In April, Governor Ron DeSantis (R-FL) signed a bill prohibiting abortions after 6 weeks following an earlier 15-week ban. The law has since been challenged in Florida's Supreme Court, for which oral arguments have recently concluded. Representative Maxwell Frost (D-FL) issued a statement on X (formerly Twitter) calling for the judges to uphold the 1989 ruling authorizing abortion in Florida.
"Today the Florida Supreme Court finished hearing oral arguments on the constitutionality of Ron DeSantis’s abortion ban. The choice is clear – protect and defend our state constitution and people’s right to privacy, or stand with Republican extremists like Gov. DeSantis to take away our rights," Rep. Frost tweeted.
Today the Florida Supreme Court finished hearing oral arguments on the constitutionality of Ron DeSantis’s abortion ban. The choice is clear – protect and defend our state constitution and people’s right to privacy, or stand with Republican extremists like Gov. DeSantis to take… pic.twitter.com/N7KBIjPjps
— Congressman Maxwell Alejandro Frost (@RepMaxwellFrost) September 8, 2023
The 1989 Florida Supreme Court decision In Re: TW ruled that abortion access was protected under the right to privacy enshrined in the Florida Constitution in 1980. In order to pass the 15-week and later 6-week abortion prohibitions, Florida Republicans asked the Supreme Court to reject the ruling.
Rep. Frost did not mince words, referring to Gov. DeSantis and "and his extremist lapdogs," a condemnation of Gov. DeSantis' allies in the State Legislature in March; as having "no right to interfere in the personal and private lives of Florida women and people of reproductive age."
Additionally, he called the 15-week and 6-week prohibitions "radical attempts to control Floridians' bodies and healthcare decisions."
"But let's be clear that the decision to seek a medical abortion is one that a person only needs to make in consultation with their doctor and themselves, not Ron DeSantis or the State of Florida," Frost continued.
Concluding, Frost reiterated the call for Florida's Supreme Court justices to "uphold their oath to protect and defend our constitutional rights, and as such, the right to safe abortion and reproductive care in Florida."
In May, a new group called Floridians Protecting Freedom announced their intention to get abortion on the 2024 Election ballot as a Constitutional right, and later in June State Senator Lauren Book (D) spoke in Washington, D.C. in favor of abortion rights.
Former President Donald Trump, whom DeSantis is fighting for the 2024 GOP Presidential nomination, has also called the 6-week ban "too harsh," to which DeSantis replied, "Protecting an unborn child when there’s the detectable heartbeat is something that almost probably 99% of pro-lifers support. It’s something that other states like Iowa under Governor Kim Reynolds have enacted and I think that as a Florida resident, [Trump] didn’t give an answer about would you have signed the heartbeat bill that Florida did, that had all the exceptions that people talk about the legislature put it in. I signed the bill. I was proud to do it. He would not answer whether he would sign it or not."
