By Paul Waldmiller
Did you know that the State of Florida Supreme Court held oral arguments last week regarding the 15-week abortion ban?
This past Spring, Governor DeSantis signed a bill into law disallowing all abortions after 15 weeks of gestation. In response, Planned Parenthood affiliates and independent abortionists sued the state on June 1, 2022. The claim against the law is that the 15-week ban violates a right to privacy within the Florida Constitution.
After signing the bill, the Governor posted on Twitter that, “Florida will continue to defend its recently enacted pro-life reforms against state court challenges, will work to expand pro-life protections, and will stand for life by promoting adoption, foster care and child welfare.”
One of the highlights of oral arguments during the trial, Chief Justice Carlos Muniz stated to one of the plaintiff’s attorneys, “We’ve had in our country a 50-year debate over this. There have been changes in scientific information… It doesn’t seem like the people of Florida had an actual debate over [abortion] when it was adopted… When this was adopted… When we’re talking about something as fundamental as the possibility of protecting human life verses whatever the autonomy interest might be, how should our court sort of look at our role in overriding a legislative judgment on compelling interest? This is a fifty-year reflection by our society, by our state, and the people’s elective representatives believe that there is a compelling interest in protecting human life.”
If the state’s High Court rules in favor of the 15-week ban, then the law that DeSantis approved earlier in the Spring also known as the ‘Heartbeat Protection Act”, will go into effect.