>>This week on NewsNight, as the Florida Supreme Court considers its position on abortion access, the issue looks set to play a key role in the 2024 election.

A look at the latest in the debate over abortion in Florida and proposals for a constitutional amendment.

Plus, the history making commercial moon shot targeted for a Christmas Eve launch from the Space Coast.

NewsNight starts now.

[MUSIC] Hello, I'm Steve Mort and welcome to NewsNight where we take an in-depth look at the top stories and issues in central Florida and how they affect all of us.

First tonight, the fight over abortion in Florida.

The state Supreme Court is weighing decisions on two fronts.

Firstly, whether to allow a 15 week abortion ban and by extension, a stricter six week ban to come into force or to side with plaintiffs who say the law violates the Florida Constitution.

And secondly, whether to allow a proposed constitutional amendment barring state restrictions on the procedure onto the ballot next year.

The court's opinions will likely have far reaching implications for abortion access in Florida and beyond.

A CDC report finds Florida doctors performed one of the largest numbers of abortions of any state.

That was in 2021.

Well NewsNight's Krystel Knowles has been talking with one of those who's trying to get abortion access enshrined in the Florida Constitution, Krystel?

>>Yeah, Right now, everybody's waiting to see what the state Supreme Court decides.

But Planned Parenthood is fighting to get the issue onto the ballot next year.

They told me they collected almost 500,000 state verified signatures so far out of the required 891,000, and they're confident they will reach their goal.

Now, Stephanie Loraine Piñeiro from Florida Access Network shares her story on what led her to become a pro-choice advocate and doing that work today, and how she believes Florida's abortion laws will create lifelong ripple effects for women in the state.

>>Our bodies and our lives are not bargaining chips, and I feel like that's how we get treated.

>>Stephanie Loraine Piñeiro is referencing the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v Wade, as well as the current debate in Florida surrounding the 15 week abortion ban and the pending six week abortion ban this year.

Piñeiro serves as the executive director of Florida Access Network, an organization committed to supporting access to abortion services.

It provides various forms of assistance, such as financial support for transportation to appointments and help with clinic payments.

With the private donations received, the group assisted 1,300 women this year.

>>And by the time people reach us, they're very clear about what they want to do.

>>Piñeiro can relate.

She made the same decision when she was just a teenager.

She grew up in poverty with parents who did not speak English and was the oldest of four children.

She had to mature more quickly than most and take on added responsibilities at a young age.

>>We'll be put on the ballot, hopefully.

I discovered I was pregnant and it was because it was sexual assault.

>>She did not want to raise a child while still being a child herself.

She told her parents, who reluctantly took her to get an abortion.

Piñeiro says if the state Supreme Court upholds these abortion bans, the lifelong repercussions would be felt for generations.

>>There is a world in which 17 year old girls like me don't have other options.

There will be people who are left behind who are going to continue pregnancies that they don't want, potentially have complex pregnancies, potentially die, potentially self-manage their own pregnancies successfully or unsuccessfully.

>>Krystel Knowles reporting there.

Well, let's bring in our panel now to break it all down.

Joining us in the studio this week, Brendan Byrne, assistant news director at 90.7 WMFE News.

Thanks for being here, Brendan.

Appreciate it.

Afternoon anchor at WFTV Channel 9 Daralene Jones is also here, also an investigative reporter.

Thanks for being here, Daralene.

And Steve Lemongello writes about politics for The Orlando Sentinel.

Thanks for coming in as well, Steve.

>>Happy to be here.

>>Good to see you all today, guys.

Brendan, let's start with you on this one.

Those abortion figures that I mentioned from the CDC are pretty striking.

What does the analysis show and what are the limitations of that study?

>>Yes.

So the data comes from 2021.

It shows 79,000 abortions in the state.

That's higher than New York, Texas and Illinois.

And Florida's rate of abortions, that's the number of abortions per 1,000 women aged 15 to 44 was 20.3.

But keep in mind, this data was from 2021.

Roe v Wade was overturned in mid-2022.

So the data will definitely changes as we go on.

>>Daralene, Attorney General Ashley Moody's filed a new brief with the Florida Supreme Court opposing this effort to get a constitutional amendment on the ballot for next year on abortion rights.

What are the key arguments that she's sort of making in her filing?

>>Well, the main concern is that it gives health care providers essentially too much power.

The language is vague.

It gives them the power to determine what constitutes viability.

>>Viability, right.

>>And so the concern, according to the brief, is that we need more black and white language.

None of this gray area.

>>Yeah the grayer - the uncertainty, there's so much uncertainty around when it comes to this issue for sure.

