Latest news with #ErinGrall
Yahoo
11-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Bill could open door to civil lawsuits over abortions and drive away OB/GYNs
State Sen. Erin Grall sponsored Florida's tight abortion restriction and now wants to allow wrongful-death claims for fetal death. (Photo via Ron DeSantis Facebook page) This Florida Legislature continues its all-out attack on reproductive freedom. A near-total ban was not far enough for this extreme anti-abortion Legislature. Although the majority of Floridians — 57% — voted to limit government interference with abortion, Florida's extreme anti-abortion politicians are ignoring the will of the people and seeking to further restrict abortion access in Florida. Now they are seeking to open the door to civil lawsuits for money damages against doctors — and even the friends, family, and clergy members who help individuals seeking abortion care obtain the care they need. Senate Bill 1284, by Sen. Erin Grall, and its House companion, HB 1517, by Rep. Sam Greco, purport to be about ensuring that grieving expectant mothers injured by a third party can recover for their loss of pregnancy. However, this type of recovery already exists under current law. (See Tanner v. Hartog, 696 So.2d 705 (1997)). This bill is unnecessary for that stated purpose. The Senate Appropriations Committee on Criminal and Civil Justice approved the bill on Thursday, the second committee to do so. Its next stop, if taken up, will be the Senate Rules Committee. The legislation has already cleared the House. So, what are these bills really about? You guessed it: abortion. These bills will make it harder for pregnant patients to access abortions by threatening their healthcare providers and support systems with civil lawsuits for damages. These are not hypothetical situations — we have seen dangerous wrongful death cases like these brought in Texas and Arizona. In Texas, a man sued three friends of his now ex-wife for $1 million each for helping his then-wife access abortion pills. In Arizona, a man accompanied his former wife to her abortion appointment, then, two years later following their divorce, filed a wrongful death suit against the clinic. It is worth noting that this bill's Senate sponsor is the same senator who brought us the extreme six-week abortion ban and who has made clear her opposition to abortion. These deceptive bills make it more difficult for Floridians to access the care they need by threatening litigation against loved ones and healthcare providers. They incentivize and encourage civil lawsuits for money damages for abortions against doctors providing essential health care and against the friends, family members, and support systems who help their loved ones access the care they need. This could lead to doctors denying necessary healthcare and delaying treatment for pregnancy complications. Additionally, the threat of having to defend against lawsuits and having to pay money damages will likely result in fewer OB/GYNs willing to practice in Florida or provide care to Floridians. As more and more OB/GYNs leave Florida for states where they are not subject to civil lawsuits, the quality of prenatal care in Florida will suffer. Because these bills also encourage lawsuits against the friends, family, and support systems of pregnant Floridians, they will result in pregnant patients being more isolated and afraid to seek help from friends and family members for fear of exposing them to potential lawsuits. Under these bills, civil lawsuits for damages could be brought by any person who impregnates someone else, including an abusive ex-partner, a rapist, or an uncommitted partner. Additionally, the bills would broadly define 'unborn child' as including 'any stage of development,' thus treating a fertilized egg the same as an actual child. In the vast majority of states that allow for similar wrongful death lawsuits, the 'unborn child' must have reached the developmental stage of viability in order to bring a wrongful death action. This overly broad bill would allow for wrongful death civil lawsuits with regard to fertilized eggs and embryos. The bill sponsors disingenuously claim that these bills are necessary to support grieving families, but current law already allows expectant parents to seek compensation for their pain and suffering after the loss of a pregnancy. Do not let yourselves be duped. If these bills have nothing to do with restricting abortion access, the bill sponsor would simply amend the bill to state that 'no cause of action shall be brought against anyone in connection with an abortion.' The devastating impact of these bills on abortion access in Florida is clear. Treating fertilized eggs the same as actual human beings could lead to dangerous cascading restrictions on fertility services like IVF, as well as patient access to emergency care and cancer treatments. Anti-abortion politicians aren't satisfied with criminalizing abortion after six weeks. They won't stop until they abolish all access to abortion and there are no OB/GYNs left in the state to provide such care. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
04-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Florida teens may be blocked from birth control, STI treatment without parental consent
