A pair of Florida Democrats have filed legislation that would in effect eliminate the state’s restrictive six-week abortion ban and other laws limiting abortion access and guarantee access to reproductive health care.
Called the Reproductive Freedom Act, the bills were filed on the 53rd anniversary of the landmark Roe v. Wade, the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision that made abortion legal in the United States. It was undone by the 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision that returned abortion regulation to the states.
“The Reproductive Freedom Act would ensure all Floridians can access the full range of reproductive health care options, without the government looking over their shoulders in the exam room,” House Democratic Leader and HB 1151 sponsor Fentrice Driskell said.
“I can’t think of a better time to announce this than the anniversary of Roe v. Wade. It was a decision that protected our grandmothers, mothers, and daughters until extremist judges and politicians took it away.”
A 2024 attempt to enshrine abortion rights in the Florida Constitution was supported by 57% of voters but failed to meet the 60% mark needed to pass.
Pro-abortion right legislators are quick to remind Republican leadership that while the 2024 amendment failed it was supported by a majority of voters. Still, the proposals are unlikely to pass the Legislature at a time when the GOP supermajority seems intent of expanding restrictions on reproductive freedom — allowing would-be parents to file wrongful death suits for embryos, for example, and requiring public school children to watch “fetal development” videos as part of the academic curriculum.
Jacksonville Democrat Sen. Tracie Davis has filed identical legislation (SB 1308) in the Senate.
“You’ve heard us say this a thousand times before. And we’re going to keep saying it until we can change the law: All Floridians must have the freedom to make their own choices about their health care, in consultation with doctors who’ve taken an oath to act in their patients’ best interests,” Davis said.
“At no time is a politician more qualified than individual patients and doctors trying to navigate unique, and sometimes life-threatening, health care decisions. We’re already facing a shortage of OBGYNs in this state and if we don’t pass the Reproductive Freedom Act, it’s only going to get worse.”
The bills wouldn’t alter or change any of the the state’s existing abortion statutes. Instead, they would modify the state’s general public health laws, inserting legislative intent language into statute to make clear that the principles of individual liberty, personal privacy, and equality that are protected in the state Constitution ensure access to reproductive care.
The right to reproductive health care includes, but is not limited to:
- A fundamental right to make autonomous decisions about the individual’s own reproductive health, including the right to use or refuse reproductive healthcare; and
- A fundamental right to choose whether to continue the pregnancy and give birth or to obtain an abortion and to make autonomous decisions about how to exercise this fundamental right.
The bills would also amend public health statutes to make clear that “a fertilized egg, embryo, or fetus does not have independent rights” in Florida.
The bills would amend statutes to ban the state, county, or local governments from denying or interfering with an individual’s fundamental right to access reproductive health care. The bills also would ban any state or local law enforcement agencies or officials from harassing or discriminating against an individual for providing or obtaining reproductive health care or for assisting another person in doing so.
A 2023 law that prevents the use of state funds to foster travel to another state for abortion care and another law that bans a health care surrogate or proxy from consenting to an abortion on another person’s behalf also would be eliminated by the bills.
Boca Raton reproductive endocrinologist and fertility specialist Dr. Leah Roberts said that in many ways reproductive care is treated differently by lawmakers than other health care, with state legislatures more willing to intervene in its delivery.
“You know, there seems to be this carve out. You know, nobody’s gonna tell a cardiologist that they can’t, you know, put a stent in someone, but it seems to be looked at very differently when it comes to OBGYN care,” she said.
“I don’t think it’s a fair thing to be happening. I mean, I went to undergrad for four years, med school for four years, four years of residency. I practiced for a year and then did three more years of fellowship. So, certainly, I have just as much training if not probably a year or two more, than any cardiologist in regards to my organ system, which just happens to be, you know, only in women,” she said. “But it also affects men.”
ACLU of Florida Executive Director Bacardi Jackson said the bill would give every Floridian freedom over health care decisions.
“Decisions about whether and when to use birth control, whether to continue or end a pregnancy, and whether and when to grow a family are among the most personal decisions anyone will ever make. These choices shape our lives, our health, and our futures. Politicians are never more qualified than individuals, families, and their doctors to make these deeply personal decisions, and Florida’s laws must reflect that truth.”
The focus of the five-page bills is access to reproductive care but the legislation also would strike a 2023 statute that allows health care providers and payors to deny medical care based on conscience.
Florida Phoenix is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Contact Michael Moline for questions: info@floridaphoenix.com. Follow Florida Phoenix on Facebook and Twitter.
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