Alli Hinchliffe | Staff Writer

The laws on abortion in the United States are constantly up for discussion, but earlier this week the Florida legislature moved to also make refinements to the state’s abortion laws. While this bill does not threaten the legality of an abortion as a whole, the Florida House of Representatives decided with an overwhelming majority of 75-43 votes that girls under the age of 18 are required to have a parent’s consent in order for a doctor to perform an abortion.

NBC News reported on what was said to be a four hour discussion in which the stipulations of the bill were presented and picked apart by members of Florida’s House of Representatives. A strong argument against the bill was made by Democratic representatives like Susan Valdes, but ultimately the House’s decision reflected that at least one parent’s consent should be necessary for an abortion in the state of Florida.

Governor Ron DeSantis has yet to sign off on the bill; therefore, nothing is official yet. However, he is expected to, and in that case the bill will go into effect on July 1. At that point, any doctor to perform an abortion on a minor would receive a third-degree felony, punishable with prison for up to five years.

There are incidents the new bill does consider, which allows justification for girls who are victims of rape, incest, or other cases of abuse that could put the minor in more danger. In that case the victim can get a waiver from the court, although some argue that would just add to their trauma.

The intention of this bill is that girls are safer with their decisions and have a support system behind them. Unfortunately, this is not a reality for everyone but, this law is meant to accurately accommodate on a situational basis.. One of the largest concerns this bill faced was that girls would be at risk for attempting an unsafe abortion or be shamed and kicked out by their families. But according to NBC’s report, a sponsor of the bill, Republican Representative Erin Grall, urged that it’s also important to consider the parents who deserve to be involved with their child's reproductive decisions.

In a debate as sensitive as this, it’s easy to forget that both parties aim to serve the greater good. There are resources like Planned Parenthood that can provide consultations and options for women, and also educated as to whether abortion is legal in a specific state or not and what those perimeters may look like.

Planned Parenthood also specializes in prevention measures such as birth control, which the Center for Disease Control and Prevention credits their contraceptives with decreasing teen pregnancy since 1991. The CDC documents teen pregnancy in order to ensure the overall safety of minors and inform lawmakers. They reported 194,377 teen conceptions in 2017 for women between the ages 15-19, which was a record breaking low from previous years.