FL measure establishing personhood in the womb is faltering as Legislature winds down
The Society of Family Planning found in the nine months after the Dobbs decision the rate of medication abortion jumped but, overall, providers reported more than 25,000 fewer abortions nationwide. (Getty Images)
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An effort to allow expecting parents to collect damages in a wrongful death suit of an unborn child is in peril as the Senate sponsor of the bill temporarily postponed it on Monday and indicated it needed more work — though the legislative session of 2024 is coming to an end.
At issue is SB 476, which would permit lawsuits to recover damages for the wrongful death of fetuses at any stage of development in the womb. Republican Sen. Erin Grall, the sponsor, had continued to push the measure during the session, which ends March 8. In past years, she’s pushed a 15-week abortion ban while in the state House, and a 6-week ban in the Senate.
Erin Grall. Credit: Florida Senate
As to SB 476, “There’s still work to do, so even if the House bill came over, I’m not sure if we would be in the right spot. But I know that both sessions work very hard to try and take different considerations into mind. There are two weeks of session left, and I don’t have a crystal ball,” Grall told reporters on Monday.
But Grall, who represents counties in central west Florida, also said the issue could be revisited next year. And the House version, HB 651, from Lee County Republican Rep. Jenna Persons-Mulicka could still be approved on the House floor.
“I want to make sure we get it right. So we’re just gonna wait and see if that can continue to happen, or if it’s this type of thing that we need to do a little bit more work between now and next session,” Grall said.
Establishing personhood
Abortion-rights advocates and Democratic lawmakers had criticized the bill, calling it a back door to further reduce access to reproductive health care. Both proposals defined an “unborn child” as “a member of the species Homo sapiens, at any stage of development, who is carried in the womb.” That definition alarmed some who said it would give fetuses personhood.
“We’re dealing with personhood. That’s what this is. You have to call a spade a spade, particularly now in the current state and time that we’re in,” said Florida Senate Democratic Leader Lauren Book to reporters on Monday, before Grall postponed the bill. “This is a backdoor attempt at personhood. It’s a very scary time. People across the country are talking about it. People are finally looking at it.
“At the end of the day, I think that the Republicans across the country realize this is a problem. This isn’t something they should be doing. They need to stop what they’re doing.”
Even on the other side of the aisle, some who are against abortion are supportive of Grall’s decision to postpone her bill.
“Unfortunately, this well-meaning legislation has gotten worse with each committee stop in the Senate. On Friday, February 23rd, Senator Grall was forced to file an unnecessary amendment to the bill that would have allegedly ‘clarified’ that parents cannot collect civil damages for the death of their unborn child if the death came about due to a legal abortion done ‘with the applicable standards of care,’” wrote Andrew Shirvell, executive director of Florida Voice for the Unborn, in a press release. “Such a special carve-out for abortionists would not only be immoral, but it would make it harder for the abortion industry to be held civilly accountable.”
The Alabama Supreme Court’s recent decision to classify frozen embryos used in the in vitro fertilization process as equivalent to human children has brought national attention to lawmakers’ push to establish personhood before birth. The proposals in Florida would have applied to embryos and fetuses in the womb, which Grall claimed wouldn’t have affected IVF treatments.
“While Alabama’s recent Supreme Court ruling has gotten a lot of attention this past week, let’s be clear: this isn’t happening in a vacuum. Radical bills aimed at chipping away at reproductive freedoms continue to move through legislatures across the country,” wrote Democratic Sen. Shevrin Jones of Miami-Dade County. “Republicans here in Florida and nationally are panicking as their extreme ideology remains wildly out of step with the majority of Americans. They will stop at nothing in the attack on bodily autonomy, so we must stay on high alert.”
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