A bill requiring a woman to pay for an ultrasound before getting an abortion is now headed to Gov. Charlie Crist, who can sign it, veto it or allow it to become law without his signature.

The expectation among politics-watchers has been that Republican-turned-independent Crist will veto HB 1143 in keeping with his drift from conservative-sounding GOP Senate primary hopeful to Democrat-courting independent candidate.

If Crist vetoes the bill, however, he can expect cries of hypocrisy from the right and left.

Republican Senate candidate Marco Rubio’s campaign is already highlighting the old “Charlie Crist on Pro-Life/Family” page that’s been yanked from his indie campaign website. And Democratic Senate candidate Kendrick Meek has posted the above clip of Crist touting his “pro-life, pro-gun, pro-family” credentials as a Republican in February.

HOLLYWOOD — Gov. Charlie Crist appears likely to veto a bill requiring women to see ultrasounds before they can get abortions, state Sen. Eleanor Sobel, D-Hollywood, said today.

Sobel said she had a brief conversation with Crist as he visited the Seminole reservation for a ceremonial signing of a $1 billion gaming compact.

“I think it looks positive for a veto, but it’s not over ’til he vetoes it,” Sobel said. “I actually went up and whispered in his ear….It means a lot to the women in this state.”

The ultrasound bill didn’t come up when Crist spoke briefly with reporters before leaving the event.

Few people understand nuance better than Gov. Charlie Crist, but after four years we’ve learned that “concern” from the governor about a piece of legislation can often quickly lead to a veto.

Here’s what he told The Palm Beach Post, the only media outlet to talk with Crist about the bill so far today.

“I just saw the House passed it a few minutes ago,” Crist said. “Obviously we haven’t had a chance to review it in our office. But it gives me concern. Sure.”

Asked what about the proposal concerns him, Crist said, “I need to study it.”

Crist was equally serene when asked about the budget. Crist was the target of some choice words from lawmakers when he proposed a $69.2 billion spending plan. The final budget from lawmakers: $70.4 billion.

Crist has been asked several times about a potential veto of the budget, but has steered those questions toward his traditional action on the budget, which has been to veto specific line items and not the entire document.

He did the same today.

“I think what I need to do is let Jerry (McDaniel, Crist’s budget director) and his team look through it very thoughtfully and thoroughly,” Crist said. “Once they’ve had that opportunity, then I go ahead and begin getting briefed by him and his team. I want to be very methodical about it, you know, what’s in there what maybe shouldn’t be in there and do the right thing.”

Crist said he planned head to Pensacola this weekend to monitor the disastrous oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Crist said the spill “puts the kibosh” on any more talk of expanded oil drilling in the Gulf.

“How anybody could see that and not think that not only do you need to rethink it, but certainly put all the brakes on it,” Crist said. “That’s the only right thing to do.”

Florida lawmakers gave final approval to a contentious abortion bill that would require pregnant women to have an ultrasound before an abortion after nearly four hours of at time tearful, disturbing debate.

The measure passed by a 76-44 vote and is now headed to Gov. Charlie Crist.

Only a single Republican spoke against the measure, Rep. Ed Homan, R-Temple Terrace, a physician.

Speaking against the measure, Rep. Scott Randolph gave an emotional account of his and his wife’s experience with abortion after three ultrasounds found that the fetus would die.

“The ultrasound machine’s right next to that bed where my wife is laying looking at this fetus and she’s having to cry and ask and demand that that ultrasound machine be turned in the other direction because she can’t see it anymore,” said Randolph, D-Orlando, crying freely.

“And this bill would say no, we’re going to demand that one more time, when you go in to finally terminate that pregnancy because God and fate and nature have told you that not this time, you’re not going to have the child this time, that you see that ultrasound or that you be told what’s on that screen. You can demand that it be turned away but you’re still going to have to listen to the description of what’s there,” he went on.

Randolph hammered on the Democrat’s objections that forcing the ultrasounds contradicts Republicans’ belief in smaller government.

“Six years ago this legislature wanted government so small that it could fit down a tube into an individual woman’s throat named Terri Schiavo,” Randolph said. :And this year you’re wanting government so small that it can fit between a woman’s legs and into her uterus.”

UPDATE: The House passed the abortion ultrasound amendment after a three-hour debate with a 72-46 vote.

House Speaker Larry Cretul cut short some of the more heated debate on the controversial abortion bill passed by the Florida Senate yesterday that would require all women seeking an abortion to have an ultrasound.

Cretul stepped in when Rep. Alan Hays, R-Umatilla, likened abortion to the Holocaust.

“Everyone is aghast and embarrassed” about the Holocaust in which at least 5 million Jews were killed, Hays said.
“What are we going to say as a society about the killing of more than 50 million…,” he went on before Cretul cut him short.

