Florida Senate committee advances bill allowing parents to file wrongful death lawsuits for preborn children

Lawmakers in a Florida Senate committee advanced a bill last week that would allow lawsuits for the wrongful death of preborn children in certain circumstances.

Key Takeaways:

• Members of a Florida Senate committee advanced a measure allowing parents to initiate wrongful death lawsuits for their preborn children.

• The bill contains exceptions for children killed through legal abortion and those created via IVF.

• The bill, which already passed the House, needs to clear one more Senate committee before going to the full Senate for a vote.

The Details:

SB 164, the Civil Liability for the Wrongful Death of an Unborn Child Act, cleared the Senate's Appropriations Committee on Criminal and Civil Justice with a 5-3 vote. The bill expands the state's Wrongful Death Act to cover the death of a preborn child.

Under the legislation, parents would be allowed to file a lawsuit if their preborn child dies as a result of another person's negligence (for instance, due to a car accident or medical malpractice).

The bill stipulates that such a lawsuit may not be filed against the child's mother in cases of legal abortion, or against a medical provider offering "assisted reproductive technologies," meaning the law would not protect embryos created via IVF procedures.

“It’s about treating life equally in the way that we look at life after a child is born and before a child is born — in terms of how we value it from economic damages … when someone else is at fault for the loss of that life,” said the bill's sponsor, Sen. Erin Grall.

The bill's House sponsor, Rep. Sam Greco, previously explained that the bill is about providing recourse to parents who may lose their preborn children under tragic circumstances.

"There is perhaps no worse occasion in life than when parents lose their children," Greco said. "This about those parents, think about those mothers, think about those horrible moments that right now, we have a gap in our system that we do not have an opportunity for justice to be made whole. That is who this bill is for."

Earlier in January, members of the House passed their version of the bill, HB 289, in a 76-34 partisan vote. The Senate version of the bill still has to pass the Senate Rules Committee before it heads to the full Senate floor.

The Bottom Line:

The legislation brings needed relief to parents who may experience the untimely and avoidable loss of a preborn child, but it's important to note that all preborn lives are worthy of protection. In providing carveouts for abortion and IVF, the bill still leaves some of the most vulnerable lives unprotected.