MANATEE COUNTY- Manatee County could be the first Florida county with its own local abortion laws that could invoke the heartbeat rule.
Manatee county commissioners are exploring local abortion regulations—a first in the in the state. During Tuesday’s regular meeting…members voted to allow fellow commissioner James Satcher to use county resources, including the county attorney, to further develop pro life initiatives.
“The first initiative is to set up a program for expecting mothers that may find themselves in crisis pregnancy situations. We want to be able to help them, support them,” say Satcher.
The second initiative is to make manatee county a “sanctuary for the unborn.”
“We protect sea turtles, we are set to pass an ordinance to protect puppies, and it’s time for us to step up as a community and say we want to protect our babies… our unborn children as well,” the commissioner says.
The proposed initiative is modeled after the heartbeat bill, a bill that was recently signed to become law in the state of Texas come September 1st. The heartbeat law prohibits abortions in Texas as early as six weeks into pregnancy.
“Of course the Florida laws are going to be different and our community is going to be different. But the overall goal is the same: to set something up where we can work together with representative Gregory and senator Jim Boyd and rep. Will Robinson and the governor here in FFlorida as well as our local county commission and say you know this our county and we were elected by the people… an overwhelming majority of the people and we want to make this a priority in our community.”
Abortion in Florida is currently legal but the state bans it at 24 weeks from fertilization except in extreme health circumstances.
“I think the people are going to be behind something like this.. If we are going to protect all these other things, then we should step up and protect babies,” says Satcher.
With the vote, commissioner Satcher hopes to exploit the resources needed to propose an ordinance in the future.
“The overall goal is for manatee county to be the safest place for children in Florida and the United States.”
At this point in time, the commission says these are overhead views but are to be discussed further in the future.
