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Florida legislators just can't keep their filthy laws off of your body

Time to start saving your rusty old coat hangers...

Parents would have to be told when their daughters under 18 seek an abortion under one of two abortion measures approved Wednesday by legislative committees.

The other would spell out an array of regulations for abortion clinics, from rules for sterilizing equipment and training employees to requirements for having certain rooms and equipment.

Sponsors of that bill said it is aimed at making abortion clinics safe, noting they are not regulated as thoroughly as other health care facilities. But opponents said the bill singles out abortion clinics for extra regulation as a way to make it difficult for them to operate.

Both measures gained easy approval. The parental notice bill (SB 1908) must be heard in one more committee before reaching the full Senate. The measure adding regulations for abortion clinics (HB 1041) is headed to the House floor.

The Legislature is widely expected to pass a parental notice law because it voted last year for a proposed constitutional amendment to make such a law possible - and voters approved the ballot measure in November.

A 1999 parental notice law never took effect because of challenges from groups who argued it violated the privacy rights of girls.

Unlike the U.S. Constitution, the Florida Constitution specifically recognizes the privacy right of people. Citing that provision, the Florida Supreme Court threw out the 1999 law in the summer of 2003. But the change approved in November cleared the way for requiring parental notice.

While the measure won approval in the Senate Health Care Committee 7-2, a number of groups said they oppose it.

"The bill proceeds under a false premise, that the government can mandate communication within a dysfunctional family," said Larry Spalding, a lobbyist for the American Civil Liberties Union.

Some girls will not want their parents to know they're getting an abortion. "For many of these women, they're going to try self-help. Some will be critically injured for life; some will die," Spalding said.

The other measure, which would impose burdensome rules on abortion clinics, is part of an old trend to regulate clinics out of existence with no concern for the safety of patients.

Abortion is one of the safest gynecological procedures performed on women in the United States. According to the Alan Guttmacher Institute, less than 1 percent of all abortion patients experience a major complication associated with the procedure. The three main factors that affect the safety of an abortion are: 1) the gestational age of the fetus; 2) the type of procedure used; and 3) the skill of the doctor. Most abortion-related deaths and complications occur as a result of the use of anesthesia and are not related to the procedure itself. Unnecessary regulations, such as mandatory ultrasound, superfluous record-keeping, and square-footage requirements, do not enhance the safety of an abortion in any way.

Abortion is a very safe procedure, yet the bill being debated by the Florida legislature starts of by stating that

abortion is an invasive surgical procedure that can lead to numerous and serious medical complications, including, but not limited to, bleeding, hemorrhage, infection, uterine perforation, blood clots, cervical tears, incomplete abortion and retained tissue, failure to actually terminate the pregnancy, free fluid in the abdomen, missed ectopic pregnancies, cardiac arrest, sepsis, respiratory arrest, reactions to anesthesia, fertility problems, emotional problems, and even death...

The bill specifically calls for state agencies to impose rules that are a legally significant burden on a woman’s freedom to end her pregnancy, and only calls for the regulations to be not unconstitutional.

The proposed “Women’s Health and Safety Act” is a classic in many ways, from the imposition of unnecessary record keeping to expensive and unneeded air circulation systems, it seems to touch all the bases, including mandatory ultrasound.

Why mandatory ultrasound? Proposed federal regulations offer a clue:

More inventive is the "Informed Choice Act," introduced by Representative Cliff Stearns, Republican of Florida. It would allow the Department of Health and Human Services to give grants for ultrasound equipment to nonprofit community-based pregnancy help medical clinics. In exchange for receiving the grant, the clinic would have to show "the visual image of the fetus" to the pregnant woman and provide her with "information on abortion and alternatives to abortion such as childbirth and adoption and information concerning public and private agencies that will assist in those alternatives."

It’s all about harassment and pushing women to make ill advised emotional choices that are not in their best interest.

If Bush and Brownback and the anti-abortion movement have their way, it will be, even though the majority of Americans support choice.

But the views of the public are not dominating the debate in Washington and in statehouses around the country. The views of the anti-abortion zealots are.

Even as many pro-choice people have been worrying about the potential calamity that awaits in the Supreme Court, the anti-abortion forces have been busy gaining ground elsewhere. The Bush Administration has promoted anti-abortion policies both internationally and domestically. Congress has more fanatical members than ever, none more so than newly elected Senator Tom Coburn, Republican of Oklahoma, who advocates the death penalty for doctors who provide abortions. And the action in the states is overwhelmingly hostile.

As a result, a woman in America today has far less freedom to have an abortion than a woman in America the day after Roe v. Wade was handed down in 1973. And for poor women, who are disproportionately of color, that freedom is hanging by a thread.

Despite the fact that abortion is legal and safe extremists have ensured that

• 87% of U.S. counties had no abortion provider in 2000. In nonmetropolitan areas, 97% of counties had no provider. As a result, many women must travel substantial distances to access the service. • About 1 in 4 women who have an abortion travel 50 miles or more for the procedure, a significant distance and a documented barrier to timely care (Henshaw and Finer, 2003). • The proportion of unserved counties has increased steadily since 1978. • The proportion of women in counties without a facility that provides even one abortion a year has also increased and reached 34% in 2000.

In Florida, long, costly trips, which lead to lost time at work, travel expenses, and other burdens, are the norm, making abortion a choice that many women lack the financial means to make.

The bills working their way through the Florida Legislature seek to erect ever increasing barriers to a woman’s right to elect to have a safe, common, and perfectly legal medical procedure.