New Florida bill replicates Texas' sweeping abortion ban

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

By BRENDAN FARRINGTON

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — An abortion bill similar to one signed into law in Texas was filed in Florida on Wednesday that would ban most abortions in the state and would allow lawsuits against doctors who violate it.

The legislation filed by Republican Rep. Webster Barnaby immediately met with opposition from Democrats who want to preserve the right to legal abortions. Barnaby’s office said he wasn’t ready to comment on it.

“This bill is dangerous, radical, and unconstitutional. The hypocrisy of this attempt by Governor (Ron) DeSantis and Republicans in the state legislature to take away our rights while at the same time preaching ’my body, my choice’ when it comes to wearing masks is absolutely disgusting,” Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried said in a statement. Fried is a Democratic candidate to challenge DeSantis next year.

While similar bills have died in the Florida Legislature in past sessions, the debate has heated up since the U.S. Supreme Court chose not to block the Texas law that bans abortion when a so-called “fetal heartbeat” is detected, or about six weeks into pregnancy, before many women realize they are expecting.

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/abortion-health-texas-florida-laws-ce46baccd56943066d488c218b268bbe

[lark]

1. FL has a privacy law in our constitution - unless Scott got the court to overturn it quietly.

It was passed in our state decades ago and as far as I know still stands. Hope this is right and Scotts stacked court didn't fuck this up too.

[IcyPeas]

2. at 6 weeks it's not even technically a fetus.... it's an embryo (from NPR article below)

to hell with abbott and desantis.

https://www.npr.org/2021/09/23/1040132587/florida-abortion-restriction-bill-texas-ban

A Republican state lawmaker in Florida is proposing a bill that would ban most abortions as early as around six weeks, allow members of the public to sue anyone who helps end a pregnancy beyond that point and fine physicians $10,000 for each abortion they perform later in pregnancy.

Republican state Rep. Webster Barnaby filed the 40-page proposal — called the "Florida Heartbeat Act" — on Wednesday. It would prevent physicians from performing abortions if there is a "detectable fetal heartbeat," effectively banning abortions after about six weeks into pregnancy, before many people even know they are pregnant.

Reproductive health experts have explained that the term "fetal heartbeat" is misleading and not actually based on science, as NPR's Selena Simmons-Duffins reports. At six weeks, the ultrasound machine is detecting electrical activity from cells that aren't yet a heart, and the "sound" is actually manufactured by the machine.

The word "fetus" itself isn't technically accurate until at least eight weeks into the pregnancy; rather "embryo" is the scientific term at that stage of development. Despite this, Barnaby's proposed bill would change all references to "fetus" to "unborn child" in the state's abortion legislation more broadly, affecting other laws and regulations. (NPR's own language guidance notes that "incorrectly calling a fetus a 'baby' or 'the unborn' is part of the strategy used by antiabortion groups to shift language/legality/public opinion."

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