It says a measure that would allow lawmakers to require parental notice of minors' abortions has a misleading summary.
By TAMARA LUSH
Published August 3, 2004
The American Civil Liberties Union of Florida and Planned Parenthood on Monday challenged the wording of a ballot measure that would allow the Florida Legislature to require parental notification for minors seeking abortions.
The ballot language, written by the Legislature earlier this year, misleads voters into thinking the proposed state constitutional amendment broadens rights for minors when it actually narrows them, the lawsuit contends.
The measure is scheduled to appear as Amendment 1 on the Nov. 2 ballot.
The ballot summary says the proposed amendment provides that lawmakers "shall not limit or deny the privacy rights guaranteed to minors" under the U.S. Constitution. But the summary doesn't explain that the state Constitution gives Floridians greater privacy than the federal Constitution, and the proposed change would "substantially limit minors' state constitutional rights of privacy," the lawsuit claims.
"This is a barrier placed in the way of young women to receive the full range of reproductive health care services," said Howard Simon, executive director for the ACLU of Florida. "This has everything to do with politics and much less to do with health care."
The suit was filed in Tallahassee by the ACLU, several Planned Parenthood chapters and a Coral Gables family.
The amendment, a top priority of Republican House Speaker Johnnie Byrd, would give the Legislature the authority to require parental notification for a daughter 17 or younger. It was proposed after the Florida Supreme Court ruled last year that a 1999 parental notice law violated the state Constitution's privacy provision. The law was never enforced.
Byrd, of Plant City, a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, said Monday the amendment is aimed at fostering communication between parents and their teens.
"The lawsuit filed today is just more of the same from liberal activists who are intent on stripping away the rights of Florida parents to be notified if someone convinces their child to seek an abortion," Byrd said in a statement. "It will not succeed. Florida's families are committed to overruling liberal court decisions discounting parental rights. I am proud to have led the charge to give them that ability at the ballot box, where the issue should properly be decided."
While leaders in the state House and Senate supported a parental notice amendment, final agreement on the language proved to be a contentious issue.
Byrd initially sought a much broader amendment that would have created a parental rights provision in the state Constitution. The narrower compromise measure drew bipartisan support in the House, which passed it 93-24 on the final day of the 2004 Legislature despite opposition to a Senate provision allowing judges to waive parental notification.
The measure passed the Senate 27-13, largely along party lines.
Planned Parenthood says a parental notice law could force some teens to resort to "drastic action" that could result in death or injury.
"Not every teen has the type of family where they can discuss difficult issues," said Stephanie Grutman, executive director of the Florida Association of Planned Parenthood Affiliates.
Lawmakers and civil rights groups have battled for years over the privacy rights of teens seeking abortions.
In 1989, the state Supreme Court struck down a law requiring minors to get parental consent to an abortion. Lawmakers rewrote the law, but the court struck that down last year.
Opponents of the ballot measure say a pregnant minor can make decisions about her prenatal care without parental notification.
- Tamara Lush can be reached at 727 893-8612 or at lush@sptimes.com
BALLOT LANGUAGE
The wording of the summary of the proposal on the Nov. 2 ballot:
"Proposing an amendment to the State Constitution to authorize the Legislature to require by general law for notification to a parent or guardian of a minor before the termination of the minor's pregnancy. The amendment provides that the Legislature shall not limit or deny the privacy rights guaranteed to minors under the United States Supreme Court. The Legislature shall provide exceptions to such requirement for notification and shall create a process for judicial waiver of the requirement for notification."
