Florida paves the way for a six-week abortion ban: Supreme Court upholds 15-week ban in bombshell ruling... but will let voters weigh in on access in the 2024 election

Florida's Supreme Court upheld a 15 week abortion ban today in a highly anticipated ruling.

The move paves the way for Governor Ron DeSantis's stricter six-week ban to go into effect next month.

But in a separate decision released at the same time, the court approved a measure that will allow Floridians to vote this fall on whether the expand abortion access.

If that passes it could undo the bans and enshrine abortion rights in the state's constitution.

The state Supreme Court's duel rulings on Monday included one to allow the implementation of a six-week abortion ban. The other, the approval of a ballot initiative to enshrine abortion rights in the constitution, marked a major win for abortion rights groups

The six-week ban in Florida will go into effect on May 1, and be one of the most restrictive in the country

The ballot measure clearing the conservative court marked a win for abortion rights groups, who had already begun collecting signatures about a year ago, shortly after Republican Gov Ron DeSantis signed a six-week ban into law.  

The outcome of the ballot initiative will have massive implications for reproductive healthcare across the south, where stringent bans have forced clinics to shut their doors permanently.

Once Florida's six-week ban goes into effect on May 1, Virginia - which allows abortion up until just after 26 weeks - will be the only southern state to allow abortion beyond the first trimester. 

The state's 15-week ban, which was signed into law by Gov DeSantis in 2022, was already being enforced which the court deliberated. The six-week ban was written in 2023 so that it would not take effect until a month after the 2022 law was upheld.

Florida's ban includes exceptions for rape, incest and to save the life of the mother. It will also all but eliminate abortion access in the south. 

The state had been seen by abortion rights advocates as an island amid a sea of restrictions. 

In the year after the Supreme Court overturned the federal right to abortion in June 2022, Florida recorded 20,460 more clinic provided abortions than it had seen the year prior. The spike was largely attributable to people traveling there from nearby red states.  

Florida's Ron DeSantis BANS abortion after six weeks of pregnancy

The potential presidential candidate announced the legislation in the form a tweet late Thursday with a photo signing the bill surrounded by several dozen lawmakers. 

The Florida Supreme Court had faced an April 1 deadline to rule on the ballot measure, known as Amendment 4: 'No law shall prohibit, penalize, delay, or restrict abortion before viability or when necessary to protect the patient's health, as determined by the patient's healthcare provider.'

The point of fetal viability is typically around 22 to 25 weeks of pregnancy. 

The ballot measure will need the backing of 60 percent of Florida voters to pass, the highest threshold in the US. 

Florida is the eleventh state to put abortion rights on the 2024 ballot after abortion rights groups saw success with ballot measures in California, Michigan, Ohio, and Vermont. 

The court has been reshaped by culture warrior and one-time Presidential hopeful Ron DeSantis, who appointed five of the court's seven justices. 

In their ruling on the bans, the justices said that the ballot's language was clear and 'unambiguous', though the measure's opponents said it was too complicated for voters to understand. 

Chief Justice Carlos Muñiz, a DeSantis appointee, had said during arguments in February: 'The people of Florida aren't stupid. They can figure it out.'

The state GOP, meanwhile, called the ballot measure 'deceptively worded pro-abortion.'

Floridians Protecting Freedom, the coalition leading the ballot measure charge, launched a signature gathering campaign last year to put the question to voters, and hit the necessary threshold in September to get the Supreme Court to weigh in. 

The state validated more than 910,000 signatures in January, slightly more than the 891,000 that were necessary to make the ballot.