Florida Catholic | House Fast Tracks Three Life Bills; Future Uncertain in Senate

House fast tracks three life bills; future uncertain in senate

JACQUELYN HORKAN | FLORIDA CATHOLIC STAFF

Posted: 04.03.08

TALLAHASSEE | On Wednesday, April 2, the Florida House of Representatives made a surprise decision to pass three pro–life bills. Earlier in the day, the three bills had been up for debate and were expected to come up for a vote on Friday at the earliest. Instead the House leadership used a parliamentary procedure to send the three bills on to the Senate.

The first bill, HB 257, is a comprehensive abortion regulation bill. It would require abortion clinics to show ultrasound images to abortion–minded mothers. Currently clinics must perform ultrasounds before aborting a baby but do not show the images to the mothers unless asked.

The bill would also strengthen the law that requires doctors to notify the parents of a teenage girl before aborting her child. Minors can ask a judge to exempt them from the notification requirement. The bill would provide judges with specific criteria to use in determining whether to grant an exemption. Judges now grant 94 percent of the requests for exemptions they receive.

In addition, the bill would institute a 24-hour waiting period for women seeking abortions.

HB 257 passed 70 to 45.

The second bill would make it a crime to harm an unborn child during an act of violence against the mother, regardless of whether the attacker knew the victim was pregnant. HB 513 also conforms state law to federal law by defining an unborn child as a “member of the species homo sapiens at any stage of development who is carried in the womb.” Current Florida law relies on the standard of viability outside the womb.

HB 513 passed by a vote of 80 to 36.

HB 7007 lengthens from 3 days to 7 days the period of time after birth that during which a mother can anonymously turn her baby over to a hospital, fire station or emergency medical center without the fear of punishment. The bill also specifies that a mother who wants to surrender her newborn after birth in a hospital can request that her name be left off the birth certificate.

That bill passed unanimously.

Of the three bills, HB 7007 is the one with brightest prospects. It was passed unanimously by the Senate Health Policy Committee last week. The other two bills have Senate companions, but neither has been heard in committee, an indication that the bills lack support.

According to Sheila Hopkins, associate for social concerns/respect life at the Florida Catholic Conference the Senate lacks the pro-life majority necessary to pass either an abortion regulation bill or the violence against unborn children act. In 2007, the House passed similar legislation, which subsequently failed in the Senate.

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House fast tracks three life bills; future uncertain in senate

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