Bill to require ultrasound before abortion passes first House committee, but Senate will again determine outcome
by Michael C. Bender | March 18th, 2009A proposal to require a woman view an ultrasound before receiving an abortion cleared its first House committee today on a partisan vote, but bipartisan opposition in the Senate may once again doom the measure.
The same bill last year died on a fairly dramatic 20-20 tie vote on the Senate floor when seven Republicans voted with nearly every Democrat to defeat the measure. This year, two of those Republicans did not return to the legislature due to term limits.
But the bill may not make it to the Senate floor this year. It’s first stop in that chamber is the Health Regulation Committee, which includes Sens. Dennis Jones of Seminole and Mike Bennett of Bradenton. Both Republicans voted against the bill last year, which means if the committee members vote the same way as last year the bill dies on a 5-3 vote.
“We’ve got some work to do,” said Sen. Andy Gardiner, an Orlando Republican sponsoring the Senate version (SB 1857)
In the House today, the Health Care Regulation Policy Committee approved the same bill (HB 983) on a partisan 5-2 vote.
Democrats said the bill was an attempt to put up another hurdle for women trying to terminate a pregnancy.
“The doctor makes a decision of whether an ultrasound is necessary,” said Rep. Kelly Skidmore, D-Boca Raton. “I don’t believe that is the role of the legislature.”
But Republicans said the measure would be helpful for women.
“We are assisting the mother when she’s before someone who is prone to perform an abortion without the ultrasound,” said Rep. Charles Van Zant, R-Keystone Heights. “We are providing for the mother and not telling the doctor anything.”
House sponsor Anitere Flores, R-Miami, pictured above, pushed the bill last year to the House floor before it died in the Senate.
Flores would not say whether the changes would reduce abortions in Florida. But she did that turnover in the Senate — where Republican opponents Lisa Carlton and Burt Saunders have termed out — would help the bill’s chances this year.
“We feel good about our chances in the Senate,” Flores said.
Tags: abortion, State Senate
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March 18th, 2009 at 5:14 pm
This MUST be solely a womans choice. An ultrasound should not be required in order for a woman to have a safe, legal medical procedure. This is nothing more then an attempt to make abortion illegal. Stop saying it is “information” for the woman.
Shelah Crowley – Republican
March 18th, 2009 at 5:40 pm
This bill is great, so that when before women get an abortion they know exactly what and why they are doing this — not making a haste decision or an uninformed desicion.
March 18th, 2009 at 6:15 pm
Oh Shelah,
If you support the choice, at least be honest in your description. It’s medical intervention that ends the life and further growth of a future baby. THAT is what the ultrasound legislation wants the women undergoing this … procedure to understand. If she knows, and maturely accepts this, and then choses to exercise her choice, so be it. Chances are she won’t be a repeat offender, as she understands the gravity and the consequences of her actions.
Acting like this … procedure is akin to having a tooth excised, or one’s tonsils or appendix removed, is not only sad, it’s preventing women from recognizing the enormity of the consequences of their decision, which they may come to regret.
If you strongly are pro-abortion, then you should do away with this language: “An ultrasound should not be required in order for a woman to have a safe, legal medical procedure.” and let women have ALL of the information about the procedure, as well as all of the information about the baby growing every day inside of them, in their hands BEFORE they decide to stop that child’s growth.
March 18th, 2009 at 7:10 pm
Thank you Representative Flores!
It’s about time that women were given all the information available and that so-called “feminist” groups stop sugar-coating this procedure. The way women have been treated is insulting and demeaning.
No more euphemisims, no more sweeping things under the rug. Look at the sonogram or choose not to look at it, but be adult enough to make an intelligent, well-informed choice.
March 18th, 2009 at 7:40 pm
What darn nerve of these pompass a-ses. They keep intruding into peoples personal lives. Who wants these politicians, many have no morals or even practice what they preach, dictating what I must do in my most personal decisions. How dare they intrude by making a women view a ultrasound? Thats her own decision to make. How dare they sit in those committtes and lie through their teeth that what they are doing is to protect the mother. Are they so blind and out of thouch that they actually believe we belive that c r a p ? Have they not gotten the message that many Republicans like my self have had enough of their extremeism and want them to remember the Republican philosophy about STAYING OUT OF PEOPLES LIVES, LESS GOVERNMNET?????? Sen. Gardiner and Rep. Flores are probably going to get away with this horrible bill, just to pander to the religious extreme, because those who used to be there to stop this garbage, especially in the Senate, are not there any longer. If this garbage passes, the Governor better veto this or I will for certain change my Republican registration and work harder then ecer to get everyone I know to do the same. This has got to stop.
