Supporters of reproductive rights are gathering signatures to put a referendum on the ballot in November 2024. However, the state Supreme Court must approve the language of the referendum or block it. Anti-abortion advocates have criticized the proposed referendum because it does not define “viability,” the point at which the fetus is able to survive outside the woman’s body.
Opponents of abortion know that referenda to protect abortion have been approved in other red states, like Kansas and Ohio. They have to find a way to block the vote. First, they raised the vote needed to change the state constitution from 50.1% to 60%. Now, they are counting on a hyper-conservative state Supreme Court to disqualify the referendum on technical grounds.
Floridians are signing petitions to put abortion rights to a vote of the people next fall, but they could meet an insurmountable setback from the state’s conservative Supreme Court.
The high court must approve the ballot initiative’s language, and if it doesn’t, the amendment won’t be on the 2024 ballot.
The amendment’s backers also still need to gather more than 400,000 signatures to get on the ballot, counter an anti-abortion ad campaign already taking shape and win at least 60% of the vote to secure passage.
Republican Attorney General Ashley Moody is fighting to keep the measure protecting abortion rights off the ballot, arguing it is misleading because it doesn’t define “viability.” The public has differing interpretations of what that term means, she wrote in a legal brief.
It’s an argument that could carry weight with the court given its “extremely conservative makeup,” said Bob Jarvis, a law professor at Nova Southeastern University.
One justice is married to a sponsor of Florida’s six-week abortion ban and pushed anti-abortion bills when he served in Congress. GOP presidential hopeful Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed five of the seven justices.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Are we taking bets?
LikeLike
Rabid Ron and his cronies do not care to hear from “we the people.” The only thing they hate more than Mickey Mouse is a participatory democracy.
LikeLike
What is viability – when a fetus can survive outside the womb?
By the time you’re 24 weeks pregnant, the baby has a chance of survival if they are born. Most babies born before this time cannot live because their lungs and other vital organs are not developed enough. The care that can now be given in baby (neonatal) units means more and more babies born early do survive.
What about consciousness?
Assuming that consciousness is mainly localized in the cortex, consciousness cannot emerge before 24 gestational weeks when the thalamocortical connections from the sense organs are established. Thus the limit of legal abortion at 22-24 weeks in many countries makes sense.
What about being aware after 24 gestational weeks?
“Yes. In fact, as far as we can tell, babies spend the majority of their time in the womb sleeping. Between 38 and 40 weeks gestation they’re spending almost 95 percent of their time sleeping. Less is known about sleep during early fetal development. — ust like newborns, fetuses spend most of their time sleeping. Indeed, throughout much of the pregnancy, your baby sleeps 90 to 95% of the day. Some of these hours are spent in deep sleep, some in REM sleep, and some in an indeterminate state—a result of their immature brain.”
“While your little one is dozing off in your womb, you can rest in the knowledge that their hours of sleep are helping in the development of their brain and body, preparing them for the time when they arrive in this world and meet you.”
What about when the fetus is awake 5 to 10% of the time?
“Although these touch receptors allow your baby to be more aware of their surroundings, they won’t be able to sense and process certain feelings—such as pain—until much later in the pregnancy. It will take until at least 24 weeks for an unborn baby to develop the neural connections and structures needed to sense these more complex feelings.”
LikeLike
It would have been challenged anyway, but I wonder if it wouldn’t be better to just use a time limit (e.g. “after xx weeks”) rather than the “viability” language.
Huh, look at this new WordPress toolbar.
Can
I
make
an
unordered
list?
Can I
notdo strikethroughs now?LikeLike
Looks like that’s still a no for lists, but a yes for strikethroughs.
LikeLike
Flerp, I agree. The language should have been specific about weeks within abortion was legal.
LikeLike
It’s essential to be aware that nearly 99% of abortions occur within the first trimester. The remaining 1% – where those who would restrict the rights of pregnant people to decide their own fate – are nearly all some kind of calamity or tragedy; the fetus has a fatal abnormality, the amniotic sack breaks, labor begins much too soon; the mother’s health is compromised.
The dishonesty about this fact is staggering.
LikeLike