Democrats lack faith in FL Supreme Court to uphold abortion rights in state

[In It to Win It]

Democrats lack faith in FL Supreme Court to uphold abortion rights in state

Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried said Thursday that she doesn’t trust the Florida Supreme Court, with its supermajority of conservatives placed there by Gov. Ron DeSantis, to vindicate Floridians’ privacy right to abortion.

During a news conference in Miami, called in advance of Saturday’s one-year anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling overturning 1973’s Roe v. Wade, recognizing the right to abortion, Fried said that DeSantis chose his court appointees for their willingness to take a conservative line. DeSantis, now running for president as a Republican, signed a 15-week abortion ban into law last year and a six-week ban this year.

“We’ve heard the stories coming out in the last week and half how Ron DeSantis has packed the Supreme Court with members of the Federalist Society,” she said, referring to reports that Republican governors including DeSantis have politicized the nomination process, originally designed to remove politics from judicial picks.

“As an attorney it pains me to say this, but I do not have faith that this Florida Supreme Court will abide by these rights of privacy that is in our Florida Constitution and do believe that they are going to hold up the 15-week abortion ban, which is the trigger for the six-week ban,” Fried said.

However, she noted that a citizens’ initiative is underway to amend the Florida Constitution to enshrine the right to abortion. It’s called the Amendment to Limit Government Interference with Abortion.