Abortion

Florida’s Supreme Court recently ruled that the state’s constitution does not protect abortion, allowing the state law passed in 2023 that bans abortion after six weeks to take effect next month. But in a separate decision, the Florida Supreme Court also just ruled that an amendment to guarantee abortion rights in the state’s constitution can go on the November ballot. As all of this unfolds we listen back to a conversation from 2021 when the first modern bill to restrict abortions in Florida was filed, to get a big picture history of the legality, and criminality, of abortion in America.

The Florida Supreme Court on Monday upheld the state’s ban on most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, which means a subsequently passed six-week ban can soon take effect.The court that was reshaped by former presidential candidate and Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis ruled that the 15-week ban signed by DeSantis in 2022 can take effect. The ban has been enforced while it was being challenged in court. A six-week ban passed in the 2023 legislative session was written so that it would not take effect until a month after the 2022 law was upheld.The Court also ruled that the proposed constitutional amendment that would enshrine abortion access will be on the state’s November ballot.

Lee County's National Organization for Woman chapter is raising concerns over a piece of legislation sponsored by a Fort Myers Republican state representative.A House committee on Wednesday approved controversial HB 651 that would allow parents to file civil lawsuits seeking damages for the wrongful death of an “unborn child,” with critics of the bill saying it is too broad and could shrink the number of doctors who deliver babies in Florida.It now moves to the full House for approval.

The Florida Supreme Court heard oral arguments Wednesday to decide whether a proposed state constitutional amendment aimed at protecting abortion rights will be on the ballot this year.The amendment asks Florida voters to “limit government interference with abortion” before a fetus is considered viable, which is at about 24 weeks of pregnancy. It reads in part, “No law shall prohibit, penalize, delay, or restrict abortion before viability or when necessary to protect the patient’s health, as determined by the patient’s healthcare provider.”

A Sarasota-based organization promoting an abortion amendment for the 2024 Florida General Election ballot says it has received notice from the state that the issue will be on the ballot this year as Amendment 4, pending Florida Supreme Court review.Floridians Protecting Freedom issued a media release Friday that said it had received notification on the issue from the Florida Division of Elections.However, that notification isn't a guarantee. The amendment language was submitted for review to the Supreme Court last year by the state attorney general and a hearing is scheduled in February to hear arguments.

As previously reported in an ongoing Florida Trident investigative series, the state’s Florida Pregnancy Support Services Program, which provides taxpayers’ money to more than 100 anti-abortion “crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs)” around the state, including Grace House, are Christian-based organizations and often identify themselves as “ministries” and “missions.” Several legal experts have said the program runs afoul of the U.S. and Florida constitutions, the latter of which expressly forbids the state from aiding religious organizations. The stated goal of the program is to convince clients to carry their pregnancies to term rather than having abortions.Despite its inherent problems, the program is now bursting at the seams in Florida. Its annual budget has ballooned from $4 million to $25 million a year, an increase written into the controversial six-week abortion ban legislation signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis in April.

A 15-week ban on abortion in Florida hasn't decreased the number of procedures done here as women from surrounding states with more restrictive bans head to the Sunshine State for their procedures.After the 15-week ban became law, Florida abortion clinics, ironically, became busier.

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio was in the throes of a bitter debate over abortion rights this fall when Brittany Watts, 21 weeks and 5 days pregnant, began passing thick blood clots.That was a Tuesday in September. What followed was a harrowing three days entailing: multiple trips to the hospital; Watts miscarrying into, and then flushing and plunging, a toilet at her home; a police investigation of those actions; and Watts, who is Black, being charged with abuse of a corpse. That’s a fifth-degree felony punishable by up to a year in prison and a $2,500 fine.Her case was sent last week to a grand jury. It has touched off a national firestorm over the treatment of pregnant women, and especially Black women, in the aftermath of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision that overturned Roe v. Wade. Civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump elevated Watts’ plight in a post to X, formerly Twitter, and supporters have donated more than $100,000 through GoFundMe for her legal defense, medical bills and trauma counseling.

The statewide battles over abortion rights since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a constitutional right to abortion have exposed another fault line: the commitment to democracy.As voters in state after state affirm their support for abortion rights, opponents are acting with escalating defiance toward the democratic processes and institutions they perceive as aligned against their cause.

A proposal to enshrine abortion rights in Ohio’s Constitution was approved in a statewide election Tuesday, with a significant number of Republicans joining with Democrats to ensure the measure’s passage.