The conditions surrounding human pregnancy are complex. But one condition prevails: the decision to give birth has serious lifetime consequences to the woman. Therefore, the woman’s reproductive decisions should be entrusted only to her in consultation with a trusted medical advisor of her choice.
The role of government should be to protect the privacy of this decision not to police it. It is absurd that Florida’s governor and Legislature thought it prudent to impose a ban on abortions, no matter the circumstance, after six weeks.
Many women don’t even know they are pregnant until much later than the six-week threshold. The juxtaposition of this reality with the law recently enacted by our state government officials demonstrates the capriciousness and arbitrariness of that rule.
There is something we as citizens can do to reverse this law. Help get the following proposed state constitutional amendment on the ballot in 2024: “No law shall prohibit, penalize, delay, or restrict abortion before viability or when necessary to protect the patient’s health, as determined by the patient’s healthcare provider.” This amendment does not change the Legislature’s constitutional authority to require notification to a parent or guardian before a minor has an abortion.
Go to the following website, print, and complete the petition: https://initiativepetitions.elections.myflorida. com/InitiativeForms/Volunteer/ DSDE155A_999_2307_EN.PDF. Then mail it to: Floridians Protecting Freedom, Inc., Post Office Box 4068, Sarasota, Fl 34230.
By Judy Minier, Punta Gorda
