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CONTACT: NARAL Pro-Choice America Ted Miller, Communications Director (202) 973-3032 |
NARAL Pro-Choice America Applauds Pro-Choice Victory for Florida Women
Bowing to pressure from pro-choice state lawmakers and voters, Crist vetoes divisive legislation
In late April, extremist anti-choice Florida legislators amended H.B.1143, which previously had no relevance to reproductive rights, to insert dangerous attacks on women's right to privacy. The bill contains an abortion-coverage ban and a mandatory-ultrasound requirement. Crist vetoed the bill today.
"Gov. Charlie Crist did the right thing by listening to the pro-choice majority in Florida and vetoing this anti-choice bill that the state legislature rammed through at the last minute," Keenan said. "Floridians, like most Americans, are tired of lawmakers using women's reproductive health as a bargaining chip. It's time for politicians to stop interfering in the doctor-patient relationship."
NARAL Pro-Choice America mobilized activists in Florida, sending more than 1,200 messages to Gov. Crist urging him to veto this unprecedented anti-choice legislation.
Keenan offered a special word of thanks to Rep. Kendrick Meek, who called on Crist to reject the anti-choice bill and organized his supporters to pressure the governor to veto the bill. "We need more elected officials like Rep. Meek, who consistently do the right thing when it comes to women's health. We know he'll take that commitment to the Senate."
If enacted, the Florida bill would have undermined women's health and privacy in the following ways:
- It would have prohibited insurers from offering comprehensive coverage that includes abortion to most customers in the new health-insurance exchange. It would not have even had an adequate exception for cases in which the woman's health is endangered.
- It would have forced women to undergo an ultrasound before receiving abortion care, even when it is not medically necessary.
- It would have required the provider to describe the ultrasound images to the woman even if she asked not to view them.
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2 Comments so far
Show AllThank goodness for the veto. All the ultrasound in the world won't change the fact that I have Marfan's Syndrome, that I am a survivor of a type A dissection of the ascending aorta, and valvular disease, with an enlarged heart, that I am diabetic, and that I probably have secondary pulmonary hypertension. With the life I lead, the only way I'd end up pregnant is due to rape. And I'm almost 50 - I nearly didn't live to see age 36. I do not deserve to die for being the victim of a violent crime, and, to be quite honest, to also die for a religion whose fundamentalist followers can't live up to it worth a damn. My low income, on SSDI, together with the decimated social services safety net in Florida(torn to shreds by the Religious Right) (my income is just high enough to make me ineligible) would make an ultrasound prohibitively expensive. And if the sadistic bastards who passed the bill want me to have the vaginal transponder, it would be a second rape. Just like Oklahoma. It was a good decision, and I sent Governor Crist an e-mail, telling him so, and, with great detail, how I would be affected medically. It was a good call by the Governor, and strictly in accordance with Roe v. Wade, which is more of a good balanced compromise on the issue than most people are aware of. Most, if not all of the people who are anti-Roe v. Wade have never actually read the damned thing. I have, and I'm only a high school graduate. I'd like to see an end to the stranglehold the right wing seems to have on Florida.
YES! Thank you Governor Crist! Like the poster, amazonfeet, I too sent an e-mail to the Governor. No, I don't live in Florida, but plenty of women do.
I'm glad that this Governor, unlike those of the states of Oklanoma and Utah, seems to see women as women, instead of brood mares!
Like the poster, amazonfeet, there are many women with health issues, and to be forced to carry through a pregnancy, would really mean a death sentence. How awful too for a rape victim to be forced to carry that child. That would be like being raped once by a sick person, and then have the government do it to you too.
Oh, and for any men who want to sermonize, birth control is not foolproof, but trying to tamper with Roe v Wade, is the proof of fools and charlatans.
To choose to be a parent and to have the skills and income to do the job, well, anti-abortion people, that's the point!
The world of women becomes a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta if women are forced into "baby farming." Besides, with the world population exploding faster than the world's food and water supplies, what are we thinking?
Ah yes, that is taliban thinking, where women have no rights and no voice, Although there are some in America who believe the same thing.
Isn't it time, America, to stop the child tax credit? Why do people get credits for reproducing? There is no more "Manifest Destiny" calling for a new growth of citizens to populate a vast unsettled land. Please, let those with the skills and economics to be parents, THRIVE, and maybe then, children would be more valued. Manifest Destiny is gone, and Manifest Tyranny should not take its place.
Thank you again, Governor Crist and Rep. Meek, for looking out for women and children. When you do that, you're actually looking out for the whole world!