Florida bill would allow ‘wrongful death’ lawsuits for preborn children

Lawmakers in the Florida House passed a bill last week to allow family members to sue for the wrongful death of a preborn child.

HB 1517 allows parents to seek damages if someone causes the death of their preborn child, but it does not allow action against the mother or doctor in cases of legal abortion. The bill allows a jury to award monetary damages equal to the wages that a preborn child may have earned. It passed the House with a vote of 79-32, while its Senate companion, SB 1284, passed the Senate Appropriations Committee on Criminal and Civil Justice.

Though Florida already allows a murder charge against the fetus in instances in which a mother and her preborn child are killed — something that is not guaranteed in all states — this new legislation would further allow parents to seek damages if the actions of another cause a preborn child’s death.

Senate sponsor Sen. Erin Grall emphasized that the bill is “not about abortion.”

“To me, this is about parity in our civil justice system,” Grall said.

“This is a life issue. I think it’s pretty apparent,” added Sen. Blaise Ingoglia. “We have plenty of places in Florida statute where we value the unborn child and what this does is just makes it consistent.”

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Many Democratic lawmakers opposed the bill, with concern that it would impact IVF and abortion while conferring fetal personhood on preborn children. Abortion advocates don’t like to recognize preborn children as “persons,”  because doing so gives legal recognition to those children who are brutally killed by abortion.

“There is a serious concern that there are other motivations here behind this bill, specifically with respect to abortion, with respect to potentially IVF in the future,” said Democratic Sen. Tina Polsky. “This is setting a new base for future issues, for future liability, for future bans. And it’s incredibly concerning.”

Despite the desire to refrain from recognizing the fetus as a person, the preborn child is a unique human from the very moment of conception. The humanity and personhood of the preborn child are not dependent on a legal definition.

Those against abortion are advocating that the bill be further strengthened by removing the abortion exemption.

“That protective carve-out for the abortion industry must be removed from the bill,” said Andrew Shirvell of Florida Voice for the Unborn. “It is completely unnecessary and will make it harder for parents to recover damages from bad actors posing as health care providers.”