TALLAHASSEE (FBW) – Florida’s 68 abortion clinics are one step closer to being required to operate according to health and safety standards required of other medical facilities in the state after the Florida House of Representatives easily adopted the “Women’s Health and Safety Act” (HB 1041) April 13.

Sponsored by Rep. Aaron Bean, R-Fernandina Beach, the bill was approved 82-27, along mostly party lines in the Republican-controlled body, although six Democrats voted in favor of the bill, while one member of the GOP opposed the measure.

Bean has sponsored the bill in each of the last four legislative sessions. Last year, the full House also approved the measure, but a companion bill stalled in the Senate. This year, prospects for Senate adoption seem brighter, since SB 1862, sponsored by Sen. Paula Dockery, R-Lakeland, was passed out of the Senate Health Care Committee April 6. The Senate bill is awaiting consideration in the Senate Judiciary Committee, which may consider it during the week of April 17. The bill was not considered by any Senate committee last year.

Gov. Jeb Bush supports the bill.

HB 1041 authorizes the state’s Agency for Health Care Administration to regulate abortion clinics that perform abortions after the first trimester; federal courts have thrown-out regulations in the first trimester, finding such laws violate privacy rights.

According to a legislative staff analysis, the bill prescribes a list of minimum rules for abortion clinic personnel, facilities, supplies and equipment standards; medical screening and evaluation of each abortion clinic patient, abortion procedure, recovery room standards, follow-up care, and incident reporting.

“Our purpose … is not to limit anyone’s right to choose to terminate their pregnancy,” Bean told colleagues, according to The Associated Press. “What it is: IF they chose to terminate their pregnancy, they’re going to have alternatives that are safe.”

But other members argued the bill is intended to violate the constitutional right to abortion.

“If we want to debate the legality of abortion, bring it on. Let’s do that,” said Rep. Mary Brandenburg, D-West Palm Beach, according to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. “But this is a sneaky way of getting around an issue.”

Rep. Anne Gannon, D-West Palm Beach, suggested the GOP majority was violating its own principles of limited government in advancing the bill.

“If this were any other business that you were trying to regulate, everyone in this chamber would stand up and say, ‘We don’t need government regulations in this industry,’” Gannon said, the Sun-Sentinel reported.

Randy Armstrong, a Tampa physician and member of Idlewild Baptist Church, has provided expert testimony to committees in both the House and Senate in support of HB 1041/SB 1862.

As an obstetrician/gynecologist with 27 years of experience who works in emergency care, Armstrong told the Senate Health Care Committee April 6 he was in a “unique position” to see the need for the legislation.

Armstrong said that the Women’s Center at University Community Hospital in Tampa saw 37 cases in the last six months of women who required emergency care after botched abortions, illustrating the weak health and safety regulations currently in place for abortion clinics.

Meanwhile, The Miami Herald reported April 13 that gambling interests gave large donations to both major political parties during the first quarter of 2005. The GOP, which controls both houses of the Legislature and all statewide offices, received $185,000 from dog and horse track owners and lobbyists representing the gambling industry, while Democratic-controlled political organizations received nearly $60,000 from gambling interests.

Political donations from the gambling industry come during a time when the Legislature is debating legislation to implement voters’ adoption of Amendment 4, which permitted Broward and Miami-Dade counties to hold local referendums to allow slot machines at pari-mutuel facilities. Broward voters approved, while Miami-Dade citizens opposed slots in separate March 8 referendums.

Committees in both the House and Senate have adopted widely divergent bills on slot machines, with the House generally requiring greater regulation and higher tax rates and the Senate offering lesser regulation and lower rates. The House version permits only “Class II” games – like video poker – while the Senate bill allows “Class III,” Las-Vegas style slot machines.

A Florida research organization, however, released a report this month calling for larger licensing fees and a much higher tax rate – 74 percent, more than doubling the Senate’s rate – arguing that the Legislature will “leave $4.5 billion on the table by not setting a fair state gambling tax.”

Florida TaxWatch made its recommendations based on the manner other states have taxed the gambling industry following voters’ approval of various forms of gambling, including slot machines at pari-mutuel facilities – so-called “racinos.”

The group studied recent legislation in New York, Rhode Island, West Virginia, Delaware, New Mexico, Iowa and Louisiana, finding tax rates ranging from 36 to 80 percent. The Florida House bill calls for no more than 45 percent rate, while the Senate bill would limit the tax rate to no more than 35 percent.

The Florida tax watchdog group suggests a greater tax rate at pari-mutuels with slot machines would permit legislators to provide relief to taxpayers.