A measure that would make minors in Florida get parental consent for birth control and treatment for sexually transmitted infections goes against guidance from the nation's leading association for obstetricians and gynecologists. A bill entitled "Parental Rights" (SB 1288) by Sen. Erin Grall, R-Fort Pierce, which has passed through its first two committees, would nullify an existing state law that allows for a physician to prescribe birth control or STI treatment for those under 18. But the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) supports 'confidential" care, as "it is even more crucial for adolescents because the lack of confidentiality can be a barrier to the delivery of reproductive health care services." This includes confidentiality in billing and insurance claims. According to guidance provided by ACOG: 'Even though policies should encourage and facilitate communication between a minor and her parent or guardian when appropriate, legal barriers and deference to parental involvement should not stand in the way of needed contraceptive care for adolescents who request confidential services.' Dr. Anne-Marie Amies Oelschlager, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Washington, said based on her clinical experience, what patients tell her when their parents step out of the room is often different from what is said in front of them. 'I want to ask every single person in that (legislature) if they would call up their mother and tell their mother every single thing they've done sexually in their life,' Oelschlager told the USA TODAY NETWORK – Florida. 'It's not uncommon for adolescents to hold back information from their parents," she added. "It's part of respecting boundaries between a parent and a child.' Grall stood by her position that if a child has an STI and needs treatment, a parent should know. A more hardline earlier version of the bill originally required parental consent for just STI testing, but lawmakers amended the bill, allowing minors to get tested for STIs without parental consent. 'I believe their needs can be best met with parenting. I get that it's hard, and I get that everything's not perfect, but it doesn't mean we say 'OK government, you can do better,' ' Grall said at a recent Senate committee meeting. The bill would not prevent a minor from buying birth control or emergency contraception over the counter, like condoms or Plan B. It does, however, penalize with a misdemeanor charge any health care provider who prescribes birth control pills or related medication without a parent or guardian's consent. 'You could have a child that has HIV, and you would not be informed as a parent. You could have a child that has syphilis who needs certain types of treatment. That treatment could interact with other things that that child either has, a reaction to, an allergy to … and those are things that parents know. A provider may not know, and a parent should know when a child is getting treatment,' Grall said. At the first committee hearing in the Senate, Grall said she did not consult with medical professionals when drafting the original policy. From 2017 to 2021, syphilis rates rose 82% in Florida and increased 72% nationwide, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. Congenital syphilis, which occurs when syphilis is passed to a baby during pregnancy, rose 88% in Florida during this time period, and 219% nationwide. Chlamydia and gonorrhea are often asymptomatic, Oelschlager said, and left untreated can lead to life-changing consequences. In women, untreated chlamydia and gonorrhea cause inflammation in the cervix, which can travel up into the uterus and into the fallopian tubes. Patients can get intense inflammation, infection and scarring from the untreated STIs. Oelschlager said she's had adolescent patients admitted to the hospital because of severe infections. "I understand the need to want to make sure my children are healthy and safe, and I also want to know if they're in a dangerous situation or if they've been hurt, but also understand they're never going to tell me everything that they would tell their doctor about their private sexual lives,' Oelschlager said. Ana Goñi-Lessan, state watchdog reporter for the USA TODAY Network – Florida, can be reached at agonilessan@ This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Birth control and parental consent debated in Florida bill
Yahoo
03-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Wrongful death suits for the unborn would be allowed under proposed Florida law
A woman potentially could be sued for wrongful death by the father of her unborn baby if she has an abortion under legislation moving in the Florida Legislature. Further, the bill – "The Civil Liability for Wrongful Death of an Unborn Child Act" (SB 1284) – has sparked fears it will increase malpractice liability for doctors. It also gives parents the ability to sue health care providers for damages for the wrongful death of an unborn child. The bill by Sen. Erin Grall, R-Fort Pierce, this week cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee on a 6–4 vote. One Republican, Sen. Tom Leek, joined the panel's Democrats in voting 'no.' Leek said he worried the bill could weaponize other laws to prosecute a woman who lost a child. But other Republicans on the panel questioned how courts could determine the future loss of income of a week-old embryo, and questioned its effect on malpractice insurance premiums. Kathleen Passidomo, R-Naples and a former Senate president, voted against a similar bill last year. She walked Grall through provisions in the bill she finds troubling, saying 'this is creating a huge tort.' Passidomo questioned how judges and juries could compute damages based on a fetus' future earnings, calling it 'so speculative' because there is no way of knowing if a three-day embryo would become a 'Elon Musk or someone with a disability.' By including unborn children under the state's Wrongful Death Act, opponents including Democrats and nearly 30 members of the public said they feared the measure would further restrict abortion access. Florida law already defines an unborn child as a member of the Homo sapiens species at any state of development. Grall, who sponsored last year's six-week abortion ban signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis, said