Politics & Government
DeSantis Bill Relevant To Health Care Called "Reminiscent Of Jim Crow"
"The very intent of this bill is to discriminate against folks," Democrat Rayner-Goolsby said.
A bill that would allow health care providers or payors to opt out of participating in or paying for any health care service on the basis of conscience passed in the Florida House Tuesday and will soon go to Gov. Ron DeSantis for consideration.
The measure (HB 1403) is sponsored by Panhandle-area Republican Joel Rudman, a physician who campaigned for office last year on a message of “freedom.”
The bill says that a health care provider or payor may not be discriminated against or suffer any adverse action for refusal to perform a specific medical procedure. (No specific procedures are listed in the legislation). It says that they may not be civilly liable for declining to participate in a health care service.
Democrats strongly opposed the measure.
Orange County Democrat Anna Eskamani cited a number of medical scenarios that she said could play out.
“A nurse could refuse to provide a doctor’s prescription for fertility drugs to a single woman or someone who identifies as a lesbian,” she said. “Nursing homes could refuse to provide elderly, transgender residents for their ongoing hormone treatment.”
Tampa Bay area Democrat Michele Rayner-Goolsby called the measure overly vague and reminiscent of Jim Crow laws.
“The sponsor of the bill purports that this bill doesn’t discriminate,” she said. “But listen, y’all. I am old enough, I am Black enough, and I am queer enough, and I’m woman enough to know that the impact of this bill — and I would argue the very intent of this bill is to discriminate against folks.”
Hillsborough County Republican Karen Gonzalez-Pittman said the bill does not discriminate against anybody.
“If a physician does not want to prescribe a certain medical procedure or prescribe a certain medication, it would be across the board with all of his patients,” she said. “So, it would not be a certain segment of their patient population. It will not be applied to a certain race or gender.”
Miami-Dade Republican Alex Rizo said the bill is about following one’s conscience, something that the U.S. military respects for people who claim objections to military service on the basis of religious, moral, or ethical beliefs.
“And yet what all of the debate that goes on, that has gone on, about this particular bill, I hear no reference to that,” he said.
