Latest news with #HB1517
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
10-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Fetuses could have the same legal protections as children under bill the House has passed
Abortion and IVF access dominated the April 9, 2025, House floor debate on the proposal allowing for wrongful death suits of fetuses. (Photo by) After stalling last year, a bill allowing parents to claim damages in the wrongful death of a fetus received approval in the House on Wednesday, with Democrats raising opposition over reproductive rights. Under the bill, HB 1517, parents could claim damages for mental pain and loss of support from the fetus at any stage of development, meaning jurors could determine the salary the fetus could have earned over its life as part of the money parents could be entitled to in wrongful-death suits. It cleared the chamber along party lines. The proposal clarifies that suits couldn't be brought against mothers or medical providers abiding by the standard of care, but some Democratic lawmakers raised concerns about abortion and IVF access and pregnant people trying to escape abusive relationships. Weston Democratic Rep. Robin Bartleman said the bill angered her. 'Everyone can get sued now because of this bill. This is not about justice, it's about cruelty,' she said, pointing out that the bill doesn't provide protections for IVF clinics and hospitals. However, Democrats' attempts to allow only the pregnant person to bring suits and to shield people helping someone secure an abortion from the wrongful death suits failed. 'This is about establishing that life begins at conception, so let's clear the air, and let's just say the thing that's what it's about, because if it wasn't, there wouldn't have been so much avoiding the questions or the answers to direct questions,' Miami Democratic Rep. Ashley Gantt said. St. Augustine Republican Rep. Sam Greco, the House sponsor, said the bill was not about abortion. 'This is about a loss that that is is so hard to understand and so hard to believe that money or anything is never going to make one whole,' Greco said. 'But when a terrible tragedy like the loss, the wrongful loss, of an unborn child occurs because of wrongfulness, because of a wrongful act, mothers, parents, should have the ability to seek to be made whole in those circumstances.' The Senate companion, which Vero Beach Republican Sen. Erin Grall is sponsoring, is up for its second of three committee hearings Thursday. But other Republicans' support for the bill is faltering, with former Senate President Kathleen Passidomo also expressing hesitancy about opening medical providers up to lawsuits over the death of a fetus, even at one month of gestation. 'We're losing OBGYNs. Who's gonna wanna come to Florida?' Passidomo said during the April 1 Senate Judiciary Committee hearing of SB 1284. Passidomo, who also criticized the proposal last year, is chair of the Rules Committee, which Grall's proposal must go through before reaching the Senate floor. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
20-03-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Bill permitting suits over wrongful death of fetuses draws concerns about abortion access
A bill changing Florida's wrongful death statues would allow parents to collect damages for the death of a fetus. (Photo by Getty Images) Republicans in a House committee Thursday advanced a bill that permits parents to claim damages in the wrongful death of a fetus at any stage of development. HB 1517 passed its first hearing in the House Civil Justice and Claims Subcommittee along party lines, with Democrats raising concerns about what the passage of the bill would mean for Florida's abortion landscape. A similar proposal drew criticism last year from reproductive rights advocates, who said the bill would establish fetal personhood. Both the House bill and Senate companion, SB 1284, define an unborn child as a 'member of the species Homo sapiens, at any stage of development, who is carried in the womb,' which St. Petersburg Democratic Rep. Michele Rayner said would grant fetuses the same rights as any person. 'For me, it feels like this is another attempt to lay the foundation for a complete abortion ban. I'm not saying that this bill is a complete abortion ban. I want to be very, very clear,' Rayner said. Florida bans most abortions after six weeks' gestation, but there are exceptions to save the life of the mother, fatal fetal abnormalities, and in cases of rape, incest, and human trafficking. The pregnant person wouldn't be the target of litigation under either proposal, and the House version also adds that protection for medical providers who provide 'care related to assisted reproductive technologies,' such as in vitro fertilization. St. Augustine Republican Rep. Sam Greco said during the committee that his bill doesn't put doctors providing legal abortions at risk. Sweetwater Republican Rep. David Borrero said he supported the proposal precisely because it gives a fetus the same rights as people after they are born. 'I firmly believe an unborn child is a person if it has its own separate DNA, it's growing, it's capable of feeling pain, it is considered a person,' Borrero said. Still, some opponents said it would enable abusive partners to harass victims of domestic or intimate partner violence. '[The bill] would allow domestic violence abusers to sue their victims' friends and family who helped them receive proper health care and an abortion,' said Ash Bradley, speaking on behalf of reproductive rights group Voices of Florida. 'This would put survivors like me in imminent danger.' Vero Beach Republican Sen. Erin Grall is still the sponsor in the upper chamber. She withdrew her proposal toward the end of the legislative session last year, but she hinted that she would refile the bill. 'I want to make sure we get it right. So, we're just gonna wait and see if that can continue to happen, or if it's this type of thing that we need to do a little bit more work between now and next session,' Grall said at the time. The Senate version has not been heard yet but it doesn't have any substantial changes from last year's bill. Sixteen other states allow parents to collect damages for mental pain and suffering from the death of a fetus at any stage of development caused by negligence, according to a legislative analysis of the bill. Florida is one of six states that doesn't allow for such suits, while others permit the collection of damages for wrongful fetus deaths if the fetus could survive outside the womb.
