Florida Supreme Court may rule today on whether voters will decide abortion access

The Florida Supreme Court is expected to release its ruling today on whether Florida voters will get to decide in November whether to make abortion access a guaranteed right under the state constitution.

In February, Floridians Protecting Freedom met the signature requirement to get an amendment on the November ballot that would protect abortion access until viability, which is estimated to be at about 24 weeks of pregnancy. The Florida Supreme Court must agree that the amendment wording is clear and meets the criteria to be voted on.

Florida’s Attorney General Ashley Moody contends the wording is not clear enough for voters to understand, and her office has argued to keep the amendment off the ballot.

Supreme Court justices heard arguments from both sides last month, with proponents arguing Florida voters would know what they are agreeing to and that abortion access should be decided by the people of Florida rather than lawmakers. The state attorney’s general’s office argued the wording is too sweeping, ambiguous, and has implications voters would not realize.

Justices raised other questions during last month’s arguments over the abortion amendment, including whether the Florida Constitution guarantees fetuses the same rights as people under the law. It is unclear how that might factor into their  ruling.

The court typically releases its decisions at 11 a.m. on Thursdays and must do so before midnight on April 1.

If voters gain the opportunity to decide on Amendment 4, it will need 60% of voters to support it to pass.

Organizers of the ballot initiative say they are confident in the outcome.

“Most initiative campaigns never make it this far. The ones that do usually spend far more or take much longer to qualify, which is why we’re so confident that voters will approve our amendment once they’re given a chance to vote,” Lauren Brenzel, director of the campaign to put abortion access on the 2024 ballot in Florida, said in a written statement.

If approved, Amendment 4 would nullify Florida’s current 15-week abortion ban that Gov. Ron DeSantis signed into law in 2022, and block a possible six-week ban that legislators passed last year. A lawsuit before the Florida Supreme Court is pending on whether any abortion ban violates a right to privacy guaranteed under the state constitution.

There has been a major push across the country to put abortion-access questions to voters since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade on June 4, 2022, and removed the nationwide right to abortion. If approved by voters, Florida would become the eighth state to guarantee women the right to abortion in its constitution.  So far, out of seven states that have voted on abortion access since Roe v. Wade was overturned, all seven have approved it, including conservative states like Kansas, Kentucky, and most recently Ohio. Referendums to guarantee abortion rights are set for Maryland and New York.

Any change in abortion access in Florida would be felt out of state as well because the Sunshine State traditionally has been a haven for women in the southeastern U.S. seeking abortions. Nearby Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi ban abortion at all stages of pregnancy. Georgia and South Carolina prohibit terminating pregnancies once a heartbeat can be detected.

Sun Sentinel health reporter Cindy Goodman can be reached at cgoodman@sunsentinel.com.

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