On Friday, Gov. Rick Scott passed HB 1047, which stipulates that pregnancies may not at any time be terminated in the state of Florida if doctors determine that the fetus could survive outside the womb.
The Tampa Bay Times reported that the law takes effect on July 1. And though it maintains that a pregnancy may be ended at any time if “a mother’s life is at risk or to prevent irreversible physical impairment of a mother’s major bodily function,” the Alligator finds this new law appalling in its regression.
This editorial board has unique stakes in HB 1047. For one, the board is currently 75 percent female (though this arguably shouldn’t make a difference). The second stake is in the fact that the Alligator has held controversial views on abortion before.
Now, for a lesson in UF history that must be rehashed every few years: The Independent Florida Alligator wasn’t always independent.
In 1971, when Stephen C. O’Connell was president, and the Alligator operated under a department called the Office of Student Publications, former editor Ron Sachs approved an insert to run in the paper listing the addresses of known abortion clinics in the area. Because both abortions and printing information about where to get an abortion were illegal at the time, this was a risky move. It ultimately resulted in the Alligator seceding from the university after then-Florida Attorney General Robert Shevin ruled that a split from UF and the Alligator was necessary to protect students’ First Amendment rights.
We’ve come a long way from the 1970s, in some respects. Our right to free speech and a free press is safe from government regulation, yet women’s bodies, amazingly, still aren’t.
Which is why the Alligator must take a hard stance on HB 1047: It’s a violation of health and privacy.
It’s not the government’s place to determine what women do with their bodies, especially when it comes to the life-changing matter of childbirth. As Dr. Vanessa Cullins, the vice president for external medical affairs at Planned Parenthood Federation of American put it, “The decisions about pregnancy are private, personal decisions, and politicians don’t belong in the midst of those decisions. It’s none of the politicians’ business.”
The passage of this intrusive bill, with its room for interpretation and the removal of “emotional health” as a reason to terminate a pregnancy, is a blow to Florida women. Furthermore, politics have no place in a sensitive area that concerns what Florida Rep. Hazelle Rogers said is between “me, my doctor, and my god.”
Removing access to abortion won’t make abortion go away. Furthermore, prohibiting women from undergoing a common and safe medical procedure is invasive and the mark of a regressive culture that does not value a woman’s right to choose what to do with her body.
[A version of this editorial ran on page 6 on 6/17/2014 under the headline "Florida abortion bill is irresponsible, regressive"]
