Florida targets abortion legislation

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — The Florida Senate Thursday pulled off what it couldn’t last year.

The upper chamber passed a bill that would reinstate a parental consent law declared unconstitutional 30 years ago, requiring minors seeking abortions to first get consent from a parent or guardian, except in some circumstances such as medical emergencies.

Florida law currently requires that parents or guardians are notified if a minor gets an abortion. Minors can also obtain a judicial waiver to bypass that requirement.

The bill — SB 404 — passed 23-17 along party lines,

House members advanced the House version of the bill through a single committee stop — speeding up the usual process that requires three or four committee stops to vet bills before they reach the floor. The bill is set to go before a floor vote in the House next week.

Senate bill sponsor Sen. Kelli Stargel, R-Lakeland, said her legislation is “not a pro-choice or pro-life bill.”

“This is about whether or not you’re going to have adults involved in difficult decisions with children,” she said.

Stargel, who had a child as a teenager herself, said the purpose of the bill is to “strengthen” families by requiring that parents and children have a conversation before the minor makes the decision to get an abortion.

When she learned she was pregnant and told her mother, she said, her mother told Stargel she thought it was best to have an abortion. She thought otherwise and had the baby.