{"id":29977,"date":"2025-05-15T10:10:00","date_gmt":"2025-05-15T14:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cltampa.com\/news\/florida-court-says-law-allowing-minors-to-have-abortions-without-parents-consent-is-unconstitutional-20026773\/"},"modified":"2025-07-06T09:04:00","modified_gmt":"2025-07-06T09:04:00","slug":"florida-court-says-law-allowing-minors-to-have-abortions-without-parents-consent-is-unconstitutional-20026773","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cltampa.com\/news\/florida-court-says-law-allowing-minors-to-have-abortions-without-parents-consent-is-unconstitutional-20026773\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida court says law allowing minors to have abortions without parents\u2019 consent is unconstitutional"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Credit:<\/span> Photo by Dave Decker<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n\nTALLAHASSEE \u2014 Citing parental rights, a Florida appeals court Wednesday ruled that a law that can allow minors to have abortions without their parents\u2019 consent is unconstitutional.\n

A three-judge panel of the 5th District Court of Appeal, backing arguments by Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier, said the law violates parents\u2019 due-process rights. The ruling came as the appeals court rejected a request by a 17-year-old girl to have an abortion without parental consent.<\/p>

\u201cIt\u2019s difficult to see how the (U.S. Constitution) Fourteenth Amendment\u2019s Due Process Clause can countenance a process whose entire function is to deprive presumptively fit parents of the most basic due-process guarantees \u2014 notice and opportunity to be heard \u2014 on the question whether they must forfeit an important parental right that the state and federal constitutions secure to them,\u201d said the appeals-court opinion, written by Judge Jordan Pratt and joined by Judges Brian Lambert and John MacIver.<\/p>

The law sets up a process for minors to seek court approval to have abortions without consent from their parents. Judges can grant such parental-consent \u201cwaivers\u201d if they find a minor is \u201csufficiently mature to decide whether to terminate her pregnancy\u201d or find by \u201cclear and convincing evidence\u201d that the consent requirements \u201care not in the best interest\u201d of the minor.<\/p>

While Florida has had parental-notification or parental-consent requirements since 2004, the appeals court cited the U.S. Supreme Court\u2019s decision in 2022 that overturned Roe v. Wade and a Florida Supreme Court decision in 2024 that said abortion rights were not protected by a privacy right in the state Constitution.<\/p>

\u201cWhatever asserted constitutional abortion rights may have justified Florida\u2019s judicial-waiver regime in the past unequivocally have been repudiated by both the U.S. Supreme Court and the Florida Supreme Court,\u201d Pratt wrote.<\/p>

The appeals court said it expected the Florida Supreme Court to review the issue but also took a step known as certifying a question of \u201cgreat public importance\u201d to the Supreme Court.<\/p>

The opinion was the latest in a series of legal and legislative decisions that have restricted abortion in Florida. In addition to the 2024 Florida Supreme Court decision, a state law took effect last year that prevents most abortions after six weeks of pregnancy.\n

Related<\/h3>\t\n\t\t
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On anniversary of Florida\u2019s six-week abortion ban, providers say \u2018We\u2019re still here\u2019<\/a><\/h2>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\tBy the state\u2019s count, there were 19,198 fewer abortions in 2024 than in 2023.\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/article>\n\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div><\/div> \n\n\nFlorida voters in 2004 approved a constitutional amendment that cleared the way for the Legislature to pass a law requiring that parents or guardians be notified before minors have abortions. Lawmakers in 2020 added to that with the consent requirement. The law retained the waiver process.<\/p>

The notice-and-consent issue has long been controversial, with supporters of the requirements saying minors are not mature enough to make abortion decisions. But opponents have argued, for example, that some minors could face issues such as abuse if their parents found out they were pregnant.<\/p>

Waiver cases reaching appeals courts are relatively rare. In Wednesday\u2019s case, the 17-year-old appealed after Clay County Circuit Judge Angela Cox rejected the request for a waiver.<\/p>

While most details of such cases are kept confidential, the appeals court said the minor filed a petition in circuit court on May 6, and the judge held a hearing the following day. Cox ruled that the minor was not sufficiently mature to receive a waiver.<\/p>

The minor\u2019s attorney appealed, triggering a seven-day window for the appeals court to rule. Wednesday\u2019s opinion said the minor also was nearing the end of the six-week pregnancy timeframe to obtain abortions in Florida.<\/p>

Uthmeier intervened in the case and argued that \u201cFlorida\u2019s process for maturity and best-interest judicial waivers conflicts with the constitutional rights of pregnant minors\u2019 parents,\u201d Pratt wrote in the opinion.<\/p>

\u201cIn addition, the attorney general points to a rich common-law tradition of empowering parents to order their children\u2019s affairs, even over their children\u2019s objections, and argues that this rich historical tradition informs proper interpretation of the parental rights that (part of the Florida Constitution) secures,\u201d the opinion said. \u201cIndeed, the Florida Supreme Court has made clear that our state Constitution offers more protection for parental rights than does the federal Constitution.\u201d<\/p>

Another part of the waiver law allows minors to have abortions without parental consent if a court \u201cfinds, by a preponderance of the evidence, that the petitioner is the victim of child abuse or sexual abuse inflicted by one or both of her parents or her guardian.\u201d Wednesday\u2019s opinion did not appear to affect that part of the law.<\/p>

Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed Pratt and MacIver to the Daytona Beach-based appeals court, while Lambert was appointed by former Gov. Rick Scott.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Waiver cases reaching appeals courts are relatively rare.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1400,"featured_media":29239,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":false,"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"newspack_collection_is_cover_story":false,"newspack_collection_post_order":0,"_newspack_byline_active":false,"_newspack_byline":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"hidden","newspack_post_subtitle":"Waiver cases reaching appeals courts are relatively rare.","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[46,64,24],"tags":[3112,5195],"newspack_collection_taxonomy":[88385],"newspack_collection_section":[],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[158,110],"class_list":["post-29977","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-abortion-rights","category-florida-news","category-news","tag-abortion-in-florida","tag-apple-news","entry"],"apple_news_notices":[],"yoast_head":"\nFlorida court says law allowing minors to have abortions without parents\u2019 consent is unconstitutional<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Waiver cases reaching appeals courts are relatively rare.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, 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