Week 4 of Florida’s 60-day* Legislative Session has ended and we have a lot of updates for you. Find additional bills that we’re watching linked here.
- SB 1642, Don’t Say Gay or Trans at Work: passed its first House and Senate committees.
- SB 1010/HB 743: More Lawsuits for Teachers & Doctors: passed its second of three House committees.
- HB 991 / SB 1334: New Barriers to Voting: passed its first House and Senate committees.
- SB 1632 /HB 1471: Police State Bill: passed its first House and Senate committees. It will be up in the House Education and Employment Committee on Tuesday at 9:00am.
- SB 1134, Anti-Diversity in Local Government: passed its first House and Senate committees. It will be in the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday at 12:30pm.
- HB 173: Endangering Our Kids Act: is in the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday at 9:00am.
- This bill would ban STI treatment, some crisis mental health resources (like a suicide prevention hotline), health surveys, and birth control for minors who can’t involve a parent.
- Take action with Planned Parenthood here and urge your Representatives to OPPOSE this dangerous bill.
- HB 1071: Student Indoctrination Act: is in the House Education and Employment Committee on Tuesday at 9:00am.
- This sweeping bill would require students to watch a medically-inaccurate video like “Baby Olivia” from a national anti-abortion extremist group, ban student clubs from engaging in political or social issues, and would place additional barriers for students to receive reproductive health education.
- Take action with Planned Parenthood here.
- SB 1692 / HB 1119: Book Ban Expansion Bill: is on the House floor for a final vote.
- This bill would supercharge book banning and censorship in Florida’s K-12 schools by discarding a long-standing constitutional standard to make it easier to challenge and remove educational materials.
- Take action with Equality Florida and PEN America to urge lawmakers to vote NO.
Help bring attention to 2 bills that we WANT to pass:
Support HB 331 to restore access to reproductive health curriculum: Florida students are currently being denied medically accurate health education because the Department of Education has refused to approve district-submitted materials.
HB 331 and SB 1492 fix this by restoring local school board authority over reproductive health and HIV/AIDS instruction. Send a letter in support at this link.
- Support The Reproductive Freedom Act by joining fellow advocates in Tallahassee for a rally on Thursday, February 12th, 10:00am-12:00pm. Learn more here.
Supply Drive: Florida Access Network’s Mutual Aid |
Florida Access Network is hosting a series of Supply Drives to help stock their mutual aid stands across the state. They’re looking for donations ranging from period products to diapers, baby food, and more. You can donate here: Central Florida South Florida: |
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Events & Volunteer Opportunities |
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Pack with Purpose w/South Florida Period Project Saturday, February 7th, 2:00pm – 4:00pm EST 1st Unitarian Universalist Congregation Participants are asked to bring a bring a donation of period supplies (pads, tampons, sanitary wipes). |
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Student Town Hall with Edwin Ferguson w/PRISM Compass Community Center, 201 N Dixie Hwy, Lake Worth Beach |
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Weaponizing Water: Misusing Environmental Regulations and Policies to Restrict Access to Medication Abortion w/The Guttmacher Institute, Physicians for Reproductive Health (PRH), Center for Biological Diversity (CBD), and the COMS Project Wednesday, February 11th at 3:00pm EST |
La Fe y Aborto / Faith & Abortion w/Latina Institute for Reproductive Justice Wednesday, February 11th, 7:30pm – 9:00pm EST |
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Florida’s Reproductive Freedom Rally Thursday, February 12th, 10:00am – 12:00pm EST Old Florida Capitol Steps, 400 S. Monroe St. Tallahassee |
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Self-Managed Abortion in Black Communities w/Abortion On Our Own Terms Registration closes on February 14th at 11:59pm EST |
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Free Movie: Can’t Stop Change: Queer Climate Stories from the FL Frontlines w/Center for Biological Diversity Located at the Florida Rising office in Jacksonville |
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.png "(Repro)cussions Virtual Town Hall w/Color of Change & Planned Parenthood")
(Repro)cussions Virtual Town Hall w/Color of Change & Planned Parenthood |
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A Voice For Reproductive Justice: A Training For Medical Professionals w/ACLU Florida Wednesday, February 18th, 6:30pm – 8:00pm EST |
News Roundup |
Florida
Florida abortions down by half since Roe as more women travel for procedure
By Christopher O’Donnell, Tampa Bay Times
The number of abortions provided in Florida has fallen by roughly half since the state introduced stricter laws after the repeal of Roe vs. Wade in 2022, new data shows.
