Backroom Briefing: Battle for the ballot
By JIM SAUNDERS
News Service of Florida
TALLAHASSEE — Advocates for abortion access scored a win Friday, as supporters of a proposed constitutional amendment designed to protect abortion rights submitted enough valid petition signatures to get on the November ballot.
Friday’s development was a key step in what could become the year’s biggest political battle, as the state Supreme Court would still need to sign off on the ballot initiative’s wording — while state Attorney General Ashley Moody is fighting to keep the measure off of the ballot.
The Florida Division of Elections website Friday morning showed that 910,946 valid signatures had been tallied for the proposal, surpassing the needed 891,523 signatures to qualify for the ballot.
Floridians Protecting Freedom, the political committee that sponsored the proposal, said getting enough signatures represented a “huge milestone for abortion access” in the state.
Lauren Brenzel, campaign director for the committee, pointed to reaching the petition goal as an indicator of support for abortion rights.
“The fact that we launched our campaign only eight months ago, and that we’ve already reached our petition goal, speaks to the unprecedented support and momentum that there is to get politicians out of our private lives and healthcare decisions,” Brenzel said during a press conference Friday.
The political committee launched the ballot initiative in response to the Legislature and Gov. Ron DeSantis last year approving a measure that restricted abortions to six weeks of pregnancy — which opponents have asserted amounts to a de facto ban on the procedures.
The six-week restriction, however, is contingent on the outcome of a legal battle about a 15-week abortion limit that DeSantis and lawmakers passed in 2022. The 15-week case is pending at the Florida Supreme Court.
The proposed constitutional amendment also comes after the U.S. Supreme Court in 2022 overturned the landmark Roe v. Wade decision on abortion, putting the matter in states’ hands.
Meanwhile, the ballot initiative will face scrutiny from the state Supreme Court, which is tasked with approving the summary and title that voters would see when they go to the polls. Moody and other opponents are urging justices to block the measure, arguing that it is misleading to voters. Moody, in part, has raised concerns about the measure’s use of the term “viability,” arguing that the term can have multiple meanings.
The court has scheduled a Feb. 7 hearing on the abortion initiative.
ABORTION WAIVER REJECTED
In a decision that could impact future requests by minors to have abortions without notifying and getting consent from a parent, an appeals court this week rejected a minor’s attempt to obtain such a waiver.
The waiver sought by the minor, identified by the pseudonym Jane Doe, would have allowed for an abortion despite a parental notification and consent requirement in state law.
Wednesday’s ruling by a three-judge panel of the 1st District court of Appeal marked the second time in less than three weeks that a similar request has been denied. But this week’s ruling appeared to be a first of its kind, with the appeals court saying it did not have legal jurisdiction to decide the case — and dismissing it.
The appeals court said the case lacked a necessary “justiciable controversy” because it did not have an “adverse party.” Such an adverse party could have been a parent or guardian of the minor.
“This appeal comes to us with only the minor’s interests presented to the court,” said the ruling, written by Judge Lori Rowe and joined by Judges Thomas Winokur and Brad Thomas. “And without representation of the interests of the parents — the parties whose rights are directly implicated under the parental notification and consent law. Indeed, the appeal comes to us with no appellee (a respondent in an appellate case) at all. Under these circumstances, there is no justiciable controversy for us to adjudicate.”
Also included in the decision was an acknowledgement by Rowe that the ruling departed from how courts have handled the cases in the past.
“We recognize that our court and other district courts have exercised appellate jurisdiction to consider many appeals from circuit court rulings denying judicial waivers …,” Rowe wrote. “Even so, none of Florida’s district courts have addressed in a written opinion our jurisdiction to exercise appellate judicial power in cases arising under the judicial waiver statute or whether such cases present justiciable controversies.”
FEDS GIVE
GREEN-LIGHT
In a decision that was roughly five years in the making, the federal Food and Drug Administration on Friday approved a plan that will allow the state to import cheaper prescription drugs from Canada.
The federal agency approved the importation program for two years, saying Florida had met requirements to show that it “will significantly reduce the cost of covered products to the American consumer without posing additional risk to the public’s health and safety.”
But the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, or PhRMA, criticized Friday’s approval, issuing a statement that said it is “considering all options for preventing this policy from harming patients.”
DeSantis and then-Florida House Speaker Jose Oliva, R-Miami Lakes, made the drug-importation issue a priority in 2019, with lawmakers approving the idea. The state submitted a proposal in November 2020 to the FDA.
The plan is designed to make imported drugs available in government programs such as Medicaid, the prison system and facilities run by the Florida Department of Children and Families.
Friday’s approval was preceded by legal wrangling that included the state filing two lawsuits against the FDA.
“They have set up a number of hoops,” state Agency for Health Care Administration Secretary Jason Weida told the House Health Care Appropriations Subcommittee last month. “We have jumped through them all.”
Before importation can start, Weida’s agency has to meet conditions, such as submitting additional “drug-specific information” for FDA approval, a news release posted Friday on the FDA website said.
At least initially, the state wants to import drugs to treat conditions such as HIV and AIDS and mental illness.
STORY OF THE WEEK: Supporters of a proposed constitutional amendment aimed at ensuring abortion rights in Florida have submitted enough valid petition signatures to get on the November ballot, a key step in what could become the state’s biggest political battle this year.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK: “Make no mistake: we will put abortion on the ballot in 2024 and take back the rights that have been stolen.” — Senate Minority Leader Lauren Book, D-Davie.
