Florida appeals court rules in favor of 24-hour abortion waiting period

The following quote may be attributed to Alliance Defending Freedom Legal Counsel Denise Harle regarding the Florida First District Court of Appeal’s decision Thursday in State of Florida v. Gainesville Woman Care, which reverses a trial court ruling that struck down the state’s law requiring a 24-hour waiting period before a woman can move forward with the life-altering decision to obtain an elective abortion:

“Abortion is a life-altering decision, and no woman should be rushed or pressured into it. Abortion advocates, with the help of the ACLU, sought to strike down this commonsense protection for women, even though the U.S. Supreme Court already upheld a similar law. The appeals court noted evidence from medical experts that the standard of care for significant, non-emergency medical procedures is that they are not and should not be done on a drop-in basis. The court also described evidence of the ‘mental health effects and negative outcomes’—including suicide—associated with women who undergo abortions without adequate time to process the serious consequences and come to a place of certainty. For those reasons and others, the appeals court was on solid ground to reverse the trial court’s decision.”