TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — A Florida decide on Thursday mentioned he would temporarily block a 15-week abortion ban from taking impact, following a court docket problem by reproductive well being suppliers who say the state structure ensures a proper to the process.
Judge John C. Cooper made the oral ruling from the bench, and mentioned he would quickly signal the momentary injunction.
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The resolution got here days after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade resolution, ending federal protections for abortions and reigniting fierce battles in state courts and legislatures over entry to the process.
Florida’s 15-week abortion ban was handed by the GOP-controlled statehouse and signed into regulation by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis this spring. It was set to take impact Friday.
The state will nearly definitely combat the ruling.
The regulation would prohibit abortions after 15 weeks, with exceptions if the process is critical to save the pregnant girl’s life, stop critical harm or if the fetus has a deadly abnormality. It doesn’t permit for exemptions in instances the place pregnancies have been attributable to rape, incest or human trafficking. Under present regulation, Florida permits abortions up to 24 weeks.
Violators might face up to 5 years in jail. Physicians and different medical professionals might lose their licenses and face administrative fines of $10,000 for every violation.
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The authorized problem in Florida hinges on a 1980 modification to the state structure guaranteeing a broad proper to privateness, which has been interpreted by the state Supreme Court to embody abortion. Florida voters reaffirmed the best to privateness in 2012 by rejecting a poll initiative that may have weakened its protections, plaintiffs mentioned.
“Despite Florida’s history of protecting the right to abortion, the Florida legislature recently engaged in a brazen attempt to override the will of the Florida people,” the abortion suppliers mentioned.
The state argued that abortion suppliers do not have standing to make a declare of a private proper to privateness since they have been appearing as third events on behalf of their sufferers. Attorneys for the state additionally maintained that the state’s constitutional proper to privateness does not embody the best to abortion, arguing that the state has an curiosity in safeguarding well being and defending potential life.
Data exhibits nearly all of abortions in Florida happen earlier than the 15-week cutoff. A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report mentioned about 2% of the almost 72,000 abortions reported in Florida in 2019 have been carried out after 15 weeks.
