{"id":27481,"date":"2024-04-02T03:40:48","date_gmt":"2024-04-02T07:40:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/?p=27481"},"modified":"2024-04-02T03:40:48","modified_gmt":"2024-04-02T07:40:48","slug":"floridas-top-court-ushers-in-six-week-abortion-ban-but-voters-will-have-their-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/2024\/04\/02\/floridas-top-court-ushers-in-six-week-abortion-ban-but-voters-will-have-their-say\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida’s top court ushers in six-week abortion ban, but voters will have their say"},"content":{"rendered":"
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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.<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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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<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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

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

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

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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<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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

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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<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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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<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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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

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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<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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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<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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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<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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

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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<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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

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

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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<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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

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

Source: bbc.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\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 […]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27482,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[15,109,2,3],"tags":[2532,8111,417,10258],"class_list":{"0":"post-27481","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-human-rights","8":"category-headline","9":"category-news","10":"category-usa","11":"tag-abortion","12":"tag-abortion-rights","13":"tag-florida","14":"tag-florida-supreme-court","15":"pmpro-has-access"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27481"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27481\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27484,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27481\/revisions\/27484"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}