A Florida ban on most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy goes into effect Friday. An injunction to temporarily block that ban has been approved, but the judge isn’t expected to sign the order until Tuesday.
In a Thursday court ruling Leon County Judge John Cooper said Florida’s new law that bans most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy violates the privacy clause in the state constitution.
“On the issue of abortion, the Florida Supreme Court has decided that women have a privacy right under the state constitution to not have that right impacted—up to 24 weeks at least," Cooper said.
In a ruling from the bench Cooper granted a request from reproductive rights advocates to temporarily block the law, but the order won’t be binding until he signs it and he doesn’t expect that to happen until Tuesday. Lauren Brenzel with Planned Parenthood says that creates a difficult situation for patients and providers.
“It think it is more than confusing for them, I think it is incredibly difficult for them because they want to provide quality patient care and politicians are interfering with that quality patient care right now," Brenzel said. "They are concerned about whether or not they’ll be able to help patients in the way that they need to help patients they are following all laws and procedures and they’re following best medical practices and the relationship between a patient and their provider is so sacred and we want to see that respected."
The state has already indicated it plans to appeal the ruling. During a press conference Thursday in Sanford, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said the ruling didn’t come as a surprise.
“We knew that we were going to have to move forward and continue the legal battle on that. And that was something that was decided under state law. It was not unanticipated. It was not something, of course that we were happy to see," DeSantis said.
If the state appeals the ruling, that puts an automatic stay on Cooper’s injunction, meaning the ban would again go into effect. Lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union say they would then immediately seek to have that stay reversed.
