The Quickie: Florida Ballot Measure Hearing Could Change Direct Democracy Itself

Welcome to “The Quickie” — Planned Parenthood Action Fund’s daily tipsheet on the top health care & reproductive rights stories of the day. You can read “The Quickie'' online here.

In today’s Quickie: Florida Supreme Court will hold a hearing on abortion rights ballot initiative, and a South Carolina woman sues after being denied an abortion.

FLORIDA BALLOT MEASURE HEARING COULD CHANGE DIRECT DEMOCRACY ITSELF: Tomorrow, the Florida Supreme Court will hold a hearing on a proposed ballot initiative to protect abortion rights. While ballot initiative hearings are typically limited strictly to the clarity of the amendment, Attorney General Ashley Moody is asking the court to disqualify the amendment. In a Sunday editorial, the board of the Orlando Sentinel laid out why Moody’s argument is worrying to democracy advocates and legal experts:

The problem with Moody’s stance goes far beyond the scope of this amendment. She’s asking the court to speculate, with zero evidence, that voters don’t understand terms that are clearly defined in current law and medical practice. If the Supreme Court members swallow this bait, they’ll rewrite Florida’s longstanding standard for reviewing ballot questions, opening the door for judicial nit-picking on any ballot question they decide they don’t like. 

Read more from the Orlando Sentinel. 

 

SOUTH CAROLINA WOMAN WHO WAS DENIED AN ABORTION SUES STATE OVER BAN: On Monday, a woman named Taylor Shelton, who was unable to get an abortion in South Carolina, joined abortion providers from Planned Parenthood South Atlantic in filing a lawsuit challenging the scope of the state’s six-week ban. This case is the first time since the Dobbs decision that an individual has sued over abortion restrictions outside of the context of medical exceptions. The lawsuit, led by Planned Parenthood Federation of America, asks the court to clarify its definition of “fetal heartbeat” and whether it means six weeks or nine weeks.

Shelton learned she was pregnant just two days after her missed period and about a week after the six-week ban went into effect last fall. Though Shelton was only four weeks pregnant at the time, she ultimately had to leave the state to get an abortion, spending 20 hours driving back and forth to North Carolina. Shelton told the AP that while she made her decision “quickly and confidently”, she faced “total apprehension” and endured “unnecessary and unfair hardship” trying to get care. “I don’t think it’s enough time for someone, clearly, to obtain an abortion,” Shelton said of the six-week interpretation. Shelton’s experience led her to become involved in the lawsuit. “I want everyone to understand the impact South Carolina’s abortion restrictions and unfair treatment are having on real people, and I hope my story shows how punitive and cruel these abortion bans actually are”, Shelton said in a press release.

Read more in AP.