“Members, I know this is a very sensitive issue and I really ask for your cooperation in keeping it within the bounds,” Cretul, R-Ocala, said.

Rep. Richard Steinberg spoke shortly after Hays.

“As a Jew in this House I am deeply disheartened” about the analogy, Steinberg, D-Miami Beach, said.

“Rep. Steinberg, we’re going to keep it within the bounds,” Cretul replied.

Earlier, Cretul gave Democrat Adam Fetterman equal treatment.

While others were surprised the abortion measure even came up, Fetterman said he was not.

“See there’s no bacon to bring back home. But you sure can bring the red meat.
This is a side of beef for some fundamentalist people. It is designed to coerce a woman to change her mind if not scare her away from the doctor’s office,” said Fetterman, D-Port St. Lucie.

Fetterman went on to say that some fundamentalists support the assassination of doctors is acceptable because they are such staunch abortion opponents.

Heck part of me is afraid to leave this chamber today without the protection of the sergeants…because of my beliefs,” Fetterman said.

“Rep. Fetterman, if you could temper your remarks just a little,” Cretul chastised.

The House is expected to vote on the measure (HB 1143) shortly.

The Florida Senate approved possibly one of the most restrictive abortion measures in the nation that would require women to have an ultrasound before getting an abortion.

Pregnant women could opt out of viewing the image of the fetus by signing a form but must have the ultrasound and pay for it.

The bill (1143) passed by a 23-16 vote after an at-times emotional debate.
If you don’t ovulate, keep out of the debate.

Sen. Mike Bennett said that the measure, shot down on a tie-vote two years ago, was intended to make women seeking abortions feel worse.

“You want them to feel more miserable on this tough choice that they’re going to make in their lives,” Bennett, R-Bradenton, said.

But even supporters of the measure indicated its purpose was to dissuade women from having the procedure.

“We are not making abortion illegal. We are giving women one more chance to make an informed decision,” said Sen. Alex Villalobos, R-Miami.

The bill sponsor said women could opt out of looking at the sonogram if they want to.

“All this bill says, is give us the opportunity to view an ultrasound. That’s it. You can decline it. You don’t have to see it. But after you’ve been informed of all the anomalies., all the potential problems, maybe it’ll have an impact on your decision, you’ll see the heartbeat and you’ll realize this is about making the most important decision of your life,” said Sen. Andy Gardiner, R-Orlando.

House Democrats held up passage of some bills over the abortion bill. They don’t want GOP House leaders to take up the measure.

Senate Republican leaders are moving forward with a vote on a controversial abortion bill that is shutting down business in the House today.

Sen. Andy Gardiner, the sponsor of an amendment that would require every woman seeking an abortion to have an ultrasound, said the Senate will pass the bill shortly and send it to the House for a vote.

“We are going to vote on this bill. We’re going to send it to them. After that they can do what they want to do,” said Gardiner, R-Orlando.

House Democrats, who make up slightly more than one-third of the chamber, are blocking bills from being voted on because of the 11th-hour measure tacked onto a nursing home bill late yesterday. The Dems say they won’t back down unless GOP House leaders refuse to let the abortion bill be heard.

The Senate is expected to vote on the bill and pass it shortly.

House Democrats stopped bills from moving this morning over a controversial measure that would require all women to have ultrasounds before they can get an abortion.

The Democrats will refuse to take a final vote on any bills today unless Republican leaders promise not to take up and hear the bill, House Democrats spokesman Mark Hollis said.

House GOP leaders need the 44 Democrats’ votes to roll over some bills so that they can be voted on. So far, the Dems have already blocked that from happening on one item.

The Senate yesterday attached the provision to a nursing home bill over objections from Republican women and Democrats and is expected to vote on it this morning. Based on the votes on the amendments yesterday, it (HB 1143) will likely pass.

Prior to the Democratic caucus decision, House Speaker Larry Cretul was ambivalent about whether he would take up the bill.

“We’ll see,” Cretul, R-Ocala, said before he knew about the Democrats’ procedural move. “We’ll at least take a hard look at it.”

UPDATE: Rep. Jim Waldman, a House Democratic leader, had this to say on their refusal to give two-thirds approval to take up bills until they get assurances from GOP leaders they won’t consider an abortion bill.

“We’re up here to do the budget,” Waldman, D-Coconut Creek, told reporters during a lull in House business, thanks to his caucus. “That’s the only thing we need to do.”

He said there’s no reason to take up the abortion bill – stuck in at the last minute in the Senate – while there are more important issues to discuss with just two days left until the session is scheduled to end.

“That’s not what we’re here for. They’re not sending us here to deal with ultrasounds and abortion,” Waldman said.

UPDATE: The Senate approved the abortion amendment by a 22-17 vote.

