TALLAHASSEE — Attorneys for seven abortion clinics and a doctor have asked the Florida Supreme Court to halt a new law that prevents abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy.
The motion filed late Wednesday was the latest development in a three-month legal battle over the law (HB 5), which the Republican-controlled Legislature and Gov. Ron DeSantis approved this year amid a national debate about abortion rights.
Leon County Circuit Judge John Cooper on July 5 issued a temporary injunction against the law, ruling that it violated a privacy clause in the Florida Constitution that has bolstered abortion rights in the state for more than three decades. But a panel of the 1st District Court of Appeal overturned the temporary injunction, effectively allowing the 15-week abortion limit to take effect.
If granted, the motion would put the 15-week abortion law on hold while the Supreme Court considers the underlying issues about the temporary injunction.
“Granting plaintiffs’ requests … would restore the status quo while litigation continues and allow Floridians to resume exercise of their constitutional right to decide whether to carry a pregnancy to term or obtain a pre-viability abortion — a right that this (Supreme) Court has repeatedly recognized is encompassed by the Florida Constitution’s right of privacy,” said the brief, filed by attorneys for the American Civil Liberties Union, Planned Parenthood, the Center for Reproductive Rights and the national law firm of Jenner & Block.
The clinics and the doctor, Shelly Hsiao-Ying Tien, filed the lawsuit June 1. After Cooper issued the temporary injunction, attorneys for the state quickly appealed to the 1st District Court of Appeal — a move that, under court rules, automatically placed a stay on the injunction.
While the plaintiffs pointed to past Supreme Court rulings in abortion cases, the court has undergone a major philosophical shift since DeSantis took office in early 2019.
Three longtime justices who consistently ruled in favor of abortion rights, Justices Barbara Pariente, R. Fred Lewis and Peggy Quince, left the court in 2019 because of a mandatory retirement age. Appointments by DeSantis have cemented a solid conservative majority on the seven-member court, with the Republican governor’s latest appointee, Renatha Francis, taking her seat Thursday.
