For Immediate Release: April 13, 2023
Contact: Kelsey Pritchard, [email protected]
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – This week SBA Pro-Life America and the Charlotte Lozier Institute filed amicus briefs backing the State of Florida’s defense of its law protecting unborn children and their mothers from the violence of abortion at 15 weeks’ gestation. Oral arguments are not yet scheduled but expected later this year.
The Reducing Fetal and Infant Mortality Act signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis in April of last year defends babies from abortion at a point when science shows they can feel pain. The 15-week protection remains in effect following the Florida Supreme Court’s January decision to hear the case and deny the preliminary injunction sought by Planned Parenthood, the ACLU, and others in the abortion industry.
SBA Pro-Life America’s State Policy Director Katie Daniel commented:
“Floridians are compassionate. They don’t want to inflict excruciating pain on unborn babies with beating hearts, or make women suffer the brutality of abortion for lack of help. After the legislature passed and Gov. DeSantis signed protections at 15 weeks of pregnancy into law, the voters rewarded their leadership by re-electing DeSantis in a landslide, electing a Republican supermajority in both chambers, and delivering a double-digit victory for Attorney General Ashley Moody who has championed Florida’s life-saving laws in federal and state courts. With this clear mandate from the people, pro-life leaders in Florida are now looking to safeguard tens of thousands of lives and increase the resources available for mothers in the Sunshine State. They must be free to act on the will of their constituents.”
In 1989 the Florida Supreme Court, relying heavily on Roe v. Wade, created a so-called right to abortion that never existed in the text, context or history of Florida law. SBA Pro-Life America’s brief outlines why this decision was “clearly erroneous” from the start, arguing that it is both appropriate and necessary for the Court to reverse this mistake and return the issue to the people through their elected representatives.
In their brief, Charlotte Lozier Institute details how medical knowledge about fetal development has advanced in the last few decades:
“Scientific advances since Roe and In re T.W. show that the fetus can and does experience pain from early in the second trimester. Brain mapping and other new methods have generated overwhelming evidence that neurocircuitry present from early in the second trimester is sufficient for both consciousness and suffering, while direct observations of fetal behavior confirm that young fetuses consciously react to painful stimuli. Indeed, pain receptors (nociceptors) begin forming at 7 weeks’ gestation.”
Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America is a network of more than one million pro-life Americans nationwide, dedicated to ending abortion by electing national leaders and advocating for laws that save lives, with a special calling to promote pro-life women leaders.
Charlotte Lozier Institute was launched in 2011 as the education and research arm of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America. CLI is a hub for research and public policy analysis on some of the most pressing issues facing the United States and nations around the world. The Institute is named for a feminist physician known for her commitment to the sanctity of human life and equal career and educational opportunities for women.
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