The Nation - News from May 23, 1989

The Florida Supreme Court refused to allow enforcement of a new state law requiring minors to get parental or judicial consent for abortions, but moved up a hearing on the law’s validity. The decision means that single women under 18 throughout Florida will be able to get abortions without consent of parents or judges, at least until the high court rules following oral arguments June 27, a lawyer for the state said. The justices last week had decided to hear a case involving a 15-year-old girl in September, but agreed to expedite the case at the request of Florida Atty. Gen. Bob Butterworth’s office. The state repeated a request to allow enforcement of the law until the Supreme Court rules on its validity, but the justices denied that motion. The state’s 5th District Court of Appeal, ruling in the case of the 15-year-old, struck down the abortion consent law as unconstitutional. The case last week went from the Florida high court, which denied a stay of the 5th District ruling, to the U.S. Supreme Court, which also declined to order enforcement of the law.