By Anne Reed
Victory Offset by Approval of Pro-Abortion Measure Appearing on November Ballot
Following two decisions by the Florida Supreme Court Monday, the citizens of the state will have an opportunity to make a distinct choice – between life and death – in the upcoming general election in November.
The court upheld a 2022 law protecting the lives of unborn children at 15 weeks gestation. Though blocked for a short time after a judge claimed it violated the state constitution’s privacy amendment, the law has been in effect since July 2022 while the legal battle played out.
In the interim, another more protective bill was signed into law. The Heartbeat Protection Act (SB 300), a statute protecting babies when a heartbeat is detectable – from about six weeks gestation – was signed into law on April 14, 2023. It was set to take effect if and when the Florida Supreme Court ruled that the previously enacted 15-week law was not in violation of the state constitution.
This week, that battle reached its end. The Florida Supreme Court ruled in favor of the 15-week law, dispelling the notion that the state constitution provides a right to abortion under its privacy amendment. As a result, the Heartbeat Protection Act becomes effective in 30 days. See Operation Rescue’s interactive map revealing the state abortion laws relating to gestational limits.
Florida’s heartbeat law allows for exceptions for victims of rape, incest, or human trafficking. It also includes an exception through the third trimester when the baby has a fatal fetal abnormality diagnosis. As of May 1, 2024, it will be a third-degree felony for abortionists or anyone who actively participates in violating the law. It also stipulates that no state taxpayer funds can be used to finance abortion centers or to fund travel to another state for the purpose of abortion. Finally, it outlaws the delivery of abortion pills through the mail to Florida addresses.
“We are elated to see Florida cleaning up its swamp of slimy abortionists,” said Operation Rescue President Troy Newman. “At our last count, there were 50 operational abortion mills and close to 80,000 babies killed by abortions last year in the state.”
However, this victory could be short lived. The state’s highest court also approved the language of a measure that would enshrine abortion until viability in Florida’s state constitution should it receive 60% of the citizen vote in November.
Operation Rescue has been exposing illegal activity by abortionists in Florida for decades. Among them are the notorious Steven Brigham and the now-closed American Family Planning of Pensacola. The Center of Orlando for Women and other facilities have been fined well over a hundred thousand dollars for violating state law.
More recently, Operation Rescue’s “Dirty Doctors Digest” Campaign exposes a startling number of Florida abortionists found among the long list of sexual predator abortionists in the Gulf Coast and Midwest regions of the country.
“This is why we must go on the offense against the dirty doctor swamp in Florida,” Newman adds, “showing the good people of Florida what is happening in their state, just how low and disgusting these so-called doctors really are – how they have irreparably tarnished the honorable practice of medicine.
“We pray that the eyes of the people will be opened to the darkness hovering over the abortion destination known as the Sunshine State. We pray that this November, they will choose life over death and light over darkness.”
