The Giant Threat Lurking Behind Florida’s November Abortion Vote

BY MARK JOSEPH STERN
APRIL 02, 2024

The Florida Supreme Court seemed to offer a compromise Monday when it greenlit the state’s six-week abortion ban while simultaneously approving a ballot initiative that would, if enacted, create a constitutional right to reproductive freedom. And indeed, the court’s split decision offers hope that Floridians can reestablish their state as an abortion refuge in the South this November. But an ominous current lurked beneath the rulings: Six of the court’s seven justices appeared to endorse fetal personhood under the state constitution as it stands now, expressing support for—as one justice put it—“the unborn’s competing right to life” over the patient’s right to bodily autonomy. The majority’s rhetoric indicates that if the pro-choice amendment fails this fall, the Florida Supreme Court remains ready to grant fetuses and embryos a constitutional right to life that prohibits the Legislature from legalizing abortion in the future.

Continued: https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2024/04/florida-november-abortion-vote-desantis.html

Florida Supreme Court approves abortion restriction — and ballot measure that would overturn it

The court paved the way for a six-week ban passed in 2023 to take effect.
By Mel Leonor Barclay, Shefali Luthra
April 1, 2024

The Florida Supreme Court struck down its state abortion protection — paving the way for a six-week ban passed in 2023 to take effect — but will allow voters to weigh in on whether they can amend the state’s constitution to explicitly enshrine abortion rights.

The court issued two separate rulings Monday: one upholding a 15-week abortion ban passed in 2022, and another approving an abortion rights ballot measure to go before voters this November. The measure — which will need the backing of 60 percent of voters to pass, the highest threshold in the country — would amend Florida’s constitution to explicitly guarantee abortion rights in the state to the point of fetal viability, which is determined by physicians but is usually around 22 to 25 weeks of pregnancy.

Continued: https://19thnews.org/2024/04/florida-abortion-ban-ballot-measure/

Florida Supreme Court Rules on Abortion

The Court allows 6-week ban & for voters to decide in November

JESSICA VALENTI
APR 01, 2024

The Florida Supreme Court came down with two abortion rulings today, one good and one very, very bad.

The Ron DeSantis-packed Court ruled that privacy protections in the Florida constitution don’t apply to abortion—undoing decades of precedent. A response to a challenge against the state’s 15-week ban, this decision means that a newer, 6-week ban—one that DeSantis signed into law last April—will go automatically into effect within 30 days. As we know, a 6-week ban in practice is not that different from a total ban.

Continued: https://jessica.substack.com/p/breaking-florida-supreme-court-rules

“I Was So Naive”: The Painful Stories Behind Abortion Restrictions

A couple trying to conceive, an ultrasound technician, and a gay pastor share their experiences with abortion in post-Roe America.

BY ABIGAIL TRACY
NOVEMBER 30, 2023

As Anya Cook sat at the hairdresser, she thought she might die. The night before, her water had broken. But being only about 16 weeks along in her pregnancy—six weeks before a fetus can potentially survive on its own outside the uterus—she’d known something was wrong; her husband, Derick Cook, had rushed her to the emergency room at the Broward Health hospital in Coral Springs, Florida. After a wait of more than 45 minutes in the emergency room—amniotic fluid still seeping from Anya’s body—a doctor had informed her that she would lose the child, but, given Florida’s strict abortion ban, there was nothing they could do. She’d been sent away with antibiotics and told she would have to wait to have her miscarriage alone.

She went to get her hair done the next day. “One thing my grandmother always said, ‘You make yourself look presentable so when they catch you dead, you’re already ready,’” she tells me. It was never the plan to deliver her baby in the bathroom of a hair salon. Anya recalls with vivid detail the sound of her fetus hitting the bowl of the toilet as blood poured out of her, dripping down her legs. After hours of surgery, Anya lost roughly half the blood in her body. The doctors asked Derick whether they should prioritize saving Anya’s life or her uterus. “That was very confusing,” he says. “I just went with the best answer: Save my wife and her uterus.” Since then, Anya has had to undergo a string of surgeries as a result of the complications she suffered.

Continued: https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2023/11/painful-stories-behind-abortion-restrictions-post-roe

Pensacola Florida was once center for abortion violence. Late nurse who ran clinic wasn’t scared

Mollye Barrows, Pensacola News Journal
Sept 18, 2023

Linda Taggart, the nurse who ran one of Pensacola’s first abortion clinics during its most tumultuous times, has passed away.

The clinic was a target of violence for years, including bombings, arson fires and deadly shootings. Despite being attacked and threatened repeatedly, Taggart remained steadfast in her position for 30 years until her retirement.