March 18th, 2009 at 7:43 pm
No one I know is “pro-abortion”, thats a term only religious extremeist use. That would be like me saying that those who are anti-abortion are really for governmnet compelled pregnancy. Oh wait a minute, they are for governmnet compelled pregnancy.
March 18th, 2009 at 7:48 pm
Camille,
Please read the facts carefully.
NO ONE is MAKING anyone view the ultrasound.
On the other hand, how dare anyone deny information. In the past, these decisions were made by men who thought that women couldn’t handle too much information. Just open wide and we’ll suck that little “mass of cells” out of you.
Further “proof” that women “just couldn’t handle it” is that after women started complaining that they saw tiny, but perfectly formed, arms and legs and heads come out of the tube, the tubes were changed and made out of a dark material, so that women wouldn’t ask any more inconvenient questions. After all, they had been told it was as easy as “pulling out a tooth”. Let’s become real feminists, please.
Let’s demonstrate that besides a uterus, we also have a brain!
March 18th, 2009 at 7:53 pm
The days of saying it’s only the woman’s decision are over. There is another life growing inside the woman. An individual with different prints, a different heart, perhaps a different blood type – Maybe even a different gender! Society – regardless of whether one is a Republican or a Democrat (which I am, by the way), must protect all human beings.
March 18th, 2009 at 7:56 pm
Proof that the ‘product of conception’, as some abortionists call it is a life, is that it has to be ‘terminated’.
It is definitely NOT a woman’s choice. I am a father and it is as much my child as it is my wife’s!
March 18th, 2009 at 11:27 pm
Nadine you are so full of it. No one denied anybody information. If you believ that then you are too gullable to even respond to. Yours is atypical uniformed etxtremeist tactic. It doesn’t fly anymore. These choices are not yours to make for someone you don’t even know. Yet you would have politicians decide the morals for others. You ahve got to be kidding. These people sell their souls for elections and power. these peole selll us , the people out every single day, they are corrupt (political corruption at an all time high), They are hypocrites, liars, and sexual deviants (tapping toes in bathrooms), adulterers and not any kind of people I want deciding my loved ones toughest personal decisions. You can use all the heart string pulling termonology you want. It doesnt work anymore. I make my own decisions, you stay the heck out of my life. This is a free country to belive as I may and abortion is legal and you have no right to subject your own Taliban type thinking on anyone else. If you want to view a sonogram or elect to keep your pregnancy, thats good for you. Don’t tell me or others we have to do it your way. If thats how you feel, then leave and go to a country that does not have a Constitution or does not believe in individual freedoms.
March 18th, 2009 at 11:29 pm
Sorry for the fast typing and incorrect spekking. That is due to emotion and fast typing.
March 18th, 2009 at 11:30 pm
also due to the fact that I did not put my reading glasses on.
March 18th, 2009 at 11:33 pm
Sorry, my post was for Rita.
March 18th, 2009 at 11:58 pm
The extremeist are out in force tonight. They seem to forget they are the minority. They just can’t get it that they have no right to interfere in strangers personal lives. If you don’t belive as they do, they want to force their way upon you. Sorry, I can never agree with that and that has nothing to do with abortion, it has to do with it being my personal business. They also will not understand this is not just their country, it is a country filled with different religions, different beliefs and some do not believe in religion at all and have the right to do so whether you or I like it or not. I feel that these extremeist who use the abortion issue to tug at your heart strings as a guise, are really trying to change the country and its Constitution. They do not love this country for its Constitution and the protection of the people to practice religion or to have none. They dont allow for anything different then they believe and that is what makes them dangerous and thankfully, that is what makes them the minority. Just imagine if your religion differed from theirs? Or if you did not have a religion? I wonder what they would want government to mandate against you? If you believe in stem cell research that could save your child, in science and they don’t? What happens if a majority of political leaders decide they want to compell abortions because they think population control is essential? It works both ways. No government should be in its peoples private lives. If you do this it not only can work both ways but it will grow. Who knows what they will compell next?