Abortion bill clears first Senate stop

Sen. Dan Webster's bill (2400) to require that women in their first trimester get an ultrasound, and in most cases view it with their doctor, passed the first of two committees by a 4-3 vote -- with Republican Sen. Dennis Jones opposed and Democrat Gary Siplin in favor.

There are no women on the Senate health regulation committee, and Sen. Durell Peaden was absent.

The bill is similar but not identical to the bill that the House passed last week on a partisan vote. It extends the current requirement for ultrasounds in the second and third trimester to the first trimester, and it requires that women view the ultrasound and that her doctor explain the images. (The House bill requires a guardian ad litem be appointed to minors; Webster's does not.)

There is a provision in both proposals that allows a woman to decline to view the images. The doctor also does not have to explain the ultrasound - if the woman provides evidence of sexual assault, domestic violence or severe medical condition.

Those opposing the measure worry about the cost of the ultrasound being a burden to women, especially poor ones. And they say it's unrealistic and unfair to require sexual assault victims - most of whom are afraid to report the crime - to provide a police report or other documentation.

"This is about using the latest technology," Webster said of the ultrasound. "It is the best information you can give a woman about the fetus in her womb."

Comments

How about an ultra sound of a man's dick to use the latest technology to examin their brains??

This bill is so unconstitutional! Oh I forgot, Florida does not have equal rights for women and these same male legislators don't see why we need it-- give me a break.

How is this unconstitutional? It provides a woman with key information to help her choose wisely. Maybe you prefer pregnant women stay ignorant of the fetus' development, so its easier for her to choose an abortion. So you must be pro-ignorant choice. Shameful.

[THE PEOPLE!]

STOP DIVERTING ATTENTION AWAY FROM YOUR LIES AND FAILURES, AND FIX INSURANCE LIKE YOU PROMISED.

i dont understand - wouldnt this bill encourage victims of sexual assault to report the crimes against them? if so wouldn't that protect more women from being raped in the future? explain how thats bad for women?

Wasting money reqiring women to have unnecessary ultra sounds when child abuse workers are being laid off and children are going to die because of it and cutting funds to the medically needy, and cutting funds for medical care for the handicapped and the elderly.

But plenty of money for CSX and your 3% raise.

Someone needs to go back and read his Bible - suffer not the little children, feed the poor, and when you did for the least you did for me???

Humm, perhaps he studies some other Gospel.

This is a stupid biased bill. It is an insult to the women of Florida. Perhaps the bill should state if a woman WANTS to have an ultrasound she will be afforded the right and perhaps it should state that women should have all of their questions answered if they have any. Give me a break you religious freeks trying to put a woman who seeks a procedure that is perfectly legal in a position to feel she is breaking the law. Get out of my body and worry about uninformed men who enjoy themselves without protection.

Next step will be the certification of GOP staff members as "Licensed Vagina Inspectors." Speculation is that it will be named the Greer Act after the first GOP to qualify for the title.

8:55 Those pages were missing from the Bible he hollowed out to stash his PAC money in.

How is this bill so stupid? The law already requires physicians to perform an ultrasound after 12 weeks of pregnancy. Can you imagine if a woman lied (let's say like some of the girls on Maury Povich (on "whose my baby's daddy?") about the date of the last menstrual period or for those who could not recall and the doctor underestimated the gestation period and performed a suction aspiration versus a D&C? There are 3 common methods of abortions. If a doctor did not perform the ultrasound going based on the patients estimates of being under 12 weeks, then who would be at fault for a woman's hemorrhaging or other complications due to performing the wrong procedure?

I personally had an abortion at 6 weeks and have had several friends who have as well & recently talked about this issue. We all noticed that many clinics already have sonograms available so there is no money that needs to be given to them in order to have them. And all of us (my friends) who had abortions under 12 weeks had a sonogram performed and were told to turn our heads if we didn't want to look. I think most doctors realize they can not completely trust their patients and want to make sure the size & perhaps if it is an etopic pregnancy. Can you imagine if my urine test showed that I was pregnant but I had a tubal pregnancy....that is a completely different procedure? I am glad the doctor took the time to look for himself with a sonogram. This bill protects women and enforces the other doctors that do not take necessary precautions to do so or else.

So, I wish you boys can stop criticizing the other boys trying to speak up for women. Stop thinking of this as an abortion issue and think of it as a health issue. There are laws created all the time to protect patients on many other areas.

[Jason Straight]

The ultrasoud deal is right out of the Southern Baptist playbook and its right wing woman devaluing philosophy/..Jesus directed you to have an ultrasound so you can see the baby you are killing..Have the baby but dont ask us for help to feed or clothe it!!Dont buy this deal its Terri Schaivo all over again..Jesus was a Jewish Democrat from Broward anyway..!!

