Fla. abortion ban upheld, but its future lies with voters

Florida Supreme Court upholds abortion ban, but gives voters the final say

Florida’s conservative Supreme Court ruled yesterday that the state’s constitution doesn’t protect abortion rights, allowing one of the country’s strictest and most far-reaching abortion bans to take effect May 1. 

But in a separate decision, the high court also ruled that an amendment to enshrine abortion rights in the state’s constitution can go on the November ballot, setting up a vote that could undo the new strict abortion ban in a matter of months.

Together, the two rulings ensure that abortion will be a major issue in Florida during the presidential election — with Floridians experiencing the realities of a six-week abortion ban for six months before they have the opportunity to cast a vote on the issue.

“Today’s rulings prove exactly what is at stake at the ballot box,” said Nikki Fried, the chair of the Florida Democratic Party. “Florida voters understand that voting yes on Amendment 4 in November is our last line of defense.”

RESTRICTIONS UPHELD

The abortion ban ruling significantly narrows the scope of a provision in the Florida Constitution that protects the right to privacy, added by voters in 1980 and long interpreted by courts as a safeguard against abortion restrictions. 

The decision will have a dual effect on abortion access in Florida. While the case centered on the constitutionality of the state’s existing 15-week ban, the ruling will also trigger a far stricter law passed this spring that prohibits abortions after six weeks of pregnancy.  

That ban — which includes exceptions for rape, incest, fatal fetal anomalies and medical emergencies — will all but eliminate abortion access in the South, while further straining abortion clinics elsewhere across the United States. 

Antiabortion advocates immediately celebrated the ruling. “I am ecstatic,” said John Stemberger, a leading abortion opponent in Florida and the president of Liberty Counsel Action, a conservative advocacy group. “We’ve been arguing for 35 years that the privacy clause was about informational privacy and was never intended by the people to create a fundamental right to abortion.”

FLORIDIANS SET TO WEIGH IN

In November, voters will have a chance to decide whether people can continue to access the procedure in Florida. 

The Floridians Protecting Freedom coalition gathered more than 1.5 million signatures in less than nine months to put the proposal on the ballot — far more than the 891,523 needed.

Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody (R) objected to the language in the proposed amendment, saying it was too broad. But in their ruling Monday, the justices said the amendment’s intent and potential scope were more than clear.

• “The broad sweep of this proposed amendment is obvious in the language of the summary,” they wrote. “Denying this requires a flight from reality.” 

The proposed amendment states: “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 health care provider.” A 60 percent supermajority would need to vote in favor of the amendment to add it to the constitution.

You can read Caroline, Lori and Beth’s full report here. 

More from Caroline:

Daybook

Becerra to attend congressional field hearing in Florida

On tap today: Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra heads to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., to highlight the Biden administration’s efforts to safeguard access to reproductive care. 

Becerra is slated to testify at a House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee field hearing on Florida’s reproductive-care laws alongside affected women and local stakeholders. It will be co-led by House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) and Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.). 

Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra: 

Agency alert

CMS finalizes 2025 Medicare Advantage rates

Payments to Medicare Advantage are expected to increase by an average of 3.7 percent in 2025 under reimbursement rates finalized yesterday by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. 

The final rule is largely the same as the agency’s January proposal, despite an intense lobbying push that sought to pressure the Biden administration into boosting payments. Overall, the federal government expects to pay up to $600 billion in Medicare Advantage payments next year. 

Health insurers decried the final rate. “These policies will put even more pressure on the benefits and premiums of 33 million Medicare Advantage beneficiaries who will be renewing their coverage this fall,” Mike Tuffin, president and CEO of the industry trade group AHIP, said in a statement. 

Meanwhile …

The federal health department is reminding hospitals that they must secure written consent before conducting sensitive and invasive examinations, especially if the patient will be unconscious. 

In a letter to the nation’s teaching hospitals and medical schools yesterday, Becerra and other key officials cited reports of doctors and students performing breast, prostate, rectal and other exams on patients under anesthesia without their explicit permission. 

• The agency also issued new guidelines clarifying the requirement that hospitals must obtain written consent as a condition for being reimbursed by Medicare and Medicaid. 

Industry Rx

Algorithms are guiding senior home staffing. Managers say care is suffering.

Employees of the nation’s largest assisted-living chain say an algorithm-based system used to set staffing levels at its properties across the country fails to capture the nuances of caring for vulnerable seniors, The Post’s Douglas MacMillan and Christopher Rowland report. 

In emails and phone calls to executives at Brookdale Senior Living, building managers repeatedly complained that the algorithm underestimated the amount of labor required to meet resident needs. Several managers said they quit or were fired after objecting to the system, known as “Service Alignment.” 

Residents and their families have also decried the approach. In two civil lawsuits against Brookdale, a dozen residents or their loved ones claimed they suffered due to short-staffing caused by the company’s overreliance on algorithms. 

The view from Brookdale: In a statement to The Post, spokesperson Jackie Dickson disputed the allegations in the lawsuits and said the company empowers local facility managers to set staffing levels as they see fit. 

In other health news

• Officials confirmed that a person in Texas is being treated for bird flu, marking the second human case of an illness caused by a highly virulent virus that has rampaged through sickened dairy cows in five states in recent weeks, our colleagues Lena H. Sun and Rachel Roubein report. 
• Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek (D) signed a bill yesterday that makes minor drug possession a crime again, marking the end of the state’s pioneering and politically tumultuous decriminalization experiment, Noelle Crombie reports for the Oregonian. 
• A Senate committee has asked three major private-equity firms for information on how they run or staff hospital emergency departments, citing interviews with physicians who expressed “significant concerns” about patient safety and care, Gretchen Morgenson reports for NBC News. 

Health reads

Biden administration U.S. ban on menthol cigarettes delayed (By Juveria Tabassum, Emma Rumney and Ahmed Aboulenein | Reuters)

A biased test kept thousands of Black people from getting a kidney transplant. It's finally changing (By Lauran Neergaard | The Associated Press)

CNN Exclusive: Adderall prescriptions have been filled less often amid ongoing shortage in the US (Deidre McPhillips | CNN)

Sugar rush