Fla. Chief Justice Once Backed Privacy of Abortion

Florida voters have twice voted to guarantee a broad right to privacy, which includes the constitutional right to an abortion, and the state’s conservative chief justice, Carlos Muñiz, whose nomination was cheered by anti-abortion activists, in 2004 also affirmed those protections, reports The Washington Post.

The report comes two weeks after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill that would prohibit abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, a ban that faces a major roadblock before it can go into effect.

The six-week ban will take effect only if the state’s current 15-week ban is upheld in an ongoing legal challenge that is before the state Supreme Court, which is controlled by conservatives.

The policy would have wider implications for abortion access throughout the South in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision last year overturning Roe v. Wade and leaving decisions about abortion access to states. Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi have banned abortion at all stages of pregnancy, while Georgia forbids the procedure after cardiac activity can be detected, which is around six weeks.

But Muñiz in 2004 wrote for the Journal of the James Madison Institute that the purpose of the privacy amendment “clearly was to give the abortion right a textual foundation in our state constitution.”

Planned Parenthood and its co-plaintiffs argue that the 15-week ban is unconstitutional and “violates Florida’s fundamental right to privacy,” citing Muñiz’s statement about the clause. “In fact, no Justice of this Court has ever openly questioned that the Privacy Clause encompasses abortion rights,” the lawyers wrote.

Attorney John Stemberger, president of the anti-abortion Florida Family Policy Council, called Muñiz’ statement “factually problematic” and “uninformed.”

“He was shooting from the hip,” he added.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.