Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody’s (R) office is requesting that the legal fight between pro-abortion groups and the state be fast-tracked to the Florida Supreme Court. The 15-week abortion ban in question was recently put back into effect after an appeal from the state.
Leon County Circuit Judge John Cooper issued a temporary injunction Tuesday morning to block the law, but the appeal to Cooper’s decision is what led to its reinstatement.
The state subsequently filed a document requesting the legal fight go straight to the Florida Supreme Court.
“The circuit court has enjoined HB 5, which restricts the small fraction of abortions in Florida that occur after 15 weeks’ gestation and do not meet one of HB 5’s exceptions,” the document said. “The state’s appeal from that decision raises questions of exceptional public importance that warrant immediate resolution by the Florida Supreme Court. This (1st District) Court should so certify this appeal (to the Supreme Court) as soon as practicable.”
Also in the filing, Moody and her legal team said that due to the Supreme Court of the United States’ recent ruling in the Dobbs v. Jackson case “rejected the notion that a right to abortion ‘is an integral part of a broader entrenched right,’ whether characterized as a ‘right to privacy'” or as “the freedom to make ‘intimate and personal choices’ that are ‘central to personal dignity and autonomy.'”
“That sea-change in federal law plainly warrants reconsideration of the Florida Supreme Court’s interpretation of Florida’s own constitutional right to privacy, and there will be great uncertainty in Florida until it does so,” Moody’s office wrote.
Attorneys representing abortion clinics and pro-abortion groups said women would be harmed if the law is allowed to stay in place.
“Every day that HB 5 remains in effect, Florida patients in desperate need of post-15-week abortion services are being turned away and forced to attempt to seek abortions out of state, if they are able to do so; to attempt abortions outside the medical system; or to continue pregnancies against their will,” the motion said. “It is unjustifiable to impair plaintiffs’ ability to provide care to Floridians, as courts have held that ongoing violations of constitutional rights support an order to vacate a stay.”
In the wake of Roe v. Wade being overturned, numerous abortion clinics have been shutting down across the country, and even in Florida, one was closed due to medical malpractice.
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Grant Holcomb is a reporter at The Florida Capital Star and The Star News Network. Follow Grant on Twitter and direct message tips.
Photo “FL AG Ashley Moody” by Ashley Moody.
