JACKSONVILLE, FL - Liberty Counsel's Assistant Vice President of Legal Affairs, Roger Gannam, will testify and present a brief today at the public meeting of the Florida Constitution Revision Commission (CRC), urging amendment of article I, sec. 23 of the Florida Constitution to clarify that it does not include a right to abortion.
Liberty Counsel prepared an amicus brief in support of amending article I, sec. 23 to clarify that it was intended to apply strictly to protect citizens from government intrusion into their private data and information.
The privacy provision, adopted by amendment in 1980 to protect informational privacy, arose out of the post-Watergate-era regarding the collection of personal information. All the testimony proposing the amendment clearly centered around the need to protect personal information. No one ever suggested this provision could apply to abortion. Beginning in 1989, the Florida Supreme Court redefined the right of informational privacy to create a right of abortion. The Court has continued to expand its rulings so that even parental consent and 24-hour waiting periods have been invalidated.
Every twenty years, the appointed commissioners of the CRC review and study the Florida Constitution, and hold public hearings to receive input on constitutional issues and possible amendments. The CRC may then propose amendments to the Constitution, which must be approved by voters. Today's Jacksonville hearing is one of many which will be held around the state by the 2017-2018 CRC. Mat Staver, Founder and Chairman of Liberty Counsel, presented similar testimony at the first CRC hearing in Orlando.
"When Florida voters adopted the constitutional amendment creating article I, section 23 in 1980, the amendment was intended to protect informational privacy," said Gannam. "None of the debate surrounding the amendment included any notion that it would include abortion. However, the Florida Supreme Court later redefined the amendment to create a new right of abortion by a minor, without parental consent. This redefinition of the amendment undermines the separation of powers, and the Commission should give the people of Florida the opportunity to amend the Constitution and reign in the Florida Supreme Court's continuing march towards a virtually unfettered right to abortion," said Gannam.
Staver added, "Now more than ever people need protection in the collection of their personal information. This was the concern and the reason for the amendment in 1980, and today that concern is even greater. But rather than protecting the people by properly applying an amendment they adopted, the Florida Supreme Court distorted the language and applied it to abortion, beginning with a minor who sought an abortion. The amendment should be addressed to reclaim the original intent of the people."
Shockingly, and with no medical evidence before the court, then-Justice Shaw writing for the Court in 1980, said that a fetus is "a highly specialized group of cells solely dependent on the mother for sustenance."
Liberty Counsel is an international nonprofit, litigation, education, and policy organization dedicated to advancing religious freedom, the sanctity of life, and the family since 1989, by providing pro bono assistance and representation on these and related topics.
JACKSONVILLE, FL - Liberty Counsel's Assistant Vice President of Legal Affairs, Roger Gannam, will testify and present a brief today at the public meeting of the Florida Constitution Revision Commission (CRC), urging amendment of article I, sec. 23 of the Florida Constitution to clarify that it does not include a right to abortion.
Liberty Counsel prepared an amicus brief in support of amending article I, sec. 23 to clarify that it was intended to apply strictly to protect citizens from government intrusion into their private data and information.
The privacy provision, adopted by amendment in 1980 to protect informational privacy, arose out of the post-Watergate-era regarding the collection of personal information. All the testimony proposing the amendment clearly centered around the need to protect personal information. No one ever suggested this provision could apply to abortion. Beginning in 1989, the Florida Supreme Court redefined the right of informational privacy to create a right of abortion. The Court has continued to expand its rulings so that even parental consent and 24-hour waiting periods have been invalidated.
