Today, the Florida House of Representatives voted 72-42 in favor of a bill, HB 1429, which would ban the most common method of second-trimester abortion and interfere with a woman’s access to safe and legal abortion.
Responding to today’s committee vote, ACLU of Florida legislative counsel Kara Gross stated:
“HB 1429 is an unconstitutional bill which seeks to prevent women from having access to a safe abortion with a trusted physician. By dictating what medical procedures doctors can perform, this bill prohibits doctors from exercising their best medical judgment and providing their patients with the appropriate medical care they need.
“Legislators, especially those with absolutely no medical training, let alone any obstetrical expertise, should not dictate which procedures women should seek with their doctors . Medical experts and major medical organizations like the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists oppose bills like this one because they interfere with a woman’s access to safe medical care and put women’s health in jeopardy.
“Under this bill, a doctor could be charged with a third-degree felony, and face up to five years in prison, for performing the most commonly used and safest second-trimester abortion procedure. Moreover, when doctors are criminalized for performing abortions, women are forced to seek the medical care they need from untrained and unlicensed individuals.
“Lawsuits challenging similar unconstitutional bills in other states have resulted in costly litigation, with taxpayers bearing the costs of politicians’ insistence on passing unconstitutional legislation.
