PALATKA, Fla. – Gov. Ron DeSantis is pushing to get Florida’s new law banning abortion after 15 weeks in front of the state’s Supreme Court, calling previous rulings on abortion by the high court “radical.”
The governor said he is petitioning to get the legislation, HB 5, to go to the Florida Supreme Court as it faces legal challenges claiming the law violates the state’s constitution.
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“We passed some of the best pro-life legislation in the state scene in many decades. We lost in court on the first one, and so we’re petitioning to get that up to the Florida Supreme Court,” DeSantis said.
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Leon County Circuit Judge John C. Cooper ruled on June 30 that the law did violate Florida’s constitution, specifically the provision guaranteeing the right to privacy.
The Florida Supreme Court first ruled on the issue in October 1989 in the case of a law requiring teenage girls to get a parent’s consent before having an abortion.
According to a Washington Post article at the time, the opinion handed down by the court, in a 6-to-1 decision, cited a 1980 amendment to the state constitution providing that “every natural person has the right to be let alone and free from governmental intrusion into (their) private life” in its ruling.
The 1989 ruling said that the imposition of restrictions on abortion constituted an intrusion into a woman’s personal life.
DeSantis blasted this previous ruling, comparing it to decisions made in authoritarian regimes.
“Basically we’ve had for many decades now very radical state-level judicial decisions that really makes us closer to China and North Korea when it comes to being very radical with abortion policy, and so that’s not the appropriate thing for courts to be imposing on the state of Florida,” DeSantis said.
The 15-week ban was allowed to take effect as the governor appeals Cooper’s ruling.
The governor said his administration has not heard from the appellate court yet.
DeSantis made these remarks at a news conference where he announced a check for $3.5 million for infrastructure projects in Putnam County.
DeSantis said the money would go to the town of Palatka to update and expand the town’s aging wastewater infrastructure facilities.
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