Lakeland Rep. Jennifer Canady becomes 2nd Florida House sponsor of six-week abortion bill

Though only in her first term in the Florida House, Rep. Jennifer Canady, R-Lakeland, has become one of the primary sponsors on a high-priority bill.

Canady last week became the second lead sponsor of House Bill 7, which would ban abortions beyond six weeks of pregnancy, with some exceptions.

Rep. Jenna Persons-Mulicka, R-Fort Myers, introduced the legislation on March 7, the opening day of the 60-day legislative session. It is one of the most contentious bills so far filed in the session and follows upon a law enacted last year that prohibits abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy.

Canady did not respond to interview requests.

The bill, titled Pregnancy and Parenting Support, has 10 co-sponsors, none of them from Polk County.

Legislative previewPolk lawmakers support main priorities of DeSantis, Republican leaders

NewcomerJennifer Canady determined to be as effective as possible in Tallahassee

OppositionPolk abortion-rights advocates rally in response to six-week bills filed in Legislature

Canady, a teacher at Lakeland Christian School, regularly described herself as “pro-life” during the election campaign last year but avoided saying specifically whether she would support legislation further restricting the time period for abortions.

A Ledger reporter asked Canady at a Politics in the Park event in August if she would back a full abortion ban.

“I am interested in making sure that we carefully consider ways that we can be impactful in saving lives and taking care of women,” Canady said. “So I am pro-life, and I also believe that we have a responsibility to support crisis pregnancy ministries, to look for ways to meet the very real needs that women and their families face.”

Interviewed the week before the session began, Canady again wouldn’t commit to a six-week abortion ban, saying, “I am just waiting to see the bills.”

HB 7 would forbid a doctor from “knowingly” performing or inducing the termination of a pregnancy beyond six weeks, defined as the time since the pregnant person’s last menstruation. Opponents of the legislation have emphasized that women often don’t recognize that they are pregnant until past the six-week point.

Like the 15-week abortion bill passed last year, HB 7 includes exceptions for pregnancies that pose a risk to the pregnant person’s life or “a serious risk of substantial and irreversible physical impairment of a major bodily function.” In such cases, two doctors must certify the need for the abortion in writing.

The measure also includes exceptions up to the 15-week mark for pregnancies resulting from rape or incest. The pregnant person would have to provide a copy of a restraining order, police report, medical record or other court order or documentation.

A termination would also be allowed if two doctors certified in writing that the fetus has a fatal abnormality, though only before the third trimester. The bill would change the language in an existing statute saying that the “fetus has not achieved viability.”

The measure also adds restrictions for the use of medication abortions, prohibits the use of state funds for a person to travel to another state to receive “services intended to support an abortion” and adds to the state funding for “pregnancy care centers,” which offer some health services but do not provide or refer for abortions.

The bill deletes language in current statute declaring that state guidelines “may not impose an unconstitutional burden on a woman's freedom to decide whether to terminate her pregnancy.”

HB 7 passed 13-5 in the Health Care Regulation Subcommittee, with Rep. Melony Bell, R-Fort Meade, joining all the other Republicans in supporting it. The bill was being heard Wednesday in the Health and Human Services Committee.

Bell and all of Polk County’s legislators voted last year for the 15-week abortion bill. In an interview before this year’s session, Bell told a Ledger reporter that she would support a six-week abortion limit but also said, “But I just think we need to leave it at 15 weeks and move on.”

The companion bill in the Florida Senate, SB 300, is sponsored by Sen. Erin Grall, R-Vero Beach. The bill advanced through the Senate Health Policy Committee on Monday by a 7-4 vote, with approval from Sen. Colleen Burton, R-Lakeland, and Sen. Ben Albritton, R-Wauchula.

The legislation is progressing even as the 15-week abortion ban enacted last year faces a court challenge. Both bills specify that they are contingent upon the Florida Supreme Court upholding last year’s law, though a ruling is not expected until after this year’s session ends.

Canady is the wife of Florida Supreme Court Justice Charles Canady

The state’s highest court has previously ruled that a privacy clause in the Florida Constitution protects the right to an abortion. HB 7 says the bill could take effect if the Constitution is amended to state that the clause does not include a right to abortion.

Gary White can be reached at gary.white@theledger.com or 863-802-7518. Follow on Twitter @garywhite13.

This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Lakeland's Canady is second Fla. House sponsor of 6-week abortion bill