Continued: https://www.pnj.com/story/news/local/escambia-county/2023/09/18/pensacola-was-once-ground-zero-for-abortion-violence-meet-the-nurse-who-ran-clinic-at-center-of-figh/70794734007/

Florida supreme court signals openness to abortion ban that would slash access

Five of seven justices on court were selected by Governor Ron DeSantis and decision would have ramifications across south-east

Carter Sherman and Ava Sasani
Fri 8 Sep 2023

In arguments in a case that could drastically limit abortion access in the south-eastern United States, the Florida supreme court on Friday seemed open to arguments to uphold a law that bans abortion past 15 weeks of pregnancy.

If the state’s high court upholds the 15-week ban under consideration, a separate, stricter law would take effect prohibiting abortion after six weeks, before many people know they are pregnant.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/sep/08/florida-abortion-ban-supreme-court

08.09.2023

News

ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project

Carlos Muñiz

Dr Kanthi Dhaduvai

Florida Supreme Court

Henry Whitaker

Physicians for Reproductive Health

To Protect a Mother’s Health: How Abortion Ban Exemptions Play Out in a Post-‘Roe’ World

By Christopher O’Donnell, Tampa Bay Times
JULY 31, 2023

This pregnancy felt different.

After the heartache of more than a dozen miscarriages, Anya Cook was 16 weeks along. She and husband Derick Cook spent a Sunday last December sharing the news with his parents and looking at cribs.

As they left a restaurant in Coral Springs, Florida, that evening, Cook’s water broke. Her husband rushed her to the nearest emergency room.

Continued: https://kffhealthnews.org/news/article/to-protect-a-mothers-health-how-abortion-ban-exemptions-play-out-in-a-post-roe-world/

31.07.2023

Commentary

American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists

Anya Cook

Broward Health Coral Springs

Jennifer Griffin

Laurie Bertram Roberts

Mississippi Reproductive Freedom Fund

Texas Policy Evaluation Project

Florida: A reflection of the ‘chaos and confusion’ surrounding abortion rules in the US

The state, governed by White House hopeful Ron DeSantis, has passed one of the most restrictive laws in the country. When it enters into force, the south will become a vast desert for women’s freedom of choice

Iker Seisdedos
JUN 18, 2023

Alejandra is 32 years old and has a tense expression. She is waiting for her appointment to have an abortion at the Planned Parenthood Golden Glades clinic in Miami. She sits in a room with four other women separated by hospital curtains. “I’m desperate, it’s a matter of life and death,” she says impatiently. Because of her epilepsy, the gynecologist has warned her that her “wanted” pregnancy is dangerous. That she should not “carry it to term.” She is eight weeks along but doesn’t want to risk it: she fears that if she leaves it any longer, the new law signed by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, which will lower the legal limit for abortion in the state from 15 to six weeks, will take effect.

“I’ve been told I could die,” she continues. “It’s not about me anymore, it’s that I have a six-year-old daughter, and, frankly, I don’t trust my mother to take care of her.” She makes the gesture of caressing her belly with her hands and adds: “There are days when I wake up with this joy, but then I remember that I simply can’t.” She came to the clinic alone. Hardly anyone knows she’s there. That is why Alejandra is pseudonym.

Continued: https://english.elpais.com/usa/2023-06-18/florida-a-reflection-of-the-chaos-and-confusion-surrounding-abortion-rules-in-the-us.html

What happened to the GOP’s promises to support women and families after Roe?

North Carolina’s new abortion ban exposes the GOP’s failures to shore up government assistance for parents and children.

By Dylan Scott
May 17, 2023

Last summer, after the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision overturned the federal right to have an abortion, much ink was spilled on the possibility that Republicans, eager to pass a new round of abortion bans, would feel compelled at the same time to improve the social safety net to help the women and children their new laws would affect.

But that spending has largely not materialized. Though nearly 20 states have banned abortion over the past year, experts say few have put meaningful dollars into supporting children and families.

Continued: https://www.vox.com/2023/5/17/23725314/north-carolina-abortion-ban-paid-family-leave

17.05.2023

Commentary

Georgetown Center for Children and Families

Because of Florida abortion laws, she carried her baby to term knowing he would die

By Elizabeth Cohen, Carma Hassan and Amanda Musa, CNN
Tue May 2, 2023

A Florida woman, unable to get an abortion in her state, carried to term a baby who had no kidneys. Deborah Dorbert’s son Milo died in her arms on March 3, shortly after he was born, just as her doctors had predicted he would.

“He gasped for air a couple of times when I held him,” said Dorbert, 33. “I watched my child take his first breath, and I held him as he took his last one.”

Continued: https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/02/health/florida-abortion-term-pregnancy/index.html