Planned Parenthood | Michael B. Thomas/Getty Images Florida Republicans fast-track abortion restrictions

TALLAHASSEE — Florida lawmakers are fast tracking legislation to restrict abortion, pushing to deliver a victory to the Republican base in a presidential election year.

On the 47th anniversary of the landmark Roe v. Wade decision, a state Senate panel on Wednesday voted along party lines to approve a bill that would require a teenager seeking an abortion to obtain the notarized written consent of a parent or guardian, or a waiver from a judge. The measure would expose a doctor or nurse who fails to resuscitate a child born alive to third-degree felony charges and up to five years in jail.


The measure is written in away that could allow Florida lawmakers to attach a more far-reaching anti-abortion measure as the bill advances.

President Donald Trump’s second term could be won or lost in Florida, and the Republican-led Legislature this year is pushing to deliver to its Republican base before the general election in November.

The abortion bill could have national implications. Trump has appointed two conservative justices to the U.S. Supreme Court, and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has followed suit, flipping the state Supreme Court from its liberal majority with three appointments in the past year.

Abortion foes are eager to test the refashioned judiciaries with a constitutional challenge to Roe, and conservative lawmakers are doing what they can to help.

“It’s clear that we’re no longer discussing parental consent. We’ve devolved into the discussion of a bill that is a full-on assault to a woman’s right to choose and a physician’s duty to care for his or her patient,” state Sen. Lauren Book (D-Plantation), a panel member, told POLITICO after the Senate committee on Wednesday.

Book, a survivor of childhood sexual abuse and founder of a nonprofit to protect children, said the bill’s waiver language was “naive” because it would require the court to report cases of abuse to the state Department of Children and Families. She said she encounters abuse victims regularly who don’t want to report an abusive family member because they provide for the family.

“It is going to continue to push these girls into something that is extremely dangerous,” Book said. “Abortion will be around, it’s always been around. It’s just going to be more unsafe.”

The Florida Senate Rules Committee on Wednesday approved a rewrite of the bill and a title change along party lines, effectively expanding the measure’s scope. The bill now addresses abortions at large under state law, whereas before it dealt with a more narrow statute on parental notification. The measure now is broad enough to allow piggybacked legislation to outlaw most abortions in Florida.

“Essentially the Rules committee throws the door wide open, a dangerous shortcut toward a new wave of restrictions aimed at women's ability to make their own decisions about their healthcare,” Sen. José Javier Rodríguez (D-Miami) said. “My colleagues in the majority should be honest about what their ultimate intentions are.”

Bill sponsor Kelli Stargel (R-Lakeland) said a piggyback would be possible but was not her intent. She said she needed to broaden the bill in order to increase the penalty for doctors and nurses from a first-degree misdemeanor to a third-degree felony.

Stargel said her goal was to pass a bill that would be deemed constitutional. Legislation outlawing abortion, she said, likely would not be.

The Florida Legislature in 1988 — then under Democratic control — passed a similar parental consent law that was deemed unconstitutional by the state Supreme Court a year later. During the 1989 case, In Re: TW, former Chief Justice Leander Shaw said the law didn’t have a “compelling state interest” that was met through the “least intrusive means.”

Shaw’s opinion was based on Florida’s constitutional right to privacy, which he said the law violated. The law added insult to injury by not providing legal counsel to a minor seeking a waiver, and by not documenting such judicial appeals, Shaw wrote.

Stargel said she believed her bill would be upheld in the state Supreme Court because it provides both legal counsel and documentation. A companion measure, FL SB406 (20R), which was also approved along party lines on Wednesday, would exempt that proceeding from public records laws to protect the minor.

The rules committee also adopted an amendment from Senate Minority Leader Audrey Gibson which would allow a minor to seek a waiver in a judge’s chambers or another informal setting, instead of a courtroom, to provide a less intimidating environment.

Stargel's bill and its House companion are ready to be debated on the floor of each chamber, and they’ll likely be among the earliest bills to reach DeSantis for his signature. The Republican governor campaigned on restricting abortion and has said he looks forward to signing the Legislature’s package to limit the procedure.

The Stargel bill is one of the more narrowly targeted anti-abortion bills filed this session.

A bill from Sen. Joe Gruters (R-Sarasota) would prohibit doctors from performing abortions when test results indicate the child would be born with Down syndrome. The measure has been assigned to three committees but has yet to be heard.

Rep. Mike Hill (R-Pensacola) has filed a bill that would prohibit abortions after a heartbeat, which can be found around six weeks and before many women know they are pregnant, is detected in a fetus. It, too, has been assigned three committees but has not been heard.