Florida Senate Rejects Measure Requiring Ultrasounds Before Abortion At Any Stage

Main Category: Abortion
Also Included In: MRI / PET / Ultrasound
Article Date: 05 May 2008 - 9:00 PST

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Florida's Republican-controlled Senate voted 20-20 to reject a House-approved bill (SB 2400) on Wednesday that would have required physicians to perform an ultrasound on all women seeking abortion, the Miami Herald reports. The House had approved a companion bill (HB 257) last month.

According to the Herald, the behind-the-scenes maneuvering that led to the tie vote pitted Senate Republican leader Dan Webster (R), who sponsored the bill, against former Senate President Jim King (R), who built a coalition of seven Republican moderates and 13 Democrats to defeat it. King said, "Unless you ovulate or have ovulated, we have no business as males interfering with your female decision on reproduction." He added, "A woman making a decision that she wants to abort, that decision should be honored." One Democrat and 19 Republicans voted for the bill (Caputo/Gilpatrick, Miami Herald, 5/1).

Florida already requires ultrasounds for women seeking abortions in the second or third trimester. The measure would have extended the requirement to women seeking abortions in the first trimester of pregnancy. Under the measure, women would have been required to view the ultrasound images unless they signed a waiver. Women who could prove they were survivors of rape, incest or human trafficking would have been exempted from viewing the images (Kennedy, Orlando Sentinel, 5/1).

Webster argued that the measure only extended the state's existing ultrasound requirement and that most abortion clinics already perform ultrasounds prior to abortions to determine the age of the fetus (Colavecchio-Van Sickler, St. Petersburg Times, 4/30). Opponents said that the measure was an attempt to create another hurdle to accessing abortion by requiring women to pay for the ultrasounds, which can cost several hundred dollars, the Herald reports (Miami Herald, 5/1). Opponents also said the measure might infringe on the doctor-patient relationship. Gov. Charlie Crist (R) did not say whether he would have signed the measure, according to the Sentinel (Orlando Sentinel, 5/1).

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