her intent is not to strengthen an abortion ban but to protect unborn children: 'It is (for) when there is negligence that happens. But for that negligence, that child would be here.' She added, 'We should have parity in the way we treat a child inside the womb and outside the womb.' But the bill's potential unintended consequences troubled some of the lawmakers and many of the people who filled all 170 seats available in the committee room. Grall's proposal does not authorize a wrongful death suit against a healthcare provider acting lawfully – but it lacks a definition of what is lawful medical care. Florida faces a shortage of obstetrics and gynecology since passage of the six-week abortion ban, according to media reports. And a lobbyist for physicians said Grall's bill will increase malpractice insurance premiums and further make Florida an unattractive option for OB-GYNs. 'Doctors are going to make the economic decision to avoid treating high-risk pregnancies. The very life that needs the most care, the high-risk pregnancies the doctor is going to avoid because of the additional (malpractice) exposure this puts on the physician,' said Mark Delegal, who represents the Doctor's Company, a nationwide physician-owned medical malpractice insurer. Others have echoed Leek's fears that an estranged father could weaponize the bill against a woman who lost a child. In an interview with the Florida Alligator newspaper, University of Florida constitutional law professor Danaya C. Wright said the way Grall's bill is written is troubling. Wright said granting a fetus or embryo the same legal protections as a person makes anything a woman does that could injure a fetus liable for damages: 'A woman goes on a walk, and she trips, and she falls, and it causes a miscarriage. You're going to say that's manslaughter?' Wright said. And abortion rights advocates said that including embryos in the Wrongful Death Act will further restrict access to reproductive healthcare. Ashe Bradley of Tampa told the committee that the bill would enable a rapist to sue a victim. 'Would you want your child to leave a rape and then pay her rapist?' Bradley asked. The bill next goes to the Rules Committee, which Passidomo chairs, before it can get to the Senate floor. Passidomo said she voted for it to give Grall time to work on her and other's concerns. And Grall committed to doing so. James Call is a member of the USA TODAY NETWORK-Florida Capital Bureau. He can be reached at jcall@ and is on X as @CallTallahassee. This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Debate grows over Florida bill giving legal rights to unborn children
CBS News
02-04-2025
- Automotive
- CBS News
Bill that would ban hands-free driving in Florida approved by House
A proposal that would put more restrictions on the use of cell phones while driving is heading to the Florida Senate. The Rules Committee on Tuesday approved a bill, SB 1318, that would bar the handheld use of wireless devices while behind the wheel. The proposal would expand Florida's current texting-while-driving prohibition. The bill would apply to any actions that involve holding cell phones – including using social media, looking at maps and watching videos. Bill sponsor Erin Grall, R-Vero Beach, said distracted driving in Florida is a major problem. "It takes us digging in and saying we are going to change our behavior, because we know this is as bad, if not worse, than drunk driving," she said. A similar House bill, HB 501, has not been heard halfway through the legislative session.
Yahoo
01-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Hands-free while driving bill goes to Senate, but advocates fear it won't make it to the finish line
Legislation cracking down on distracted driving appears to be stalling in the Florida House during the 2025 session. (Stock photo by Getty Images) Distracted driving incidents led to the deaths of more than 3,000 Americans in 2022, according to data collected by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. In hopes of reducing those corresponding statistics in Florida, individuals and families who have lost loved ones to distracted driving incidents have galvanized this year behind bipartisan legislation that would ban drivers from operating a motor vehicle while using a cellphone in a handheld manner. The Senate version (SB 1318), sponsored by Southeast Florida Republican Erin Grall, would expand the existing prohibition on texting while driving to include 'using, while driving, a wireless communications device in a handheld manner except to activate, deactivate, initiate, or terminate a feature or function of the device, including a hands-free accessory.' It passed in the Senate Rules Committee on Tuesday, and now will go the Senate floor for final passage. It's another story in the House, however. It's version (HB 501), sponsored by North Florida Democrat Allison Tant, has gone nowhere to date, and advocates are concerned that another year will go without doing anything to change driver behavior when it comes to our obsession with not being able to look at our phone for 10 minutes. 'The public wants and expects these common-sense laws to pass, and not even allowing it a hearing or the public a voice in this debate is not right,' said Jennifer Smith with a nonprofit group made up of families who have been harmed by distracted driving. So far, the legislation's trajectory has been the exact opposite of what occurred last session. That's when a version of Tant's bill won approval in three House committees before dying on the floor, while its Senate companion never was heard in committee. Other states continue to act. Last week, the Iowa Senate passed a bill expanding an existing ban on texting while driving to cover any handheld use of a cellphone, with the measure now headed to Gov. Kim Reynolds' desk. Once it is signed, Iowa will become the 32nd state to adopt such laws. It took years for Florida to pass a texting-while-driving law during the last decade, and it took Michigan five years to pass a hands-free law, said Steve Kiefer, whose son Mitchel was killed in 2016 at 18 by a driver who was on Snapchat when she rear-ended him. He now runs the Kiefer Foundation, dedicated to ending distracted driving, from his home in Naples. 