Parental notice, abortion clinic regs go to governor

TALLAHASSEE (FBW) – In the frenetic final days of the 2005 Legislature, even while many of the governor’s legislative priorities – and those of the Legislature’s leadership – were left unresolved, pro-family forces won several major victories.

In the last two days of the session, the Senate adopted a bill regulating second trimester abortion clinics and the House passed a compromise parental notice bill. Both bills, now ready for the governor’s signature, were vigorously opposed by the abortion lobby and strongly advocated by pro-family organizations, including the Florida Baptist Convention.

Pro-family forces also won a victory in funding in the budget for a new pregnancy support initiative that will encourage women in crisis pregnancies to keep their children.

Additionally, in spite of throngs of gambling lobbyists advocating legislation to implement the slot machines amendment narrowly adopted by voters last November, legislators were unable to come to an agreement on a bill, leaving the matter unresolved and possibly headed to court.

Still, even with the significant victories, Florida Baptists’ legislative consultant Bill Bunkley told Florida Baptist Witness in the Capitol on the final day of the annual 60-day session the Legislature’s failure to save the life of Terri Schiavo was “profoundly disappointing.”

Bunkley called the results of the now-concluded session “mixed” in light of the inability of pro-family forces to convince the Legislature to adopt a bill that many hoped would prevent the dehydration/starvation of the severely brain-damaged Clearwater woman at the center of an international euthanasia controversy. Schiavo died March 31, weeks after her feeding tube was removed by court order.

On the other hand, for pro-family forces to be able to adopt two, significant, new pieces of legislation – parental notification and abortion clinic regulations – together with the funding for the new pregnancy support program, made for an “extraordinary year for us,” Bunkley said.

“Normally, if we can get one of our proposals through we consider it a good year,” he added.

On the final day of the session, May 6, the House adopted a compromise version of legislation requiring parents to be notified when a minor girl intends to have an abortion. The bill implements voters’ approval of Amendment 1 last November, which authorized the Legislature to consider the measure.

Although the final bill did not include all the provisions pro-family groups had hoped for, Bunkley said the legislation is stronger than bills adopted in previous sessions, which were ultimately overturned by the Florida Supreme Court.

Pro-family groups will be monitoring implementation of the new parental notice law and will seek to “tighten” it up “if there are abuses” by abortion providers, Bunkley said.

On May 5, the Senate adopted, with a few minor amendments, the House version of the Women’s Health and Safety Act, which authorizes the state to regulate second trimester abortion clinics in the same fashion that other medical facilities in the state are regulated.

Bunkley said the abortion clinic regulation bill and the parental notice bill – as well as a federal bill working through the U.S. Congress that prohibits interstate abortion for minors without parental notification (see story on page 7)  – will make a positive difference in Florida’s 90,000 abortions each year.

“We think the impact of all three bills is going to help to have an additional educational aspect in Florida to women who are considering abortion. We feel confident that when you have all three together we hope to see a good decrease” in the number of abortions, he said.

On the final day of the session, the Senate adopted its version of legislation to implement the slot machines amendment approved by voters in November, but it differed significantly from the House version. The House declined to take up the Senate bill and the legislation died when the Legislature adjourned.

While the Senate bill authorized Class III, Las Vegas-style slots, the House bill permitted only Class II, bingo-style machines, which are already in use in Florida’s Indian casinos. The House bill also imposed greater tax rates on slot machines than the Senate version.

The House bill was supported by Gov. Jeb Bush who opposes gambling expansion and wanted legislation limited to Class II so that the Indian casinos would not be able to upgrade its casinos with the more lucrative Class III machines.

Pari-mutuel facilities in Broward County – which approved slot machines during a March 8 referendum (while Miami-Dade County rejected its own referendum on the same day) – have threatened to seek permission to proceed with expansion plans in the courts, arguing that voters approval of the slots amendment was all that is necessary, Bunkley told the Witness.

“Inevitably, a slot machines bill is probably going to pass in some form or fashion,” perhaps next year in the Legislature, he said.

Florida Baptists, Bunkley said, should continue to urge their legislators to minimize as much as possible the negative impact of slots in future legislation.

Looking forward to the 2006 legislative session, Bunkley told the Witness he and other pro-family lobbyists hope that the unsuccessful measures offered to save Terri Schiavo can be re-visited. Bills to amend state laws regarding the withdrawal of food and hydration and those related to guardianship – issues brought to light in the Schiavo matter – will be supported by pro-family groups.

As in the case of the abortion regulation bill which took three legislative sessions to pass, major legislation often takes several legislative sessions to ultimately succeed, Bunkley noted.

“We know that we do a lot of work up here that affects lives, but oftentimes there’s not a name or face to it,” Bunkley said, reflecting on the Schiavo legislation, adding that he will always be “profoundly impacted” by the debate in this year’s legislative session.