I mean, what do state - there was an economic analysis of this, which was interesting, ran from state economists.

What do they say about the potential costs of this amendment were it to pass?

I mean, given that we don't have a decision yet on the 15 week ban.

>>They don't have a forecast because of that.

It's it's very uncertain.

So if if the court upholds this 15 week ban, the stricter six week ban goes into effect in 30 days after that, they say that there could be litigation, there could be a cost involved in that litigation.

And as we all know, there will most likely be litigation to that as well.

There's also a question of whether or not the state has to use Medicaid funding for abortions as well, which could complicate this forecast and putting it on the ballot initiative.

>>Steve, abortion rights campaigners have scored several ballot box victories of late, as we know, most recently in Ohio.

Could this be a big issue, do you think, in the 2024 election writ large?

>>Well, the major thing in in Florida is if the referendum to protect abortion rights gets in the ballot next year, they still have to get like, you know, thousands of thousands of signatures.

Yet there is a legal challenge coming from Ashley Moody.

But yeah, like even in red states, blue states, pretty much everywhere there's been some referendum either, you know, that would either end abortion rights that that's essentially defeated things that would protect abortion rights.

Those things have gone through and that's gone in like no matter which Republican or Democratic state.

>>Do you think this plays a big role next year?

>>It absolutely will play a major role because Republicans really have to balance not alienating moderates, independent voters, general voters.

They also have to still pacify, if you will, the more traditional, you know, hard and fast conservative base.

>>Is there a concern, do you think, amongst Republicans, Steve, that if that issue is on the ballot, that motivates Democrats to come to the polls?

Is that a calculation, do you think?

>>Yeah, their worry is a 2022 had like, you know, terrible, terrible Democratic turnout.

Their worry is if there's something going about like that that will spur turnout.

And of course, like I said before, like these sort of things have done well.

Even Republican states, a lot of Republicans have crossed crossed over to vote, you know, to protect abortion rights in a lot of states like Kansas and Ohio and things like that.

So it's not necessarily that, you know, people anyone who comes out to vote yes on this thing, you know, will be a Democrat.

But it's it's something they're - it's something they don't want on the ballot, I would guess.

>>I think more people are also paying attention.

Right.

Because it is in the news cycle more often.

And so antennas are up and people are watching.

>>The polling does show that it is one of the most polarizing but also important issues to a lot of voters.

Just finally on this, I mean, there had been a legislative effort Steve proposed for the session next month in Tallahassee to introduce a compromise on abortion.

Tell us about that and what happened to that idea.

>>Yeah, Fabian Basabe a Republican from Miami, South Florida, he he put a sort of a 12 week bill out there saying here's a compromise between six weeks and 15 weeks.

But, you know, Democrats took the bait on that.

Democrats are saying it should be what it was under Roe v Wade, should be what it was in Florida for so many years, you know, 24 weeks.

So none of them took the bait on that.

And, of course, you know, Basabe then attacked the Democrats for not joining him in his quest.

But that was never going to happen.

>>But nonetheless, as this issue sits in front of the Supreme Court, it's bound to be one that legislators do talk about in the next session for sure.

A reminder, we are recording this program on Thursday, November 30th, so things can change by airtime.

They often do.

In the meantime, you can find a link to the CDC's latest data on abortion in the United States on our website at wucf.org/newsnight.

All right.

Next tonight, the DeSantis administration is facing several key legal tests elsewhere.

It's awaiting another federal appeals court decision on congressional redistricting as voting rights groups challenge a map drawn up by the governor's office and approved by the legislature.

It's also battling Disney on two fronts in state and federal court.

Meanwhile, the administration recently faced a setback in the US Supreme Court in its defense of a law that critics say unfairly targets drag performances.

The DeSantis administration had asked the Supreme Court to narrow the ruling of an Orlando based federal judge who blocked the enforcement of this year's Protection of Children Act.

The law makes taking children to, quote, adult like performances illegal.

The definition of such performances includes, quote, the lewd exposure of prosthetic or imitation genitals or breasts.

The First Amendment based challenge to the law was brought by an Orlando Hamburger Mary's restaurant, which says it hosts family friendly drag performances.

The state had asked the high court to allow the law to be enforced everywhere, with the exception of Hamburger Mary's.

But the justices noting that Florida didn't ask them to weigh in on the First Amendment issue in the case, declined the state's request, and the law will remain paused while the case challenging it continues.

Some very complex issues here, Brendan, so let's dig into it a little bit.

The justices did suggest that there was a legitimate question about whether or not the federal court can block the implementation of a law for everyone, not just the plaintiffs in a case in this case, Hamburger Mary's.

