Republicans campaigned on the promise of focusing on job creation. Instead of putting Floridians back to work, the GOP majority has spent their first legislative session pushing their radical social agenda: regulating women’s reproductive health care just because they can.
Florida is leading the lawsuit against the Affordable Care Act based on the GOP claims of government over-reach in the doctor/patient relationship. So it makes sense that Republican lawmakers crafted a proposed constitutional amendment that includes weakening personal freedom by expanding the government.
HJR 1179 will be on the 2012 ballot and if passed, exempts abortion from the state’s strong privacy rights.
The ultrasound bill (HB 1127) was brought back from the dead and sitting on Governor Rick Scott’s desk for a signature.
Last year, Governor Crist vetoed a measure that would force women to have an ultrasound and view the images while listening to a detailed description.
Ultrasounds are routine in abortion procedures, and the most recent version allows women to opt-out of the narrated viewing. So, Republican lawmakers haven’t actually done anything other than send the message that women are too incompetent to make decisions about her reproductive health and the state government has to intervene.
Senators Evelyn Lynn, R-Ormond Beach, and Nancy Detert, R-Venice, said as much during debate. “I didn’t come up here to come and tell you what you must do with your bodies,” Sen. Lynn said. “I will vote no, not only on this bill, but every other bill we have on abortion.”
Sen. Detert added that she resents voting on a bill that “acts like I’m too stupid to confer with my own doctor on what I should do. This is not what we were sent up here to do.”
Educated Rants 