Florida Postpones Fetal Rights Bill Following Fallout in Alabama
Last week, the Fiscal Policy Committee in the Florida State Senate voted to advance Senate Bill 476 (SB 476), which would allow for civil plaintiffs to seek damages against health care practitioners providing abortion care. This Florida “Fetal Personhood” bill which has been heavily sponsored by Republican lawmakers, attempts to define a fetus as an “unborn child,” in direct contradiction of US Supreme Court precedent.
The United States Supreme Court determined in 1973, that a fetus is not legally considered to be a person before “viability,” which is the time around 24 weeks of gestation when a fetus can survive outside the womb. Justice Harry Blackmun wrote in Roe v. Wade the following: “The word ‘person,’ as used in the Fourteenth Amendment, does not include the unborn.”
When Roe was overturned in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, nearly 50 years after it was established, the Conservative majority on the United States Supreme Court determined that Roe was “egregiously wrong from the start” because “the Constitution makes no reference to abortion” and “no such right is implicitly protected by any constitutional provision,” including the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
Since the overturning of Roe in June of 2022, conservative activists have been attempting to extend their agenda to include restrictive abortion bans, limitations on civil liberties and laws that establish extended fetus rights. The conservative majority ruling in Dobbs does not give exact guidance as to how far this “egregiously wrong” sentiment extends, which has only encouraged the religious right’s pursuit of establishing that a fetus and/or an embryo has the same rights as a living person.
In 2019, the US Supreme Court declined to hear a Rhode Island case, brought by two women, who sued on behalf of their fetuses. While the Court opened the floodgates for litigation that would further limit abortion rights and change the definitions of “personhood” permanently, it is clear that a majority of US Supreme Court Justices are hesitant to pursue the elasticity of their own ruling in Dobbs at this time.
A majority of states allow for some civil remedy for the wrongful death of an unborn child, but 25 of those states permit it only if the fetus is able to survive outside the mother’s womb with medical help. This standard for “viability” is generally estimated to begin at about 24 weeks. Additionally, eight states — Alabama, Arkansas, Idaho, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Wisconsin — have anti-abortion civil remedy laws that allow potential fathers to sue abortion providers for damages.
On Tuesday, the Florida State Legislature postponed moving forward on their own bill that seeks to give a fetus 14th Amendment Rights following the extreme Supreme Court ruling in Alabama, which has resulted in two prominent in vitro fertilization (IVF) clinics being forced to halt all work completely. Florida State Senator Erin Grall, the sponsor and main proponent of the new law, said in an emailed statement that she has requested her bill "be temporarily postponed at this time."
Grall’s bill would have effectively allowed people to receive damages for wrongful death, regardless of the age of the fetus. This means that health care practitioners providing abortion care, friends and family members who support a pregnant person’s efforts to obtain medical care, or any man who impregnated a woman could sue for wrongful death.
Given concerns about how this bill might affect people receiving IVF treatment, Grall had previously amended her bill, clarifying the definition of an unborn child to: “member of the species Homo sapiens, at any stage of development, who is carried in the womb.” While this new language does purport to protect those pursuing IVF treatment, the bill remains an overly broad form that seeks to ultimately establish “fetal personhood,” which would create human rights for a fetus at the moment of conception.
The negative repercussion sparked in Alabama following that high Court ruling that gives embryos “personhood,” has now forced Republicans in Florida to pause, fearing incredible state-wide backlash from fertility clinics and proponents. “Although I have worked diligently to respond to questions and concerns, I understand there is still work that needs to be done," Grall wrote. "It is important we get the policy right with an issue of this significance."
While it is possible that Republican lawmakers in Florida have recently realized the dangers of overstepping on fetal and embryo rights, it is more likely that political activists have realized that they already have the perfect case to challenge the boundaries of Roe in this new conservative era. The Alabama case will ultimately head to the US Supreme Court, and given the complexities of the issue and the need to resolve the law as it stands, it is likely that Justices will agree to take this case.
Regardless, conservative state senators in Florida do not see the battle to establish “personhood” rights for a fetus as one they are willing to pursue at this time. Make no mistake, the pattern of the pro-life movement, which was established after Roe v. Wade was first put into effect, has been diligently seeking to limit a woman’s right to access a legal abortion by pursuing tiered, multi-state legal challenges, in an attempt to tear down women’s rights by expanding those of the fetus.
The fact that the 2024 election will be, in part, a referendum on the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn abortion rights and access, might also play heavily into this latest pause from Florida lawmakers. If anti-abortion activists and politicians already have their outlandish champion in Alabama, which can provide a better, faster challenge to the issue of personhood, why not let that very red state carry the torch? After all, Florida is a crucial swing state in this next presidential election.
Amee Vanderpool writes the SHERO Newsletter and hosts the live SHERO podcast on Callin. She is an attorney, published author, contributor to newspapers and magazines, and analyst for BBC radio. She can be reached at avanderpool@gmail.com or follow her on Twitter @girlsreallyrule.
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This complete nonsense infuriates me. Apparently the zealots on the US Supreme Mullah Court could not foresee the train wreck that would unfold as they casually dumped Roe, or maybe they just didn't care. As we've said since 1973, the anti abortion movement was never and is not about so-called protecting the unborn, it is about controlling women. Look no further than any Muslim country to see what happens to a society when women cannot control their own bodily autonomy. Ridiculous that here we are in 2024 fighting over counting unborn as people. It's absurdity. These anti women nutballs will not stop until women have zero choice, over even birth control. I mean with their asinine logic, male masturbation should be outlawed as mass murder. And where is our farce of media? Covering the nail-biting saga of "Is Biden too old...??" They need to be covering this, shining a bright light for all to see on the absurdity in these bills and asking the question, when will it be enough to satisfy you, republicons? Americans need to know just how far you're willing to go to force pregnancy. Forget a chicken in every pot, how about a baby in every womb. Insanity.
Make no mistake, just because the bill has been " postponed", it will be back.
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