Some Florida Supreme Court justices have known anti-abortion views as big case looms

[In It to Win It]

Some Florida Supreme Court justices have known anti-abortion views as big case looms

In just a couple of days, Florida’s Supreme Court justices will weigh the future of access to abortion in the state.

The seven justices, five appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis, will weigh whether Florida’s current 15-week abortion ban violates the state’s constitutional guarantee of privacy after hearing arguments from both sides on Friday. But the justices won’t just be deciding the fate of the 15-week law: If they uphold that provision, 30 days later, a six-week abortion ban will kick in across the state.

The justices deciding that fate include Charles Canady, a former anti-abortion lawmaker whose wife is a state lawmaker who sponsored the six-week bill; Jamie Grosshans, who previously was a fellow for a conservative legal group and did legal work for an anti-abortion group; and Carlos Muñiz, a former President Donald Trump Department of Education nominee whose appointment to the Florida Supreme Court was applauded by an anti-abortion group.

If the court upholds the 15-week law, it could reverse its prior precedent from the late 1980s.

In 1995, as a U.S. House of Representatives member, Canady introduced a bill called the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act. Canady was an early adopter of the term, which was created by an anti-abortion group.

Another justice, Grosshans, did legal work for a group that discourages women from having abortions, an experience she left off her application to the Supreme Court.

In 2016, Grosshans wrote an article for Christian Lawyer magazine and disclosed she did pro-bono legal work for crisis pregnancy centers, which are state-funded, often religiously affiliated groups that promote childbirth and discourage women from having abortions.