After practically banning abortion, lawmakers are at it again
By Eleanor Sobel, South Florida Sun Sentinel
It’s legislative session in Tallahassee and, as in most years, lawmakers are rolling out extreme, lobbyist-driven bills designed more to energize their voters than to protect citizens. The consequences land directly on personal freedoms and health care.
Bills cracking down on abortion pills advance in states that already ban most abortions
By Elisha Brown, Florida Phoenix
to restrict access to abortion pills are in full swing, particularly in states that already ban abortion.
Privacy and parenting collide, Florida debates teen mental health care
By Jennifer M. Torres, Florida Today
For teenagers, mental health care often lies in a gray space between privacy and protection.
Medicaid work requirements in the works in Florida?
By Christine Sexton, Florida Phoenix
Excerpt: The House bill would amend Florida’s Medicaid statutes to prevent payment to any “prohibited entity” in federal law, such as abortion providers like Planned Parenthood, for one year. The Senate bill doesn’t contain that language.
Uthmeier calls for GOP lawmaker’s ouster from House leadership position
By Liv Caputo, Florida Phoenix
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier on Monday escalated a long-simmering feud with a Republican lawmaker by calling for his ouster from a House leadership role, citing the legislator’s ties to a law firm defending Planned Parenthood in a lawsuit brought by the state.
Demand grows for doulas who can help moms with addiction
By Nada Hassanein, Florida Phoenix
“Don’t give me narcotics.” Emmalee Hortin, a doula, recalled one of her clients delivering that message to hospital staff.
Lawmakers should reject judgmental, heartless attacks on freedom, health
Editorial, Orlando Sentinel
This year, more than usual, a group of Florida lawmakers are clinging to a Biblical-sounding principle — and doing their best to ensure that the wages of sin are, at the very least, misery.
National
Federal and state authorities are taking a 2-pronged approach to make it harder to get an abortion
By Naomi Cahn, Professor of Law, University of Virginia and Sonia Suter, Professor of Law, George Washington University, The Conversation
Anti-abortion conservatives have long sought to force Planned Parenthood’s clinics to close their doors and to make it harder, if not impossible, to get abortion pills as part of a two-pronged approach to limit access to abortion.
‘We’re going to disrupt this country’: Pardoned anti-abortion activists plot mass clinic protests
By Julianne McShane, MS Now
Joan Andrews Bell knelt on the pavement in the middle of Washington Avenue Southwest before a handful of irritated officers on Jan. 22, hunched over a rosary she clutched in her hands.
Planned Parenthood ends suit against Trump administration over serving Medicaid patients
By Jennifer Shutt, Florida Phoenix
A federal judge on Monday closed the lawsuit Planned Parenthood filed last summer after Republicans’ “big, beautiful” law blocked Medicaid patients from visiting its clinics for any health care appointments for one year.
Galveston man sues California doctor under new Texas law allowing lawsuits over abortion pills
By Zahiyah Carter, States Newsroom
A Galveston County man has filed a lawsuit against a California doctor he accuses of providing abortion-inducing pills to his partner, leveraging for the first time a new Texas law that allows private citizens to sue abortion providers for up to $100,000.
Congressional Democrats Urge Trump to Cover IVF for Federal Workers
By Oriana González, NOTUS
Two congressional Democrats are pressing the Trump administration to require that in vitro fertilization be covered for federal workers.
If you’re pregnant and uninsured, Medicaid might be your answer
By Blake Farmer, Cara Anthony and Emily Siner, Nashville Public Radio
When she noticed an unusual craving for hot dogs, Matte’a Brooks suspected her body was telling her something, so she decided to take a pregnancy test. She took two just to be sure. Both were positive.
New research
Moving Toward a Population Level Measure of Person-Centered Contraceptive Need in the United States
By Jennifer J. Frost, Megan L. Kavanaugh, Ayana Douglas-Hall and Anu Manchikanti Gómez, Journal of Women’s Health
We used multiple national datasets to develop a more person-centered metric for estimating need for contraception, comparing results made using a conventional approach with this new approach.