FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, July 12, 2001
Contact: D. Michael McCarron
Executive Director
(850) 222-3803
mccarron@flacathconf.org
Tallahassee — The
Supreme Court of Florida ruled today that the privacy provision in Article 1,
Section 23 of the State Constitution does not compel the State of Florida to pay
for abortions on the same basis that it pays for other pregnancy services under
the Medicaid program.
In a unanimous decision, Justice Harding writing for the majority
said, "The right of privacy in the Florida Constitution protects a woman’s
right to an abortion. But contrary to petitioners’ arguments, the right
of privacy does not create an entitlement to financial sources to avail herself
of this choice." Justice Wells, Anstead, Lewis and Quince concurred
in the decision. Justice Shaw concurred in part but dissented in part.
Justice Pariente was recused.
The petitioners in this case also raised an equal protection
challenge to the Agency for Health Care Administration’s (AHCA) rules,
claiming Florida’s Medicaid program provided a full range of health services,
including medically necessary reproductive services to eligible men, even though
the program denies women medically necessary abortions unless their pregnancy is
life-threatening or the result of rape or incest. The court did not
address the equal protection claim but did not foreclose its being raised in the
future. Justice Shaw dissented from that portion of the ruling which
decided not to take up the equal protection claim.
We applaud this decision and are encouraged by the court’s
rationale. The United States Constitution does not require publicly funded
abortions and by this ruling neither are they required in Florida. This is
a great victory for all who hold life sacred and believe the state should not be
required to pay for its wanton destruction.
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