{"id":25585,"date":"2024-04-02T00:52:26","date_gmt":"2024-04-02T05:52:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=25585"},"modified":"2024-04-02T00:52:34","modified_gmt":"2024-04-02T05:52:34","slug":"floridas-top-court-ushers-in-six-week-abortion-ban-but-voters-will-have-their-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=25585","title":{"rendered":"Florida’s top court ushers in six-week abortion ban, but voters will have their say"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Florida’s top court has paved the way for the state’s six-week abortion ban to take effect, but is allowing voters to have their say on the issue.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The justices have upheld the state’s 15-week ban on abortion, in a ruling that means a subsequently passed six-week ban can soon begin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the court will also let Floridians decide in November if abortion rights should be sealed in the state charter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most Americans back legalised abortion, but most also favour restrictions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The abortion ballot initiative could energise liberal voters in a presidential swing state that has been trending conservative in recent election cycles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Monday, Florida’s Republican-appointed justices decided by 6-1 that the state’s constitution – specifically its privacy protections – did not apply to abortion access.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ruling upheld Florida’s existing 15-week abortion ban, passed in 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A year ago Florida’s Republican Governor Ron DeSantis signed into law a six-week abortion ban, but that bill was written so as to be placed on hold until the 15-week ban had cleared legal challenges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following Monday’s ruling, the six-week ban can take effect within 30 days. Many women do not realise they are pregnant at six weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Planned Parenthood, which runs clinics that provide abortions, and the American Civil Liberties Union were among groups that filed the lawsuit challenging the ban.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a separate ruling on Monday, the Florida Supreme Court decided 4-3 that a proposed constitutional amendment that would protect access to abortion in the state could be included on ballots this November, when the US general election is held.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ballot question will ask Floridians to vote ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to a statement that reads: “No law shall prohibit, penalize, delay or restrict abortion before viability or when necessary to protect the patient’s health.” Viability refers to when a foetus, or unborn child, might survive outside the uterus, which is usually around 24 weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It adds that “this amendment does not change the Legislature’s constitutional authority to require notification to a parent or guardian before a minor has an abortion”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ballot question was opposed by Governor DeSantis and Florida’s Attorney General Ashley Moody, also a Republican.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ohio, Michigan and Kansas are among states that have passed ballot measures in favour of abortion rights since the US Supreme Court in 2022 overturned a longstanding nationwide right to abortion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A constitutional amendment in Florida needs to be approved by 60% of voters – a higher threshold than in other states.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If it does pass, voters could effectively reverse both the 15-week and six-week bans on the procedure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

US President Joe Biden, a Democrat, reportedly believes Florida’s abortion debate could offer a path to victory for him in that state this November.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a memo shared with NBC News, his campaign said Florida is “winnable” for the president if he campaigns on the issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr Biden’s Republican challenger, former US President Donald Trump, won Florida in 2016 and 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bbc<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Florida’s top court has paved the way for the state’s six-week abortion ban to take effect, but is allowing voters to have their say on the issue. The justices have upheld the state’s 15-week ban on abortion, in a ruling that means a subsequently passed six-week ban can soon begin. But the court will also […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":25586,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1152],"tags":[1307,2381,1437,4493,2872],"class_list":["post-25585","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-humanrights","tag-abortion","tag-ban","tag-florida","tag-voice","tag-voters"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25585","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25585"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25585\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25587,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25585\/revisions\/25587"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/25586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}