OPINION

Florida justices must defend abortion choice | Opinion

Amy Weintraub
The exterior of the Florida Supreme Court in Tallahassee. Directorspence, Getty Images/Stock Photo

As we brace for the U.S. Supreme Court decision that will uphold reproductive freedom or allow it to fall, let’s not lose sight of potential problems here at home. 

In Florida, the judicial system has been crucial to defining our reproductive rights and ensuring our status as a stronghold for access to abortion. The privacy clause in our state Constitution has been an incredibly powerful tool in protecting reproductive freedom. It’s one sentence but it has saved the lives, health and liberty of countless Floridians: “Every natural person has the right to be let alone and free from governmental intrusion into the person’s private life except as otherwise provided herein.” 

Back in 1985, the Florida Supreme Court confirmed that the clause “was intentionally phrased in strong terms…to make the privacy right as strong as possible.”In 1989 and again in 2003, that precedent was used when the state Supreme Court struck down parental notice requirements for minors seeking abortions. 

Amy Weintraub

However, in 2004, Florida voters approved a constitutional amendment to allow for parental notification. Anti-abortion legislators were enboldened and, in 2005, pushed through a law requiring parental notification 48 hours prior to a minor’s abortion. Fifteen years later, in 2020, the Legislature passed a law requiring a parent to give notarized, written consent.

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With young people losing ready access to care, we see the promise of Florida’s privacy clause eroding. This is the strategy of anti-abortion extemists. Gov. Ron DeSantis brazenly admitted that the parental consent law was a test of constitutional limits. “I think it does deserve to be reconsidered,” DeSantis said about the Florida Supreme Court’s prior ruling that found the 1988 parental-consent law to be unconstitutional. 

This spring, we shall see if Florida courts will continue to protect us from the will of radical anti-abortion elements. A challenge to the 2015 law mandating a 24-hour waiting period has made its way through the courts and will be heard in the 2nd Circuit in April. That law forces two trips to the clinic: the first, to receive state-mandated information to persuade against having an abortion and then to require a 24-hour wait before returning to the clinic for an abortion. Those struggling economically, who live in rural counties, or who lack transportation, childcare, and paid time off will be the ones most impacted.

In the past, courts have provided a relatively unbiased check on legislative and executive political agendas serving as protectors of reproductive freedom. Of late, though, justices have become more partisan, and specifically more conservative. Five state Supreme Court justices have been appointed by DeSantis. A far more conservative Court is the result — one that likely has more pinched views of abortion rights and the privacy clause. This puts abortion rights in Florida in jeopardy.

Human rights should rise above politics, as should the health and well-being of Floridians. Judicial outcomes should be determined not by politics but by fairness and commitment to the law. Floridians support access to legal abortion and strong privacy protections. These, along with years of legal precedent, should be front of mind for justices as they consider cases in the coming months. 

Amy Weintraub, based in St. Petersburg, is the Reproductive Rights Program director for Progress Florida.