With looming concerns over further restrictions on abortion access in Florida, an Orlando-area state representative has filed legislation that would establish reproductive healthcare access as a fundamental right for Floridians, codifying protections formerly guaranteed under Roe v. Wade.
State Rep. Rita Harris, a Democrat from Orlando, filed House Bill 1033, titled the “Reproductive Health Care Protections Act,” last week. State Senator Lori Berman, a Democrat from Boca Raton, filed an identical version (SB 1076) in the state Senate.
The legislation would recognize reproductive healthcare as a fundamental right for Floridians, codifying abortion access in state law, and would prohibit any individual or government entity from “discriminating against, denying, unduly burdening, or interfering with a person's exercise of such fundamental rights.”
It also eliminates the definition of "fatal fetal abnormality," extends the time frame within which a person can seek an abortion procedure, and provides a civil cause of action for any person whose fundamental rights to privacy in seeking reproductive healthcare are deprived or “impaired.”
Similar House and Senate bills filed last year by Sen. Berman and former Rep. Ben Diamond of St. Petersburg languished, then died in their respective chambers. At the time they were filed, Berman warned that there was “no time to waste.”
And she was right.
Within months, Florida’s Republican-controlled legislature passed a restrictive abortion law, HB 5, prohibiting most abortions in the state after 15 weeks of pregnancy, with no exceptions for cases of rape or incest. That law is currently the subject of at least two lawsuits.
Then, last June, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision, effectively overturning the federal constitutional right to abortion under the landmark Roe v. Wade.
Both of those major changes to abortion access — and the effects they’ve had on the abortion care landscape in Florida and across the U.S. since — have increased the urgency for action.
“Bodily autonomy is an innate and fundamental right,” said Rep. Harris, in a prepared statement about her newly filed HB 1033. “For nearly 50 years, Americans have had the right to an abortion up to 24 weeks. The 15-week abortion ban passed last year is an infringement to an individual’s religious liberties and the right to privacy guaranteed by Florida’s state Constitution,” said Rep. Harris.
As legal experts have pointed out, Florida's state constitution has explicitly recognized an individual's right to privacy. In the past, this has been interpreted to include abortion care.
Last month, the Florida Supreme Court agreed to hear a legal challenge filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, Planned Parenthood, and abortion providers over its constitutionality. Efforts to block the ban in the meantime have been unsuccessful.
“Our legislation aims to protect women,” Berman said, of SB 1076. “It recognizes that abortion is healthcare, and that women are equal citizens of the State of Florida, and free to make this important decision themselves.”
Annie Filkowski, policy director for the Florida Alliance of Planned Parenthood Affiliates said that the legislation couldn’t be more timely.
“Anti-abortion politicians in Florida aren’t satisfied with a 15-week abortion ban. They’re coming back this year to try to pass an even stricter ban, despite the heartbreaking stories we’re hearing about the toll the current law is already taking on Floridians,” said Filkowski.
“Make no mistake, anti-abortion politicians aren’t satisfied with the overturning of Roe v. Wade and banning abortion in the states; they are now coming after birth control, cancer screenings, young trans people, and all of our health and rights. They are actively working to dismantle sexual and reproductive health care nationwide.”
Abortion restrictions have been linked to increased suicide risk among young women, higher maternal and infant mortality, and unsafe abortions, with people more likely to make desperate choices to terminate an unwanted pregnancy. Economic policy experts say it's also an economic concern.
As it is, at least 13 states have fully banned abortion, with bans in other states pending in the courts. Others, like Florida, have enacted stricter gestational limits. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who’s rumored to be preparing for a run for president, has said he’d sign more restrictive limits in Florida, even though most Florida voters oppose abortion bans.
A 12-week ban in Florida, with exceptions for rape and incest, for example, has been discussed, although no legislation has yet been filed for the 2023 legislative session, which kicks off March 7.
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