Get the H e l l out of my private life and decisions. Senator Storms needs to go home and stay there. There go those extremeist Republicans again. They are for more governemnt in my life. They are the real liberals.

10:44....

Wouldn't you agree that it would be harder for a woman to proceed with an abortion after 12 weeks of gestation (up to the legal 24 weeks) when the fetus has more human features versus a circular shape during the first trimester?

Therefore what difference does it make to extend sonogram procedures from 1-24 weeks? It should be standard throughout.

10:33

Men getting all into the private business of women just doesn't sit well with this reader.

Talk to me about football, hunting and the like but not this.

I'm so tired of so-called conservatives drafting every woman's womb to suit their particular religious compunctions.

Out with every one of the cretins.!They know and care nothing about individual autonomy--the simple once American notion that government ought to but-out of what is private and personal.

Totalitarians at heart is what they are.

[Jason Straight]

NEOCHRISTIANSOTHERBAPTISTGOPFASCISM..A new name for the bill.The second amendment protects a mans pistol..Woman have no such protection!!Go figgure!!!Id like to lock these Crakas in the toilet with hillary for 2 hours see who comes out carrying the pistol!!

"conservatives" want smaller government, less taxes and more freedom unless they need government jobs, need taxes to pay their government jobs, need taxes to provide handouts to their corporate benefactors, and need "freedom" to use tax dollars for home schooling that teaches that evolution is "flawed"

Makes perfect sense.

[James T. Anderson]

This bill will be right down Rhonda Storms alley, since she still believes that the earth is flat.

Yep, that's the Republican Party - "pretend" concern about children as they turn "middle class" families into "working poor" families.

Yep, plenty of money for ultra-sounds and CSX - no money for the children, the handicapped, the elderly...

What would Jesus do - not a darn thing the Republicans are sponsoring.

webster and storms are living proof evolution doesn't exist

[Indivisibility of Democratic Rights Supporters]

April 10, 2008: As I wrote over on the "Buzz" Section defending the Second Amendment and right to keep and bear arms against capitalist bosses' attempts to take it away from individuals, I defend the indivisibility of all civil and democratic rights.

That means, I defend abortion rights for women. I defend Roe v. Wade. I not only want to see abortion kept legal, but in line with my unreconstructed 1960s-era New Left socialist political position, I favor free abortion on demand, and no forced sterilization. If the Equal Rights Amendment is brought back, I will vote for it. If this stupid anti-marriage amendment comes up for a vote denying gay and same sex people the right to marry, I will vote against it. I also favor equal pay for equal work for women, and 24-hour childcare centers, free, to all who need childcare. I also favor free communal nurseries and free communal restaurants at the capitalist employers' expense.

I keep finding myself alien and opposed to all, because the liberals oppose my rights as a gun owner to keep and bear arms, and the right-wingers oppose all the rest of the Bill of Rights and constitutional rights and the libertarians want to return to the gold standard which means making 95 percent of Americans unemployed while I am an authentic socialist.

I also support and defend affirmative action for women and minorities, and I oppose all efforts to get rid of it. I also defend busing and support its extenstion to the lily-white racist ruling class suburbs.

But unlike liberals, I support the arming and training of abortion clinic personnel, and the right to self-defense, up through and including the right of armed self-defense, of abortion clinics against right-wing terrorism.

I also support mass mobilizations of racially integrated labor to drive away from in front of the abortion clinics the right-wing sectarian religious fundamentalist fascist filth there who seek by intimidation and threats of violence to intimidate people from their democratic right to get an abortion if they want one.

The liberals won't support this, and the liberals think the Democrats will support them and abortion.

But the Democrats tell people on abortion rights, "drop dead," just as the Democrats tell people who support separation of church and state, "drop dead." Nancy Pelosi and Hillary Clinton cater to the religious right, and both Clinton and Obama have "evangelical advisors" to further facilitate their catering to the religious right. Obama's got support from anti-abortion Democratic Senator Casey while Clinton's got support from rabid death penalty loving and corrupt racist prosecutorial misconduct perpetrating (in the Mumia Abu-Jamal case) governor of Pennsylvania Ed Rendell.

But there's not going to be victory for blacks and women if they are separate. In America, labor, blacks, and women, either move forward together, or we fall back separately.

We desperately need a fighting, working class party that fights for all the oppressed and exploited bar none, fights against capitalism, fights in defense of blacks, women, immigrants, gays, all the oppressed and all the exploited.

Down with both Democrats and Republicans and all capitalist parties, Libertarians, Ron Paulites, Greens. For a Fighting Racially Integrated Mass Workers' Party based on the Program of Class Struggle Against Capitalism.