The Manatee County legislature, located south of Tampa, Florida, wants to ban abortion clinics , but the state attorney general’s office, Ashley Moody, responded that they cannot do that.
“It’s obvious,” said attorney Luis Martínez, of the Martinez & Associates law firm. According to the existing legal resolution, Roe vs. Wade, ruled by the Supreme Court of the nation in 1973, abortion is legal under certain restrictions and no state or jurisdiction has prohibited the existence of these clinics since then, ”he argued.
Indeed, the Supreme Court of the United States at that time recognized the right to abortion while the fetus is not viable outside the uterus, which usually occurs between weeks 22 and 24 of pregnancy.
The tiny county, where the small town of Brandenton is located, with about 403,000 residents, first proposed the idea in June, citing the recent passage of abortion restrictions in Texas.
In fact, there are no active abortion clinics in Manatee County, but Commissioner James Satcher said he still wanted the measure in place to ensure these types of medical locations are not opened in the future.
However, Charles M. Trippe Jr., general counsel of Moody’s, sent a letter stating that “the county is not authorized to adopt an ordinance regulating or prohibiting such clinics because such ordinance would be superseded by Florida law” .
The pro-abortion organization Women’s Voices of SW Florida applauded the state intervention.
“Thank you to everyone who took the time to email our commissioners,” the group posted on Facebook. “Thanks to everyone who attended the protests we organized,” he added.
For their part, Republican state legislators are drafting a bill that could further limit the medical procedure, based on the fetal heartbeat, as Texas did, albeit more benevolent; while the Democrats present another contrary that would declare abortion “a fundamental right on which each person can decide.”
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court of the nation, in Washington DC, is considering the matter again, following a law adopted by the state of Mississippi in 2018, which prohibits performing an abortion after 15 weeks of gestation.
This law was demanded by the Jackson Women’s Health clinic, the only medical institution that performs pregnancy terminations in that state. The country’s highest court is expected to be enacted on this matter in mid-2022, in the absence of an article in the Constitution to address it.
