Abortion Clinics Filed a Brief to Florida's High Court, Says Privacy Clause Protects Abortion Rights

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Petitioner's Reply Brief - filed on April 28, 2023

Health News Florida

With the future of abortion rights in Florida potentially hinging on the case, attorneys for abortion clinics and a doctor are pushing back against arguments that the state Supreme Court should reject decades of legal precedents about a privacy clause in the Florida Constitution.

The attorneys late Friday filed a 24-page brief urging the Supreme Court to block a 2022 state law that prevented abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. But the stakes of the case soared last month when Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a new law that would bar abortions after six weeks.

The six-week limit is contingent on the outcome of the challenge to the 15-week law (HB 5). In the 15-week case, the state contends the Supreme Court should reject more than 30 years of legal precedents and rule that a privacy clause in the Constitution does not protect abortion rights.

The plaintiffs’ attorneys in Friday’s brief wrote that the Supreme Court should stick with the longstanding interpretation that the Constitution protects abortion rights, saying the 15-week limit “openly flouts that protection and decades of this (Supreme) Court’s precedents.”

In a March 29 brief, Attorney General Ashley Moody’s office argued that past rulings on abortion rights were “clearly erroneous” and that decisions about abortion restrictions should be left to the Legislature.