
Section 23 of Florida’s constitution, also known as the privacy clause, reads, in part, “Every natural person has the right to be let alone and free from governmental intrusion into the person’s private life.” This statement is abundantly clear in its meaning – forbidding government interference in an individual’s personal life, including in healthcare decisions, including reproductive freedom, that the government has never had a right to pry into.
It is almost certain that the court’s ruling in Planned Parenthood of Southwest and Central Florida, et al. v. State of Florida, et al. will seek to enable the governor and his allies with a radical misinterpretation of the privacy clause. The appointees on the court not only have the pressure of having the governor who appointed them still in office, but they are also ideologically motivated rather than driven by any real desire to read and interpret the law for what it says and for what is supposed to guarantee.
If the legal arguments before this court seem familiar, it is because they are. A nearly identical argument was made to support the Supreme Court’s holding in Roe v. Wade, and the far-right court overturned that decision based not on the facts but on their very political natures.
The fact that the Florida Supreme Court’s ruling can be predicted so easily is not a good sign for the state of the court and Florida’s democratic institutions as a whole. For too long, Republicans have been able to co-opt these institutions into serving their needs while ignoring those of all Floridians, and while the court was the last to fall, it has fallen nonetheless.
Institutional legitimacy is at an inflection point in Florida, with an all-powerful governor using every avenue available to further his power with no regard for those he is supposed to serve. This court’s legitimacy is just as questionable as its federal counterpart, especially given the marked shift it has undertaken as it has overturned decisions made just a few years ago, throwing into question its commitment to the legal principle of stare decisis, or determining case outcomes based on precedent. As unpopular decisions continue to be made, the court’s legitimacy in the eyes of the public may fall even further.
While this may seem like the end of the line for reproductive freedom in Florida, it is not. Petitions from Floridians Protecting Freedom, to put a right to freedom from government interference in abortion, have continued to pour in. Over one million signatures are needed to get the amendment on the ballot for November of 2024, and 60% of voters will be needed to support it for it to be enshrined into law, but successes across the country have demonstrated that it is very possible to protect reproductive freedom, even in a state like Florida. The amendment would preserve abortion up to the point of viability, which is recognized to be roughly 24 weeks.
Still, the consequences of the court’s ruling will have devastating effects, even if the amendment is passed, given the time in between the court’s decision and the elections next year.
“People all across our state are going to have to make some really, really hard decisions, including whether or not they are going to have to leave our state for access to reproductive health care, or they’re going to have to make the impossible decision of whether or not to take risks and go into back alleys with unlicensed doctors. That is the state that we’re going to be in and a lot of people are going to die and a lot of families will be torn apart because of a lack of access to reproductive health care,” said Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried.
Further results
Already, the 15-week abortion ban has caused unnecessary pain and hardship throughout the state. Women have had near-death experiences thanks to the state’s artful vagueness in the law, which has forced doctors to become lawyers and lawyers to become doctors. In fact, after the fall of Roe v. Wade, an already alarming rise in American maternal mortality rates began to skyrocket, reaching unprecedented highs, especially among women of color, who have long faced discrimination in the healthcare system as their opinions and needs have been systematically undervalued while their ability to seek quality healthcare has been compromised by lower income rates and geographical disparities.
A mere 30 days after the court upholds the 15-week ban, the six-week total ban shall take effect, with even more devastating effects. Even amidst the devastation wrought by the 15-week ban, Republicans debating the six-week ban showed they had no desire to understand what was happening as they instead desired to force their Christian nationalist views upon the rest of the state.
Barring the reproductive freedom amendment passing, the Florida Supreme Court will almost certainly follow suit on the six-week ban.
The ways to prevent further incursions upon basic human rights are twofold: signing the petition and voting for the reproductive freedom amendment, and voting the Republicans and justices who support these abysmal pieces of legislation out of office. The Republicans currently in office realize that what they are doing is wrong – that is why they limited testimony on the abortion ban in committee and had it signed behind closed doors late at night.
Florida Supreme Court justices are subject to retention elections, and any support below 60% will result in a justice being removed and a replacement being appointed in their stead. Legislative Republicans will be up for re-election next year, and a good chance of breaking their supermajority exists. It is time for Floridians to see what is happening and turn out in massive numbers at the ballot box to stop this madness once and for all.
The Florida Supreme Court in Tallahassee, Florida. Charles Horowitz for Policy Reform Now
By Charles Horowitz
Policy Reform Now 
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