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Apr 8, 2008 1:47 pm US/Eastern
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"Legislature Knows Best"
MIAMI (CBS4) ―
Legislature Knows Best
By Jim DeFede
In the coming days the Florida Senate will take up SB2400, a bill that requires every woman seeking an abortion to view an ultrasound of the fetus before her pregnancy can be terminated. A similar measure passed the Florida House last week.
This is not a bill advocated by doctors or healthcare providers. An ultrasound – especially in the first trimester – is not medically necessary or even useful. Instead this is a law being pushed by religious conservatives in the Legislature who are trying to place as many barriers as possible in front of women who want an abortion.
It also serves a second purpose. In a year in which the state will pass draconian cuts to education, healthcare, social services, and the criminal justice system, Republican legislators are nervous they won't have any "accomplishments" to tout amid all the bad economic news.
If the abortion bill passes, they can go home to their districts and argue they did something "positive" with their time in Tallahassee. Indeed, the abortion bill is one of several red meat proposals Republicans are pushing this year.
There is also the take-your-guns-to-work bill, which allows individuals with concealed weapon permits to take their guns to their place of employment, even if their employer has policies against possession of firearms on company grounds.
And there are a handful of bills attempting to crack down on illegal immigrants.
Abortion, handguns and illegal immigration – the holy trinity of conservative causes.
The abortion bill is particularly irksome to many Democrats who see this as a distraction to the state's real and pressing problems.
"There are so many things that people are truly concerned about, that people truly need assistance with from the government," said State Rep. Kelly Skidmore, a Palm Beach Democrat. "And this is not one of them."
Skidmore noted during last week's debate in the House it was "Democratic women in the back of the chamber, fighting a lot of Republican men in the front of the chamber" over what is best for women.
Sen. Nan Rich said she expects the same to happen in the Senate this week.
"They use the argument that the woman needs to be educated, as if women aren't intelligent enough to make their own determinations, or that the doctor isn't intelligent enough to determine when an ultrasound is medically needed," said Rich, a Broward Democrat. "All of a sudden it is the legislature that knows best. The legislature should not be putting its nose into the practice of medicine."
Personally, it's the hypocrisy that angers me more than anything else. If the legislature cared so much about the sanctity of life and protecting children, then how can they justify their budget decisions?
If they want to prevent abortions, then why did they cut funding for family planning clinics by 62 percent?
If they are so interested in protecting children, then why are they eliminating 71 child abuse investigators from child protective services?
Why did they initially propose cutting funding for diagnosis and treatment for 2,300 children with cleft lips and cleft palates? (After a public outcry, those funds were restored.)
Why did they eliminate funding for the state's Pediatric AIDS Network?
Why are they making cuts to juvenile justice programs?
Why are they cutting millions of dollars from a program to help foster kids?
Why aren't they finding ways to provide health insurance for the 500,000 children in the state without any health care coverage?
Florida has the second highest percentage of uninsured children in the country.
Why aren't they adequately funding schools and providing enough money to pay teachers a competitive salary?
If the legislature showed just a fraction of the concern for the fate of children who are alive and living among us, as they do for a fetus in the womb, then this would be a far better place.
(© MMVIII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)