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Abortion-rights protesters in Florida.
Picture: Allison Dinner/Anadolu Company by way of Getty Photographs
In two selections it launched on April 1, the Florida Supreme Courtroom gave either side of the abortion concern one thing to cry and cheer about. In a 6-1 resolution, the court docket dominated that the Florida Structure’s “proper to privateness” doesn’t stop the enactment of abortion bans. The unique case concerned the 15-week abortion ban that Governor Ron DeSantis proposed and the Republican-controlled legislature authorized in 2022. Now the inexperienced mild additionally applies to a six-week abortion ban the state enacted final yr when DeSantis was operating for president as a hard-core anti-abortion candidate. Inside 30 days, abortions after six weeks of being pregnant (with very restricted exceptions) will probably be unlawful within the third-largest state. Because the Washington Publish studies, the influence will lengthen past Florida’s borders:
Greater than 80,000 ladies usually get abortions in Florida yearly — accounting for roughly 1 in 12 abortions within the nation.
Now, most of these ladies might want to discover someplace else to go.
With the Florida Supreme Courtroom’s resolution Monday night time upholding an current 15-week ban and permitting a strict new six-week ban to take impact in 30 days, the court docket has reduce off practically all abortion entry throughout the South, the place all different states have both carried out related bans or outlawed abortion totally since Roe v. Wade was overturned.
There was a silver lining: In a second resolution, a slender 4-3 majority of the court docket dominated that Florida voters may have an opportunity to approve a state constitutional modification restoring abortion rights in November. The bulk opinion rejected arguments that the poll measure was too complicated or sophisticated. Florida requires a 60 % supermajority for voter approval of constitutional amendments, and the vote will seemingly be shut. However the drive to approve it might present a possible enhance for Democratic candidates from Joe Biden on down based mostly on extremely motivated pro-choice turnout.
Taken collectively, the 2 selections increase the stakes for November, as abortion-rights authority Jessica Valenti observes:
[R]ecent polling confirmed that 62% of voters assist the measure — together with a majority of Republicans. And that was earlier than this resolution banning abortion at 6 weeks, which is certain to infuriate Floridians.
The Florida abortion rights advocates that I’ve spoken to assume that this new ban goes to be a catastrophe for Republicans come November. It’s not simply that they’re feeling assured in regards to the poll measure; the belief is any Republican operating for reelection goes to be completely hammered on abortion rights. As they need to be.
In Florida, as in the remainder of the nation, anti-abortion Republicans have been caught in a entice of their very own devising. Whereas they lastly succeeded of their quest to finish Roe v. Wade, the U.S. Supreme Courtroom’s resolution reinjected abortion coverage into nationwide and state politics and energized their opponents. In some states, like Alabama, Republican politicians have been pressured to both repudiate their historic allies within the anti-abortion motion or embrace polices like fetal personhood that giant majorities of voters oppose. In different states, Republicans are all however begging voters to slap down their extremist insurance policies on the poll field. For years, Republicans have sowed the winds of anti-abortion activism, protected against the implications of their positions by the U.S. Supreme Courtroom. With that safety gone, they’re reaping the whirlwind.
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