Why did they decide to not take a position on that in this case?

>>Complex indeed.

I had to dig out my constitutional law textbook from college, Steve.

So thanks for that question.

As essentially in a statement by Justice Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett, they said, you know, they explained that the law doesn't reflect their view as to whether or not the law violates First Amendment rights.

They do say that it is an interesting question, but an important question that the court needs to answer.

But they say that this particular case was a, quote, imperfect vehicle for the Supreme Court to be looking into that.

Three of the court's more conservative Justices, Alito, Gorsuch and Thomas did say that they would have put the full ban in place, but they were-- >>They were in the minority in this case.

Daralene I mean, why does Hamburger Mary's think that this pause on the information implementation should extend to everyone else as well?

>>Well, their argument is really simple, and they're saying it's a violation of their First Amendment rights.

It's very simple.

It's not any more complex than that for the Orlando restaurant Hamburger Mary's.

And the other part of their argument is that we already have laws in this state that bar children from seeing sexually explicit material.

>>That's true.

>>And so, you know, it's not much more complicated than that for them.

>>And, of course, the state didn't raise the First Amendment issue in the Supreme Court filing.

Steve, a lawsuit against another DeSantis administration priority that impacts LGBTQ people is fast approaching trial.

And this one is the one that limits transgender care.

We've talked about this a lot on the program.

Just remind us about that law if you can.

And the subsequent medical board rules that passed this year.

>>Yes, this would essentially ban such care for minors, would essentially it doesn't ban it for adults but would make it essentially - critics say it makes it so difficult you practically banning it.

>>Yeah.

>>This is sort of this one sort of difficult because the judge said that, you know, because of a federal ruling in Alabama, he was unable to, you know, fully unable to sort of block it here in in Florida.

It has been sort of semi blocked for just the plaintiffs.

So that's sort of where it is now.

But that's obviously an ongoing thing as well.

>>And there really has been a lot of legal to and fro, right, Brendan, on this issue.

I mean, just outline why the plaintiffs are suing and kind of how the state pushes back >>So the plaintiffs are saying that the state and the state surgeon general are discriminatory and use biased information in order to make this decision.

>>Yeah.

>>You know, as Steve mentioned, the state is arguing that this Alabama law is is their argument in this case and that it's already weighed in on the issue and that parents do not have the right to to step in here.

So it has since expanded and we'll see it head to trial December 12th.

>>I think it's probably important, Daralene, to point out that when we sort of talk about these in legal these issues, in legal terms, there are real world consequences going on for many families.

And we sometimes hear about these case studies, but this is sort of something that that shouldn't be looked at in a vacuum.

Right.

There are people that are really feeling those the consequences of these decisions on a on a daily basis.

>>They really are.

And I think that's what gets lost in the political madness of all of these issues is that there are real people who will who are impacted by all of this.

And I think those are the stories we don't tell enough are the real people's stories.

Because when you hear the stories of the people impacted, I think it starts to resonate with people a little bit differently.

And they understand why people are fighting for these rights.

>>Well, it's certainly a story that we'll try to keep telling.

And I'm sure all of our outlets will as well be sure to join the conversation on social media we're at WUCF TV on Facebook, X, and also on Instagram.

Well, before we move on, I want to switch gears to talk about a separate battle the DeSantis administration is involved in the fight with Disney continues to play out in both state and federal court over the feud triggered by Disney's opposition to the Parental Rights in Education law dubbed "Don't Say Gay" by critics.

It resulted in the replacement, of course, of the Reedy Creek Improvement District Board with a Central Florida Tourism Oversight district board handpicked by the governor.

Well, now there are new political efforts to reverse that move.

And Steve, let me come to you first of all, on this one and talk about a bill likely to be filed by a central Florida Democrat in the next session.

This is Senator Linda Stewart to repeal that takeover.

I think the Orange County legislative delegation discussed this proposal Wednesday.

What do we know about that?

And does it stand any chance?

>>Well, probably not.

This is the sort of-- >>That meeting yesterday.

>>Yeah, the meeting yesterday.

Other Republicans walked out supposedly over leadership issues or something like that.

So nine nothing.

The Democrats voted for it voted to approve that.

You're saying they were in favor of it, but that wasn't a quorum.

So they have to probably meet again.

It's a whole it's a whole thing.

But, yeah, Linda Stewart's you know, she's pushing for a bill to repeal that.

Obviously, this has been a huge thing for the DeSantis Administration, and Republicans probably doesn't really have much of a chance.

