The Florida Supreme Court on Monday ruled that the abortion ban on pregnancies exceeding 15 weeks is constitutional. The ruling allows the state to implement the abortion ban on six-week pregnancies effective May 1.

The court did state that residents will have the opportunity to vote in November on whether to keep the abortion ban in place or repeal it. 

On Monday, the state Supreme Court in an overwhelming 6-1 decision adjudged that a lawsuit by pro-abortion groups challenging the government’s right to intrude into the private life of residents, does not apply to the issue of abortion.

“Based on our analysis finding no clear right to abortion embodied within the Privacy Clause, Planned Parenthood cannot overcome the presumption of constitutionality and is unable to demonstrate beyond a reasonable doubt that the 15-week ban is unconstitutional,” Justice Jamie Grosshans wrote in the ruling.

Abortion advocacy group, Planned Parenthood, had dragged the state to court in 2022 over a bill that banned abortion of pregnancies above 15 weeks, predicating their argument on a 1980 ruling asserting “Florida voters amended the state constitution to provide broad protections for individual privacy rights — including abortion.”

The group was able to secure a temporary injunction stopping the enforcement of the abortion ban until the state filed an appeal.

It was during the protracted legal dispute concerning the ban’s constitutionality that Governor Ron DeSantis in April signed the Heartbeat Protection Act that illegalised abortions for six-week pregnancies — a period during which the majority of women were not even aware that they were expecting.

The Heartbeat Act could not immediately be enforced until the ban on abortion of 15-week pregnancies was determined. 

But with the Florida Supreme Court’s ruling on Monday that it was constitutional, the six-week ban was bound to be effective within 30 days of the Court’s ruling.

Still, the Court gave residents a say in the matter by allowing them to cast ballots on “Amendment to Limit Government Interference with Abortion” come November.