abortion law

As abortion restrictions take effect across the South, cancer doctors are grappling with how to discuss options with pregnant patients who may be forced to choose whether to proceed or forgo lifesaving cancer treatments that can prove toxic for the fetus.

For decades, the U.S. medical system has adhered to a legally recognized standard for death, one embraced by most states. Why is a uniform standard for the start of human life proving so elusive?

The 1st District Court of Appeal's one-paragraph ruling keeps the 15-week ban on the procedure in place while the legal battle continues.

The attorneys for the clinics and a doctor filed documents contending that a ruling last month by the 1st District Court of Appeal allowing 15-week ban to be in effect has caused “irreparable harm.”

The lawyers for abortion clinics and a doctor filed a notice that said they will ask the state Supreme Court to take up a challenge to a July 21 ruling by a three-judge panel of the 1st District Court of Appeal.

The appeals court ruled that clinics and a doctor who challenged the law were not entitled to a temporary injunction to block the law. It also rejected the state request that the temporary-injunction issue go straight to the Florida Supreme Court.

Most respondents placed social issues low on the priority list, however, 57% disapproved of the Supreme Court's ruling on abortion, with little agreement "on what to do next as a state level policy."

The attorneys for abortion clinics and a physician filed a response after Attorney General Ashley Moody’s office last week requested that the case effectively bypass the 1st District Court of Appeal and go to the Florida Supreme Court.

The idea is to provide a clinic aboard a ship in federal waters, and out of reach of state laws, that would offer first-trimester surgical abortions, contraception and other care.

The request was part of a flurry of legal activity after Leon County Judge John Cooper issued a temporary injunction to block the law and the state filed an appeal, which keeps the ban in place.