Under the bill, HB 1517, parents could claim damages for mental pain and loss of support from the fetus at any stage of development, meaning jurors could determine the salary the fetus could have earned over its life as part of the money parents could be entitled to in wrongful-death suits. It cleared the chamber along party lines. Robin Bartleman via Florida House
The proposal clarifies that suits couldn’t be brought against mothers or medical providers abiding by the standard of care, but some Democratic lawmakers raised concerns about abortion and IVF access and pregnant people trying to escape abusive relationships.
Weston Democratic Rep. Robin Bartleman said the bill angered her.
“Everyone can get sued now because of this bill. This is not about justice, it’s about cruelty,” she said, pointing out that the bill doesn’t provide protections for IVF clinics and hospitals.
However, Democrats’ attempts to allow only the pregnant person to bring suits and to shield people helping someone secure an abortion from the wrongful death suits failed.
“This is about establishing that life begins at conception, so let’s clear the air, and let’s just say the thing that’s what it’s about, because if it wasn’t, there wouldn’t have been so much avoiding the questions or the answers to direct questions,” Miami Democratic Rep. Ashley Gantt said.
Not about abortion?
St. Augustine Republican Rep. Sam Greco, the House sponsor, said the bill was not about abortion.“This is about a loss that that is is so hard to understand and so hard to believe that money or anything is never going to make one whole,” Greco said. “But when a terrible tragedy like the loss, the wrongful loss, of an unborn child occurs because of wrongfulness, because of a wrongful act, mothers, parents, should have the ability to seek to be made whole in those circumstances.”
The Senate companion, which Vero Beach Republican Sen. Erin Grall is sponsoring, is up for its second of three committee hearings Thursday. But other Republicans’ support for the bill is faltering, with former Senate President Kathleen Passidomo also expressing hesitancy about opening medical providers up to lawsuits over the death of a fetus, even at one month of gestation.
“We’re losing OBGYNs. Who’s gonna wanna come to Florida?” Passidomo said during the April 1 Senate Judiciary Committee hearing of SB 1284. Passidomo, who also criticized the proposal last year, is chair of the Rules Committee, which Grall’s proposal must go through before reaching the Senate floor.
Florida Phoenix is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Florida Phoenix maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Michael Moline for questions: info@floridaphoenix.com.
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This article appears in Apr 10-16, 2025.