>>Yeah, I mean, when you watch the theatrics during that meeting, it was very clear that there is no support for this.

And not only do Democrats not have enough power, you know, in Tallahassee, but I don't know that there is enough respect here locally even to get support of other local Republicans for this measure.

I mean, they they walked out of the meeting to discuss this.

So I don't know that this has a chance at all.

I think you have to find another someone else on board, get someone else on board to try to push this.

And they likely will have to be a Republican.

>>And it really has been.

And your your network and everyone else has been sort of covering the goings on of the Central Florida Tourism Oversight Board.

And it's been a really controversial ride so far for a pretty young body.

>>Well, yeah, and that may be an understatement.

I mean, I don't think anyone one of our reporters this week said something that I found really interesting.

He said they kind of thought this was just going to go away, that they were going to just be this new board that no one really paid attention to.

But in fact, everyone is paying attention.

And I think the reason why it starts with the very beginning, you know, the governor handpicking, you know, this board and there has been some controversy already in the very early stages that even when you look at the contracts that are being awarded and the connections with people on the board.

And so I think that is going to I've been covering central Florida for many, many years.

I don't even think I knew that they had board meetings out at Reedy Creek.

But we know now.

>>We've all learned a lot of lessons for sure over the last year or two, Brendan, I mean there's also a move to get a constitutional amendment on the ballot on this as well, right.

To to undo the changes pushed by the Governor.

What's that idea?

>>Yeah, and not just to undo the changes but also prevent this in the future, requiring a supermajority of voters to dissolve these things, to also, you know, call for a recall elections for for politicians who, you know, use retaliatory tactics in the legislature.

That seems even less likely than this bill getting passed.

The-- >>Could be zero signatures-- >>It probably is that they have none that none that we're actually on or what's the word verified.

It's a very slim chance that a ballot initiative will come to be.

>>So on the politics of all of this, Steve, I mean, there are a lot of legal hurdles remaining for the state and for Disney as well.

How is the governor talking about this issue while all those legal machinations go on?

How is he talking about this issue?

>>This is one of his big things, you know, on the stump for a year now, he would go mean he would go and say, well, you know, I took on a certain like no major entertainment company or talks about, know Burbank or, you know, you know, talking about in code sometimes the - sometimes just going straight up, you know, more recently just going right after Disney.

But I've talked to people in other professions, professors and political science, people in other states like Michigan, Iowa and they said, like a lot of times, like they don't know the ins and outs of of A) what's going on down here.

B) you know, the whole conservative media bubble about, you know, Disney and why conservatives don't like Disney.

Like Disney is just like this fun company that they their kids watch movies and go to Disney World every five years Like they don't, you know, oh, DeSantis is the one who took on Disney is not the one that sort of registers with a lot of voters.

>>It doesn't resonate.

I mean, even when this first started, I think a lot of people were saying, what are you doing?

You mean - it's the fun, happy place.

It's the happiest place on earth, most magical place on earth.

And it doesn't resonate.

I mean, the voters have children who love bringing their children to Disney and even the most low income families, they save up for years to come to Disney.

And so this idea of picking on the mouse, picking on Disney, it's just not landing.

>>And what an economic driver it is to the to region.

>>Disney recently put some numbers out to that effect to show what their economic-- >>To basically say look what we're doing for your state.

>>Interesting times at Disney for sure.

A reminder of once again we are recording this program on Thursday November 30th, so things can change by air time.

Meanwhile, you can find this in every episode of NewsNight on our website.

Visit us online at wucf.org/newsnight along the bottom of your screen.

Finally tonight, a festive and historic moon shot taking off from the Space Coast.

United Launch Alliance's new Vulcan Centaur rocket is set to blast off from the Cape Canaveral Space Force station on Christmas Eve.

The vehicle is ULA's successor to its Atlas five and Delta four rockets.

It'll carry a robotic lander called Peregrine, made by Astrobotic.

If its mission is successful in reaching the surface of the moon, the lander will mark a key moment in NASA's effort to commercialize lunar operations.

Astrobotic could become the first commercial company to make a soft landing on the moon, dubbed a lunar FedEx.

It's hoped the peregrine lander will regularly carry cargo to the moon, including infrastructure for NASA's Artemis program, which aims to return astronauts to the surface of the moon by 2025 and eventually onto Mars.

We always like to talk about space when Brendan Byrne is here.

He also hosts the Space podcast "Are we there yet?"

at WMFE so Brendan, let's start with the ULA rocket itself there.

What's the significance of the launch of the Vulcan Centaur?

Is this going to be the new workhorse when it comes to space missions?

