Bill formulated by Sarasota lawmakers would restrict abortion in Florida

Florida would follow 15 other states in outlawing abortions after 20 weeks under legislation being formulated by two Sarasota lawmakers.

The controversial proposal is considered a direct challenge to the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling that abortions can be prohibited only when a fetus is viable outside the womb, typically considered around 24 weeks. Florida law bans abortions under most circumstances in the third trimester of pregnancy — after 24 weeks — or if a physician determines the fetus is viable earlier.

Anti-abortion activists argue there is compelling evidence that a fetus can feel pain starting around 20 weeks, although leading medical professionals in the field dispute those claims. Groups looking to restrict abortions have been pushing to make fetal pain the standard for when the procedure can be performed, rather than viability.

“I just can’t imagine a baby having to feel pain and going through this,” said Sarasota state Rep. Joe Gruters, who is sponsoring the bill along with Sarasota state Sen. Greg Steube. “This is an issue that I feel passionately about.”

So-called “fetal pain” bills have been gaining momentum nationwide.

The first 20-week abortion ban passed in Nebraska in 2010, marking the beginning of a national push by anti-abortion groups on the issue. The U.S. House of Representatives passed similar legislation in 2015, but it failed to advance in the U.S. Senate, where Florida GOP Sen. Marco Rubio was the bill’s sponsor.

Florida lawmakers debated a fetal pain bill during the 2011 legislative session, but it stalled.

Fetal pain laws have been struck down by courts in some states and left unchallenged in others. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to rule on the issue in 2014, leaving it up to the states for now.

Ohio is the latest state to adopt a fetal pain bill. Republican Gov. John Kasich signed the legislation into law last month.

“The 20-week ban was nationally designed to be the vehicle to end abortion in America,” Ohio Right to Life President Michael Gonidakis told the Columbus Dispatch when the bill passed. “It challenges the current national abortion standard and properly moves the legal needle from viability to the baby’s ability to feel pain.”

Planned Parenthood of Southwest and Central Florida CEO Barbara Zdravecky said in a statement Friday that “we cannot comment on this bill as we have not seen specific language.”

But Zdravecky added that “legislation that attempts to restrict access to safe and legal abortion poses a serious threat to women’s health, ignoring women’s individual needs and circumstances. No matter how we feel about abortion at different points in a pregnancy, a woman’s health should drive important medical decisions — not political agendas.”

Fetal pain bills affect a small number of abortions. The Guttmacher Institute, an abortion rights organization, estimates that only 1.5 percent of abortions occur after 20 weeks.

But many on both sides of the abortion debate view the legislation as a catalyst to start rolling back previous U.S. Supreme Court rulings on abortion rights. If the nation’s top court upholds a 20-week ban, it could set the stage for even more restrictive abortion measures in the future.

The abortion rights group NARAL Pro-Choice America wrote in a recent position paper that the 20-week bans “are the latest attempt in the more than four decade-long campaign to make abortion illegal again in America, and pose an extremely serious threat to the health of women in the most desperate of circumstances.”

Elected to his first term in the Florida House in November, Gruters has long been ardent anti-abortion activist. He grew up in a devoutly Catholic household and protested outside of abortion clinics with his father as a child.

Gruters was president of the Respect Life Club at Sarasota’s Cardinal Mooney High School and has served as chairman of the Florida Right to Life PAC. The abortion bill is the first piece of legislation he is sponsoring.

“I’m excited to introduce this as my first bill as a member of the state House,” he said. “I’m going to do all I can in Tallahassee to protect life at all levels.”

Gruters said the fetal pain bill is still in the drafting phase and should be formally filed next week.