With all the rhetoric about jobs and a balanced budget, you may not realize the pile of anti-abortion legislation clogging the state government's agenda. But as abortion battles sweep across the country, Florida fights from the front line with 18 abortion bills pending in the state legislature.
Last week, the Senate approved a bill that would bar private insurers from covering abortions, even partially, with any government money. (Supporters of this measure don't seem to mind that their tax dollars contributed to the 2,700 civilians killed in Afghanistan last year. I'm just sayin.) And yesterday, House members advanced a bill that would further restrict a minor's ability to get an abortion.
The so-called parent notification bill, HB 1247, would place additional notification requirements on doctors of minors and also cancel the current law that waives the requirement if a court doesn't rule, the Sun-Sentinel reports. A court can overrule the requirement if it finds an abortion to be in the minor's "best interest." But the bill says that financial considerations have nothing to do with "best interest." Here's an excerpt from the bill:
The best interest standard does not include financial best interest or financial considerations or potential impact on the minor or the minor's family if the minor does not terminate the pregnancy.
Well, since abortion opponents don't mind financially unfit people having babies, it's worth noting that Florida has the nation's second highest rate of uninsured children and is the third worst state overall, in terms of child health care, according to a recent report from the Commonwealth Foundation.
So, unless Florida's abortion opponents advocate for universal child health care - you know, that evil Obamacare - they're sending kids into a dismal, deadly system.
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