TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — A Florida judge said Thursday that he will temporarily block a 15-week ban on abortions in his state, but his bench ruling won’t take effect before the ban becomes law Friday — an issue that could cause confusion for patients as well as abortion providers.
Meanwhile, a Kentucky judge temporarily blocked that state’s near-total ban on abortions, allowing the procedures to resume after they were abruptly stopped when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last week. The state quickly appealed the judge’s order.
The cases in Florida and Kentucky reflect battles being waged in courts across the country after the Supreme Court said abortion was no longer protected under the federal constitution. The high court left it up to states to decide whether abortion is legal within their borders — forcing attorneys on both sides of the debate to turn to their state constitutions.
Some of the legal disputes involve trigger laws — like Kentucky’s and Florida’s — that were specifically designed to take effect if Roe were to fall. Some involve bans that have been on the books, unenforced, for generations. Others entail prohibitions on abortion that were held up pending the ruling on Roe and are now moving forward.
The legal wrangling is creating chaos for patients, including some in Kentucky who were turned away from clinics and rescheduled appointments in neighboring states. The owner of North Dakota’s only abortion clinic — which is operating until July 28 — said one patient wrote on a form: “Will I be prosecuted for having an abortion today?”
In Florida, Judge John C. Cooper said Thursday that he will temporarily block the 15-week abortion ban from taking effect after reproductive health providers argued the state constitution guarantees a right to the procedure. Cooper said Florida’s ban was “unconstitutional in that it violates the privacy provision of the Florida Constitution.”