News Release
For Immediate Release: 4.10.23
Contact: John Manning, media@firstliberty.org
Direct: 972-941-4453
Pro-Life Group Tells Florida Court Abortion Rulings Threaten Religious Liberty, Ability to Minister to Women
National Institute of Family and Life Advocates won key First Amendment case at U.S. Supreme Court, urges Florida court to uphold rule of law.
Tallahassee, FL—First Liberty Institute filed a friend-of-the-court brief at the Supreme Court of Florida on behalf of the National Institute of Family and Life Advocates (“NIFLA”) in Planned Parenthood of Southwest and Central Florida v. State of Florida. The brief argues that the court’s erroneous precedent created a right to abortion found nowhere in the Florida Constitution, produced an atmosphere of hostility toward the free exercise of faith by life-affirming pregnancy centers, put staff and clients in danger, and should be overturned.
You can read the brief here.
“NIFLA is asking the Florida Supreme Court to exercise the same restraint exhibited by the U.S. Supreme Court when it returned the issue of abortion to the citizens of each state to decide,” said Christine Pratt, Counsel for First Liberty Institute. “The judicial creation of a ‘right’ to abortion in Roe led to decades of conflict with the freedom of speech and the free exercise of religion, a breakdown in political discourse over the abortion issue, and acts of violence against life-affirming pregnancy centers, including recent attacks. Only when the people have a say can we begin to heal as a nation and as a state.”
NIFLA is a nonprofit organization that provides legal counsel, education, and training to more than 1,700 pregnancy centers and medical clinics nationwide. In National Institute of Family & Life Advocates v. Becerra (2018), the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a California statute that targeted life-affirming pregnancy centers by requiring them to advertise the state’s abortion services and give their patients a number to call for obtaining a state-subsidized abortion.
According to First Liberty’s brief, “In just about any other context, it is difficult to imagine the government compelling its religious citizens to subsidize, assist in the procurement of, or directly perform acts that their faith regards as gravely immoral. But ‘the abortion right recognized in this Court’s decisions is used like a bulldozer to flatten legal rules that stand in the way.’ June Medical Servs., LLC v. Russo, 140 S. Ct. 2103, 2153 (2020) (Alito, J., dissenting). This Court should take notice of that reality as it revisits its own erroneous abortion precedents that, like their now-discarded federal counterparts, have needlessly endangered religious liberty.”
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About First Liberty Institute
First Liberty Institute is the largest legal organization in the nation dedicated exclusively to defending religious freedom for all Americans.
To arrange an interview, contact John Manning at media@firstliberty.org or by calling 972-941-4453.
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