Home »
News &
Events » News Archive »
2000 Press Releases
Supreme Court Rulings on Abortion and Parochial Schools Impact Florida
Legal Controversies
June 28, 2000
Supreme Court Rejects Bans on "Partial-Birth"Abortion
The ACLU hails today's 5-4 Supreme Court decision to strike down a Nebraska law banning so-called "partial-birth abortions."
"Today's decision will make it more difficult for the Florida Legislature and Governor Bush to enact laws jeopardizing the health of women by restricting access to safe abortions and reproductive health care," said Howard Simon, Executive Director of the ACLU of Florida. "The Court today recognized the nationwide campaign to promote these bans for what they are: broad attacks on women's fundamental right to choose abortion."
Partial-birth abortion is not a medical term. Doctors call the method "dilation and extraction," or D&X, because it involves partially extracting a fetus, legs first, through the birth canal, cutting the skull and draining its contents. The Supreme Court today ruled that the Nebraska law could have applied to a more common abortion procedure, dilation and evacuation, or D&E, as well.
"Today's sharply divided decision demonstrates that a woman's right to reproductive choice is far from secure," Simon added. "The current Court maintains an unacceptably narrow margin between ensuring women's reproductive rights and eradicating them."
The Florida Legislature passed laws three times banning what abortion opponents call "partial-birth" abortions. Former Gov. Lawton Chiles vetoed one of these laws, and federal courts twice declared these laws unconstitutional. The Florida Legislature has continuously attempted to impose criminal penalties on physicians for performing "partial-birth" abortions. These laws were vague enough to apply to any stage of a pregnancy and made no exception when physicians determined that the procedure was necessary to protect the health of their patients. The overwhelming majority of lower courts throughout the nation have struck down such bans.
Supreme Court Upholds Tax Money for Religious Schools
In another ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court, the Court ruled that taxpayer money for computers and other materials at private and religious schools does not violate the Constitution.
"This decision, though sure to be cited as legal support by voucher advocates, will have a limited effect on the pending constitutional challenge to Governor Bush's Florida voucher program," said ACLU Director Simon. "Our challenge to the Florida voucher scheme has always relied more heavily on the much more explicit prohibitions of the Florida Constitution than on any potential prohibitions in the U.S. Constitution."
Article IX, Section 1, of the Florida Constitution requires the state to fulfill a constitutional mandate to provide for the education of all Florida children through free public schools. It expressly states, "Adequate provision shall be made by law for a uniform, efficient, safe, secure, and high quality system of free public schools that allows students to obtain a high quality education...."
Article I, Section 3, of the Florida Constitution provides that "[n]o revenue of the state or any political subdivision or agency thereof shall ever be taken from the public treasury directly or indirectly in aid of any church, sect, or religious denomination or in aid of any sectarian institution."
Article IX, Section 6, of the Florida Constitution provides that "[t]he income derived from the state school fund shall, and the principal of the fund may, be appropriated, but only to the support and maintenance of free public schools."
