Democrats suffered another massive setback in court.
Conservatives were jumping for joy.
And the Supreme Court delivered Democrats a brutal defeat with this sweeping ruling.
Florida Supreme Court allows six-week Pro-Life law to take effect
The Florida State Supreme Court handed down a widely-anticipated decision allowing Florida’s six-week Pro-Life law to take effect.
A lower court blocked the law claiming Florida’s constitutional right to privacy clause invalidated any restrictions on abortion.
A majority on the State Supreme Court strongly disagreed.
“The trial court granted a temporary, finding that Planned Parenthood would likely succeed in its constitutional challenge,” the majority stated. “Our holding, however, displaces the doctrinal justification for the trial court’s decision. Planned Parenthood cannot demonstrate a likelihood of success on the merits of its claim, which alleged that the newly enacted statute was facially invalid under the Privacy Clause of the Florida Constitution.”
The majority relied on the same reasoning the Supreme Court used in the Dobbs case in pointing out there is no right to abortion under the right to privacy.
“We conclude there is no basis under the Privacy Clause to invalidate the statute,” the opinion continued. “In doing so, we recede from our prior decisions in which — relying on reasoning the U.S. Supreme Court has rejected — we held that the Privacy Clause guaranteed the right to receive an abortion through the end of the second trimester.”
Pro-life activists cheer the decision
Florida previously had a 15-week Pro-Life law in the books.
But 84,000 abortions still took place in Florida, an increase of 2,000 from the prior year.
There was worry that Florida was turning into an “abortion tourism” state where women from red states with strong Pro-Life protections on the books would travel to Florida and take advantage of the looser laws.
Governor DeSantis signing the six-week Pro-Life law, and the court giving it the green light to go into effect should help solve that problem.
Pro-Life activists expressed their gratitude over the decision.
“I am ecstatic, having spent a lifetime of work leading up to this moment,” president of Liberty Counsel Action John Stemberger declared. “We’ve been arguing for 35 years that the privacy clause was about informational privacy and was never intended by the people to create a fundamental right to abortion.”
Pro-Life activists can’t celebrate for too long
While the Florida State Supreme Court handed conservatives a big week on the six-week Pro-Life law, the court also allowed a measure to appear on the November ballot that will allow abortion-on-demand until birth.
The proposed ballot amendment would allow abortions up until the moment of viability, but with so many exceptions that it will be impossible to restrict abortion at all.
When it comes to ballot initiatives on Life, Pro-Lifers are often massively outspent and out mobilized by radical out-of-state pro-abortion activists.
However, in Florida ballot measures require a 60 percent threshold to pass, and polling indicates this pro-abortion amendment sits right on the line and could go either way.