'Police officers want laws that they can enforce, and hands-free laws are really the only law that we know that will make it very visual,' he said. That sentiment was shared by William B. Smith, a state trooper from Miami, when speaking at the Senate Appropriations Committee on Transportation, Tourism, and Economic Development last week. 'It is a problem. Distracted driving is a current problem and it will continue to be problem as long as we don't pay attention … to what we're doing when we're driving a 6,000 pound killing machine,' he said. Tant's bill has landed in two House committees, starting with the Government Operations Subcommittee, chaired by Pinellas County Republican Linda Chaney, as well State Affairs, chaired by Manatee County Republican Will Robinson. Neither returned requests for comment. The legislation would 'authorize law officers to stop motor vehicles and issue citations to persons who are using wireless communications devices in a handheld manner while driving.' That concerns GOP Sen. Tom Leek, who said while discussing Grall's bill last week in the committee hearing that while he voted to advance the measure, he struggled with 'giving the ability of a government actor to pull you over for doing something that is entirely legal, like holding a telephone.' But Kiefer blasts that take. 'He was basically saying, 'It's a primary offense to hold a phone. Something that is absolutely legal to do,'' said Kiefer. 'If I was in the room, I would have pointed it out to him that it's also legal to drink, and it's even legal to be drunk in your home, but it's not legal to drink and drive in a car where you're going to harm other people,' he said. 'So, I think it's just very uninformed politicians that don't really understand what the law would do and how effective it has been in every other state.' During Tuesday's meeting, GOP senators Jonathan Martin and Blaise Ingoglia were the only members of the committee to oppose the measure. Both said that they thought it was too incremental, and didn't go far enough in terms of attacking all distracted driving. 'If we were going to crackdown on distracted driving, we would be including things like shaving, which we've all seen,' Ingoglia said. 'Doing makeup in your vehicle. Eating while driving. Those are all distractions. Anything that takes somebody's attention off of the road into something else in the vehicle should be a form of distracted driving, and it should be dealt with as such.' Leon County resident Christopher Chapman, who testified earlier in the meeting to describe how life has been much tougher for him after he was injured by a distracted driver, shook his head while listening to Ingoglia's and Martin's quibbles. 'I will agree that this bill is imperfect, but it's the bill that we have in front of us,' he told the Phoenix following the meeting. 'And it does give us a platform to build upon where we can invoke more stringent requirements or more stringent penalties.' Demetrius Branca lost his son Anthony to a distracted driving accident in 2014, and has made it his mission in his life to get the state to enact tougher laws. That includes attending legislative delegation meetings throughout the state. In January, he publicly confronted Pinellas County Republican Sen. Nick DiCeglie for his failure to agenda the bill in a committee he chaired last year. The two had words after the meeting, and DiCeglie said he wasn't happy with Branca calling him out. But in Tuesday's committee, DiCeglie said his conversation with Branca changed his attitude on the issue. 'I tried to take the emotion out of it,' DiCeglie told Branca. 'I looked at the statistics. I looked at the data, and I looked at what 31 other states did. And I thought of you and I thought of your son Anthony.' 'I'm proud that you're standing here in front of us today telling your story,' DiCeglie added. 'That has translated into what I believe is good public policy, and I think that's going to translate into saving lives. And regardless of what happens this point forward, I think that you can look yourself in the mirror and know that you did what was right in your heart.' If Tant's bill doesn't get heard soon in the House, such legislation is likely dead for 2025, something Kiefer says will be an irresponsible decision by lawmakers. 'It took us five years to get it done in Michigan,' he acknowledged. 'We've got people playing politics in the House and they won't hear it in the subcommittees, which of course will block it.' Jacksonville Democratic Sen. Tracie Davis revealed during Tuesday's committee meeting that her sister was killed by a distracted driver while jogging in Tallahassee. Although the proposal doesn't address the entire problem, she said, it is a necessary first step. 'Colleagues, we need your help in ensuring that the House chamber understands how important this is as well,' she said. Grall ended her close on the bill Tuesday by getting intensely personal with her colleagues. 'If it's not your family who has someone taken from you, what if it's you who takes someone from someone else? How will you carry that with you? We must change our behavior. This is to me is not acceptable any longer. If we can't be examples from this chamber, with this legislature, then we have a problem.' SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
