Traviesa Spearheads Bill On Ultrasound Before Abortion

Frank Shannon, Tampa Bay Online
April 15, 2008
Three pieces of anti-abortion legislation passed in the Florida House on April 2, one in large part because of the efforts of its sponsor, Republican Rep. Trey Traviesa of District 56.

Traviesa's House Bill 257 requires that women be given the opportunity to view an ultrasound of their babies before abortions. Once a woman is made aware of her right, she can decline to view the ultrasound. The bill also requires appointment of a guardian ad litem for a minor seeking a parental-notice waiver and establishes maturity standards for judges to use in evaluating waiver petitions. The bill passed 70-45.

Also passed in the House was House Bill 513, which provides that it's not required to prove that a defendant in a crime against a pregnant woman knew that the victim was pregnant or intended to cause harm to the unborn child. The measure conforms to federal law by defining the term "unborn child" as a "member of the species homo sapiens at any stage of development who is carried in the womb."

The third piece of legislation, House Bill 7007, is an expansion of the Safe Baby Act, extending the time period from three to seven days after giving birth that a mother may anonymously turn her baby over to a hospital, fire station or emergency medical center without the fear of criminal repercussions. Also, for babies born in hospitals and whose mothers express the intent to abandon, the birth certificate can be completed without naming the mother at the mother's request.

Florida passed the Safe Baby Act in 2000, not long after a number of abandoned babies were discovered in five weeks and following the discovery of dead babies in garbage pails in 1998 and 1999.

The three House bills, especially Traviesa's, amount to the most aggressive anti-abortion legislative effort in a long time, certainly this legislative session. A similar effort by Traviesa last year ended up dying in the Senate.

"This is a real victory for patients' rights, and I thank Rep. Traviesa for providing true legislative leadership," said Lupe Gladu, Respect Life moderator for Nativity Catholic Church in Brandon. "To me, it seems only natural, right and obvious that a woman submitting to an abortion should have the right to see her sonogram and then make an informed decision."

The bill had its opponents, mostly Democrats who insisted Traviesa was seeking to set up barriers to abortions.

"This is not about protecting the rights of women," charged Rep. Joyce Cusack, D-DeLand. "This is about eroding the rights of women."

But even U.S. Supreme Court Justices Sandra Day O'Connor, David Souter and Anthony Kennedy, who could never be mistaken for anti-abortionists, held in the 1992 case Planned Parenthood vs. Casey that informed consent "is not an undue burden on a woman's constitutional right to decide to terminate a pregnancy." The justices said that there "is no evidence here that requiring a doctor to give the required information would amount to a substantial obstacle to a woman seeking abortion."

Traviesa, speaking on the floor of the House, insisted his bill would allow women "an entirely informed decision."

Rep. Marti Coley, R-Marianna, said she supported the bill to reduce abortions and give women full availability of information before they have abortions.

"I can't imagine any man having a procedure without prior tests and knowing that he's got everything in order," she said.

Florida Right to Life board member Rebecca Porter, armed with hundreds of statements from women who had had abortions, appeared at a committee debate to discuss her regret about her abortion. The women's statements expressed that had they been provided additional information from the abortion clinics, such as ultrasounds of their babies, they likely would have sought alternatives.

"The ultrasound puts the lie to the abortionists' claim that it's only a blob of tissue," said Terry Kemple of Valrico, executive director of the Community Issues Council, a Christian public policy group. "Studies show that where ultrasounds make women aware of the development of their baby, they choose other alternatives like adoption or keeping their child."