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The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

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Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Florida's Parental Consent Abortion Bill Stalls

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Tuesday, April 30, 2019   

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — In the final week of Florida's legislative session, it appears a bill has stalled that would have required minors to get parental consent before having an abortion.

Florida law currently requires parents to be notified if their daughter is planning to have an abortion, but the bill which already passed the House, goes further by requiring parental consent. The bill includes exemptions for situations such as minors who have health emergencies or who already have children.

However, opponents such as Kimberly Scott, director of public policy with the Florida Alliance for Planned Parenthood Affiliates, said the policy would be a safety risk and would keep vulnerable teens from accessing timely medical care.

"Especially for those that might be abused or neglected or are homeless or foster youth that unfortunately may not have a good relationship with their parents, you know they have dysfunctional family environments,” Scott said.

Supporters claim parents have a unique perspective to advise a child. While the Republican-led House voted 69-44 largely along party lines for the bill, the Senate version still has two committee stops, and is one vote shy of the required supermajority to send the bill directly to the Senate floor for a vote.

The lawmaking session ends Friday, May 3.

Minors who do not wish to involve their parents can seek a waiver from a court to bypass the consent requirement; but they would have to convince a judge that they are mature enough to choose abortion for themselves. Scott said requiring consent only adds unnecessary barriers to an already difficult and emotional process.

"It stigmatizes, one, this procedure,” she said. “But two, it alienates these minors to seek perhaps other unsafe methods of getting what they are trying to get."

A previous law was ruled unconstitutional in 1989 by the Florida Supreme Court over concern for privacy rights. If the bill were to pass this legislative session, it could stand a chance of being upheld in a Supreme Court challenge, since the high court has three new conservative justices.

Leading medical groups, including the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics, all oppose parental-consent laws.


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The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments this week about the popular abortion pill Mifepristone and will weigh in on whether the U.S. Food and Drug Administration was correct in how it can be dosed and prescribed. (Ascannio/Adobe Stock)

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