Florida Constitution Doesn’t Protect Abortion, Court Says (1)

Florida can enforce a ban on abortions after 15 weeks, the state supreme court said Monday in a 6-1 opinion determining that the Florida Constitution’s right to privacy doesn’t protect the procedure.

Voters who approved a 1980 amendment that added the right to privacy to the state constitution wouldn’t have understood that the provision created a fundamental right to end a pregnancy before a fetus would be able to live independently outside the womb, the Florida Supreme Court said. Viability occurs at about 23 to 25 weeks, leading medical groups have said.

The privacy amendment guarantees the right “to ...