Florida GOP Senate leader Andy Gardiner tacked a controversial anti-abortion amendment onto a health care bill on the floor this morning, an identical measure that died on a 20-20 vote two years ago.

The proposal would require women seeking an abortion to have an ultrasound in the first trimester, already required for pregnant women in the second trimester. The women would also have to look at the ultrasound unless she has proof that she has been raped or is a domestic violence victim.

The decidedly more conservative Senate will likely approve the contentious amendment this time around.

Moderate Republican Jim King, who voted on the winning “no” side, passed away last summer and was replaced by conservative John Thrasher.

Ted Deutch, a Boca Raton Democrat who also helped kill the bill, is now in Congress.

And Republicans have easily shot down a number of amendments offered by Democrats trying to water down the Gardiner proposal, indicating the bill would pass.

But they may not take a full vote on the measure (HB 1143) today, and the House would have to approve the changes for it to pass and head to Gov. Charlie Crist.

Sen. Dan Gelber, who was in the House two years ago, objected that no committee had fully vetted the proposal before it arose today on the floor.

Gelber, who is running for attorney general, gave a heated argument against the amendment after offering several of his own that failed.

“You are go to put in Florida law a provision that requires a victim of a rape to actually tell someone she was raped, to get proof of the rape before she can be excused by the state of Florida from getting an ultrasound. How wrong is that,” said Gelber, D-Miami Beach. “Shame on the state of Florida.”

U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek held a roundtable with the Capitol press corps this morning and came out swinging at Gov. Charlie Crist.

Meek, a Democrat running for U.S. Senate, slammed Crist, a Republican who’s losing traction in a GOP primary against former House Speaker Marco Rubio, for his turn-around on abortion and his failed health care program that has been ignored by uninsured Floridians.

“Overall I think the governor’s a very nice person,” Meek, a former state legislator who is in his fourth term in Congress, began. “I don’t think he’s prepared to lead this state in the United States Senate. One, he doesn’t like to make a decision. Two, he’s very vague. And three, I believe he’s more politician than leader.”

(more…)

Democratic congressional hopeful Chris Craft says he would have voted for the health care overhaul legislation that squeaked through the House on Saturday. And Craft says he would have opposed the amendment to the bill banning federal payments or subsidies for abortions.

Both stances put Craft in opposition to freshman U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney, R-Tequesta, whom Craft hopes to unseat in 2010. They also put Craft, who’s running as a moderate in Republican-leaning District 16, at odds with many centrist Democrats in the House.

The health care bill passed on a 220-to-215 vote, with 39 Democrats breaking with House leadership and President Obama to oppose the bill.

The abortion amendment, offered by U.S. Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., passed on a 240-to-194 vote, with 64 Democrats joining the entire Republican caucus in support.

(more…)

During his “telephone town hall” meeting on health insurance reform Wednesday night, U.S. Rep. Ron Klein, D-Boca Raton, fielded questions on abortion, illegal immigrants, whether there should be a government-run “public option” and whether the proposed overhaul would constitute a drift toward Marxism or socialism.

Klein’s office said about 6,460 people listened in. Seventeen people asked questions during the 70-minute teleconference.

Click here to read an article on the event.

More detailed excerpts are available after the jump….

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RPOF Chairman Jim Greer stood by his assertion that President Barack Obama’s health care reforms could lead to “forced, taxpayer-funded abortions.”

Greer held a roundtable with reporters at GOP headquarters this morning, covering a range of issues including the hijinks at town hall meetings throughout the country, including one in Tampa that erupted in physical violence.

Opponents of Obama’s health care package claim that the changes would create “death panels” that would pull the plug on Grandma to save government spending.

“I don’t like the term death panels,” Greer said.

But, he added, “I do believe that trying to pass legislation such as this will provide opportunity for certain types of medical procedures that in some cases Americans would not be aware of or in most cases Americans would not want taxpayer funds to help facilitate.”

The chairman was apparently referring to abortions. Greer yesterday circulated a memo questioning the health care bill and whether it would “work to systematically ‘increase birth intervals between pregnancies,’ opening the very real probability of forced, tax-payer funded abortions.”

He stood by his characterization of the bill this morning.

“If the procedure is financed by taxpayer funds, then in fact the word forced or mandated would be appropriate,” Greer said.

The portion of the bill Greer refers to deals with home visitation services.

The full text follows:

“The term ‘nurse home visitation services’ means home visits by trained nurses to families with a first-time pregnant woman, or a child (under 2 years of age), who is eligible for medical assistance under this title, but only, to the extent determined by the Secretary based upon evidence, that such services are effective in one or more of the following:
(1) Improving maternal or child health and pregnancy outcomes or increasing birth intervals between pregnancies.”

Greer decried the outbursts at town hall meetings but blamed Democrats for spinning the events and not being able to answer questions about the health care bill.

(more…)

A 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)

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