Senate Judiciary Panel OKs Fetal Wrongful Death Bill

By Christine Sexton, Florida Phoenix

November 5, 2025

By a razor-thin margin a Senate panel Tuesday passed a bill that would allow lawsuits for the wrongful death of fetuses at any stage of development in the womb, even if the fetus wouldn’t have been able to survive outside of the womb.

The Senate Committee on Judiciary voted 5-4 to advance the bill, SB 164, by Sen. Erin Grall, a Republican from Fort Pierce.

Sen. Kathleen Passidomo, a Republican from Naples, and Sen. Tom Leek, a Republican from St. Augustine, voted against the bill, along with Sen. Lori Berman, a Democrat from Boynton Beach, and Sen. Tina Polsky, a Democrat from West Palm Beach.

Democratic Sen. Rosalind Osgood, who also serves on the Senate Committee on Judiciary, wasn’t in attendance, nor was Sen. Nick DiCeglie, a Republican from St. Petersburg. Senate documents show both senators had excused absences.

In a prepared statement, Michelle Grimsley Shindano, Planned Parenthood Florida Action’s director of policy and government affairs, blasted the vote.

“SB 164 could be the beginning of a slippery slope where the state treats embryos and fetuses as ‘persons’ under the law. If embryos and fetuses were granted the same rights as a pregnant patient, that would take away the patient’s right to make health care decisions that are best for their body and specific situation, including in emergencies. That means lawyers, not doctors, will be consulted if that patient needs health care, including in an emergency,” she said.

Under current law, damages for the death of an unborn child are not recoverable under the state’s wrongful death act, which allows for recovery of medical or funeral bills and the past and future pain and suffering. However, per a 1997 Florida Supreme Court ruling, damages may be recoverable for “negligent stillbirth” in a common law case. Those damages are limited to mental pain and anguish and medical expenses incurred incident to the pregnancy.

Common law refers a body of law developed through judicial decisions and precedents, not by statutes.

Specifically, the bill defines “unborn child” as a “member of the species Homo sapiens, at any stage of development, who is carried in the womb.”

That definition alarmed abortion-rights advocates and Democratic lawmakers on the panel who said the proposal was a back door to further reduce access to reproductive health care.

Proponents of the legislation also had concerns with the definition of unborn child saying it would exempt from potential lawsuits in vitro fertilization providers. IVF is a fertility treatment where an egg is fertilized by sperm in a lab, then the resulting embryo is transferred to a woman’s uterus.

Grall said the bill updates Florida’s statute to reflect a post Roe v. Wade environment and fetus viability. Grall, who has unsuccessfully pushed the legislation in the past, also sponsored the state’s six-week abortion ban.

“Roe has been thrown out as the basis for determining when a life deserves the protection of the state. And in the state of Florida, we have decided that that is at six weeks, that is very young. We have also decided that in our criminal statute it is when it is in the womb, when in the mother, that is when it deserves protection.”

The legislation comes as wrongful death cases for fetuses have been brought in Texas and Arizona. In Texas, a man sued three friends of his now ex-wife for $1 million each for helping his then-wife access abortion pills.

In Arizona, a man accompanied his former wife to her abortion appointment, then, two years later following their divorce, filed a wrongful death suit against the clinic.

The Senate legislation comes as the House champions an effort to expand the state’s wrongful death laws to allow parents of adult children and children of single adult parents to pursue wrongful death cases against hospitals and physicians. Florida law bans those groups of people from filing wrongful death suits. Gov. Ron DeSantis vetoed legislation earlier this year that would have changed the law.

Despite the veto, the House is moving the legislation again this year.

SB 164 heads to the Senate Appropriations Committee on Criminal and Civil Justice and Senate Rules committees next.

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