Things as always are crazy in Florida. Especially with the religious wingnut Republican Party in charge of everything the last 20-odd years, to where abortion rights in the state suffer in spite of previous state Supreme Court rulings that upheld the privacy rights in the state constitution.
Today's Florida Supreme Court - now stacked with Far Right Conservatives by decades of Republican control - just gave the state residents a mixed bag of sorts with their recent rulings on two abortion-related items: One ruling that effectively ends abortion rights in the state but then another ruling that gives voters the chance to get those rights back (via Regan McCarthy at WFSU Public Media, an NPR affiliate):
The Florida Supreme Court has issued two rulings that stand to significantly impact abortion access in Florida. Voters will get to decide the future of abortion through a constitutional amendment that will be on the ballot in November. In a separate decision, the court upheld Florida's current 15-week abortion ban, triggering a six-week ban to take effect in 30 days.
Lauren Brenzel is the campaign director for Floridians Protecting Freedom, the group leading the push for the amendment. Brenzel is happy to see the proposal heading for the ballot, but they worry the six-week limitations on abortion will create a “public health emergency.”
“There is nowhere in our southern region to intake Florida’s patients,” Brenzel says. “Women will be forced to travel thousands of miles away from their support systems and their own providers.”
Lawmakers approved the six-week ban last year but stipulated it would not go into effect until the court issued a ruling on Florida's current 15-week abortion limit. In an opinion Monday justices upheld the current rules and found that a privacy amendment in the state constitution does not protect access to abortion—reversing a ruling the court had issued back in 1989...
No matter what you think about American jurisprudence based on previous rulings to set precedence, be aware that Far Right judges will rewrite precedence to fit whatever agenda they have. Which is why it's a bit surprising the state court allowed the pro-choice referendum to move forward:
The proposed amendment could reverse the six-week ban. If the amendment language passes in November, Brenzel says it will go effect in January of next year. To pass, it needs approval from at least 60% of the voters who turn out at the polls. More than a million people signed petitions to get the proposed amendment on the ballot, but Brenzel says the next step will require even broader support.
“We need to make sure that we reach out to voters all across this very large state who come from a variety of different backgrounds and a variety of different standpoints on the uniqueness of pregnancy," Brenzel says...
The amendment received an incredible amount of signatures - I was one of them - to get on the ballot as Amendment 4 - well over a million, and well ahead of the deadline - and could well reach the supermajority 60 percent needed to pass (the polling at the Ballotpedia link shows it currently at 62 percent in favor).
Considering how the Florida Republicans instituted a six-week ban on abortion - trying to avoid the hassles of a complete ban, but making the timeline so strict (women do NOT automatically know they're pregnant) no person can achieve it - a lot of women and pro-choice men are going to be angered up enough to show up and vote.
For the ones still on the fence regarding abortion, they need to understand this: None of this is about "the fetus" or the children. If it were, these "pro-lifers" would be pushing for more prenatal and postpartum health care funding, they'd be willing to accept the reality that miscarriages or health risks happen, they'd accept the hard reality that rape/incest are creating painful choices for women stuck with unwanted (even immoral) pregnancies. All of this is about the Far Right conservatives passing their moral judgment - and their own punishments - on women, on the poor, on minorities who lack privilege or protection, on their lessers.
Voting in favor of Amendment 4 carves it in stone that women needing an abortion - for rape, for incest, for health risk reasons - have a reasonable timeline (doctors put it at 24 weeks) to find the physical and emotional health care they need. It leaves it open as a choice between the woman, her health care provider, her family, and her faith (not the state's) and no one else's.
This is an issue that matters, even if you don't think it affects you directly. Because it affects your families, your cousins, your friends, your coworkers, every woman you know in life, every woman you don't even meet in this state. We're seeing stories already from states with strict bans against abortion, and women are suffering from stillbirths, miscarriages, and complications from infection. It matters a lot for women to ensure and protect their own health care choices, especially against a group of Far Right wingnuts who don't care about other people's well-being, only their own stance above the rest of us playing to their own egos (they may claim it's their faith, but true faith is more abiding and forgiving than themselves).
This is a vote that could win. The previous pro-choice vote in a massively Republican state like Kansas proves it. The recent special election for a state Senate seat in Alabama - where the Democratic candidate campaign hard in favor of abortion and protecting IVF - that had the Democrat winning with 60 percent of the vote proves that pro-choice gets the vote out.
We need to get the vote out, Florida. Every person needs to get on the ballot this November and vote in favor of Amendment 4 to give women their power back over their own bodies and their own lives.
We also need to vote every Republican out of office at the state level, because you know these buzzards are going to do everything they can to obstruct and deny this Amendment even if it passes.
Elections matter, Florida. Vote for your loved ones, vote for your friends, vote for their own choice and their own health.
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