Polk lawmakers applaud wave of abortion bans, favor identical bill without exceptions for rape, incest for Florida

LAKELAND — Alabama legislators provoked applause and outrage with the recent passage of a bill banning virtually all abortions, an action that proponents hope will yield a reversal of the 46-year-old Supreme Court ruling that legalized abortion.

Some local lawmakers say they would vote for an identical bill — one allowing no exceptions for pregnancies resulting from rape or incest — if it arose in the Florida Legislature.

Sen. Kelli Stargel, R-Lakeland, said she would favor a Florida bill modeled after the one Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey signed into law Wednesday. That law prohibits doctors from performing abortions unless a pregnancy endangers a woman’s life.

“As we’ve worked on these issues in the past, there have been compromises that provide for those exceptions, but I think the bottom line is whether you think that is a human life and do you give an exception on how that human life was created, and are you going to terminate it,” Stargel said. “I don’t support an exception. I think all life is precious.”

Sen. Ben Albritton, R-Wauchula, also said he would like to see Florida ban abortion, even when a pregnancy is caused by rape or incest.

“The answer is yes, but I need to be sure to clarify that,” said Albritton, whose district includes southern Polk County. “I am for saving unborn children. I would vote for a bill that ended all abortions. I would vote for a bill that ended one abortion. This is philosophical for me, and the answer is yes.”

Rep. Colleen Burton, R-Lakeland, said she also philosophically opposes abortion and would vote for a ban that contains no exceptions for cases of rape or incest.

First-term Rep. Melony Bell, R-Fort Meade, also describes herself as “pro-life” and said she supported a proposed bill that would have outlawed abortions after a fetal heartbeat can be detected. But Bell stopped short of calling for a law mirroring the one Alabama just passed.

“I think there needs to be some exceptions because if there are not, there will be back-door abortions going on,” she said. “I don’t ever want to see that happen.”

The new abortion ban in Alabama followed the passage of slightly less restrictive abortion bills in other states. Georgia’s Legislature passed a bill prohibiting abortions as soon as a fetal heartbeat can be detected, generally about six weeks into a pregnancy, a point at which some women don’t realize they are pregnant.

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp signed the bill into law last week. Four other states have adopted similar laws this year, and Missouri’s Legislature voted Friday to approve a bill that bans abortions after eight weeks with exceptions only for medical emergencies.

Some Alabama legislators have said they crafted their abortion ban intentionally to provoke legal challenges that they hope will eventually reach the United States Supreme Court. That could lead the court to re-examine the historic Roe v. Wade decision from 1973 that established abortion rights nationwide.

Though the Supreme Court has upheld that ruling over the years, anti-abortion advocates have expressed hope that the court’s current lineup is more inclined to strike down Roe v. Wade. President Donald Trump’s appointment of Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh created a majority seen as leaning conservative.

All four legislators interviewed said they would welcome a reversal of the Roe v. Wade ruling.

“I’m certainly hopeful the Supreme Court will overturn Roe v. Wade,” Albritton said. “If that happens, we’ll figure out where Florida needs to be, and the entire time I’ll be pressing for the most restrictive measure we can pass.”

Stargel concurred.

“I think this should have been something that is handled on a state-by-state basis, which is how it was prior to Roe v. Wade,” she said.

Other major issues have been decided by the U.S. Supreme Court, such as the 1954 ruling in Brown v. Board of Education that determined states cannot have separate educational systems for whites and blacks. Stargel said she concurs with Brown v. Board but generally favors allowing states to set their own policies.

If Roe v. Wade were invalidated, each state would be free to set its own laws on abortion. Albritton said he doesn’t expect legal challenges over the Alabama law to reach the Supreme Court before Florida legislators begin holding committee meetings in September.

Albritton said he thinks the new abortion laws are a response to New York’s adoption in January of a law expanding abortion rights. That law allows abortions after 24 weeks of pregnancy if a health-care professional determines the health or life of the mother is at risk or the fetus cannot be delivered alive.

“It’s hard to say for sure because I haven’t spoken to anybody in Alabama or Georgia, but I can tell you I believe the vast majority of the country is pro-life and they respect life in general,” Albritton said, “and it wouldn’t surprise me that these are specific responses to that terrible measure New York put into place.”

In a recent Gallup poll, 79% of respondents said abortion should be legal under either all or some circumstances, while 18% said it should be illegal in all circumstances. That is consistent with other polls in recent years showing majority support for the Roe v. Wade ruling.

Both Albritton and Stargel pushed abortion-related bills in the recent legislative session. Stargel introduced a bill that would have required parental consent before a minor could undergo an abortion. That measure failed to reach a full Senate vote.

Albritton co-introduced a bill sponsored by Sen. Dennis Baxley, R-Ocala, that would have forbidden abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected. That bill stalled in the Health Policy Committee.

Stargel said both bills had ample support, and the Senate simply ran out of time to adopt her bill. She said she plans to introduce it again next year.

Bell said she would have voted for a “heartbeat bill” proposed in the Florida House by Rep. Mike Hill, R-Pensacola.

“I’m certainly in favor of the heartbeat bill,” Bell said. “I think it’s so sad what New York has done. A baby’s a life. I’m very pro-life.”

Though some anti-abortion advocates have suggested that the actions of other states could provide momentum for Florida to pass abortion restrictions next year, Burton said she expects legislators to maintain a deliberative approach.

She said it does no good to pass bills that will be struck down in court, as some previous Florida measures on abortion have been.

“If you look historically in Florida at the pro-life bills that we have heard and passed, they are bills that are carefully examined, if you will, during the writing of those bills to make sure that they do not automatically trigger a constitutional challenge,” she said. “A lot of attention is paid to, ‘Are we going to work on a bill and vote on a bill that we can actually implement?’ Moving forward in Florida, I see no reason to believe we would do things differently than we’ve done in the past.”

Stargel said legislators also must consider a right-to-privacy amendment in the Florida Constitution that courts have cited in striking down some restrictions on abortion.

"Even if Roe v. Wade were overturned, it's still questionable to what degree Florida could limit abortion because of that right-to-privacy clause and the way it's been interpreted by our courts," she said.

The other two legislators based in Polk County, Rep. Sam Killebrew, R-Winter Haven, and Rep. Josie Tomkow, R-Polk City, did not respond to messages left Thursday.

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