>>It's going to be the new workers workhorse for the United Launch Alliance, which is a private space company that launches here.

The launch of Vulcan started all the way back in 2014.

The former rocket that ULA used was the Atlas five.

The engines were made by a Russian company and John McCain led a congressional charge to get that overturned.

>>Former senator-- >>A former senator.

Yes.

And and so now this is kind of the culmination of those efforts.

So these are American made engines by Blue Origin Jeff Bezos company that will be launching and this will be the workhorse.

This is a far more efficient vehicle than ULA has used before.

There's a lot of competition in in the rocket industry, as we all know, with with Space X launching almost 60 launches this year.

So they're really hoping that this will be the workhorse and it's going to be the workhorse not just for the private space industry, but also for the national security industry.

ULA wants this to launch national security payloads for the Space Force, so they have to get two successful launches under their belt before they can do that.

>>So no pressure.

I do want to ask you-- >>No pressure.

>>About that sort of volume of launches in a moment.

But what about this peregrine lander that's going to be transported to the moon's surface on this occasion by this rocket?

Tell us about that.

>>Sure.

So the Vulcan launches inaugural flight is Christmas Eve at 1:00 in the morning.

So thank ULA for that.

But it will be carrying a private lander or a lunar lander manufactured by a private company in Pittsburgh, said to be the first private payload to reach the moon.

So this is a really, really important step in NASA's new program called CLPS, the Commercial Lunar Payload Service.

And this is essentially using private industry, much like UPS or FedEx, to send supplies and science to the moon.

>>I've seen this is described as democratizing the moon or commercializing operations on the moon, which we haven't seen before.

I mean, how key is this lander going to be, do you think, to the to the Artemis program and future missions that the United States might undertake?

>>Extremely key.

So some of the things that are on board this lander are sensors that are going to be collecting information about the environment of the moon, where astronauts will be landing sometime in the 2020s.

So this is extremely important to get these instruments on there, learn about radiation levels, the environment, all that stuff.

You also can see the democratization of the moon.

This is a company that's based in Pittsburgh.

They asked the citizens of Pittsburgh to vote on what they wanted to send to the moon, and they're sending a token from Kennywood Park, which is an amusement park in Pittsburgh.

So that will live on the moon as well.

It's a platform to get stuff both commercial and private or I'm sorry, scientific and commercial to the moon.

>>Well, let's just talk about the volume of flights that are going.

I think we've all covered this region for a long time.

We've seen sort of the ups and downs after the retirement of the shuttle.

This year, we're on for, what, some 80 flights or something like that.

We could exceed that next year.

Do we have the capacity?

Does the space Coast have the workers, the infrastructure necessary to to to accommodate this continuing increase in flights?

>>I spoke with Space Florida's CEO this week about that and he said the infrastructure is there, but we need to make some changes.

One issue is with the port.

Port Canaveral cannot handle our space industry, which sounds kind of counterintuitive, right?

But a lot of these vehicles are being shipped in through the port or, you know, SpaceX lands its boosters.

They come through the port.

There's too much traffic there as well.

Also, there is a need for a skilled workforce.

It's not just launching rockets here in the state manufacturing satellites and getting all that stuff into orbit.

So Lieutenant governor says we're going to hit triple digits next year.

And for that to happen, triple digit launches and for that to happen, we really need to bulk up our infrastructure to handle that and possibly move our launch infrastructure farther along Florida's coast.

>>I mean, Channel 9 has covered the space industry a lot.

I mean, we have seen a huge number of changes.

I think we all remember after the shuttle retired a few years back, the kind of doldrums that the economy was in there.

This must make a huge difference to the people that live there.

>>It devastated the economy on the space coast.

And so this is sort of reinvigorating and I think there is a lot of excitement from the people when we talk about even the infrastructure.

Can it can they can the infrastructure handle it?

I think they're going to find a way to make sure the infrastructure can handle it because it is so vital to the economy over there on the space coast.

>>I feel like we could talk about space all day with Brendan Byrne here, but unfortunately that is all the time we have for this week.

My thanks to Brendan Byrne from 90.7 WMFE News, thanks so much for coming Brendan really appreciate it, Daralene Jones from WFTV Channel 9.

Thanks for being here as well Daralene and Steve Lemongello from the Orlando Sentinel.

Thanks so much for being here, Steve.

Appreciate it.

I hope you all have a wonderful holiday season and New Year as well.

And we'll see you in 2024 for sure.

In the meantime, we'll see you next Friday night at 8:30 here on WUCF.

In the meantime, from all of us here at NewsNight, take care and have a great week.