Florida Opens Session on Abortion : Security Tight, Thousands Rally Outside Capitol

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. —  Thousands of sign-waving, chanting demonstrators ringed Florida’s Capitol today as the Legislature convened the nation’s first special session on abortion since a landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling in July.

Lawmakers gaveled the session to order shortly after 1 p.m. to take up anti-abortion legislation pushed by Republican Gov. Bob Martinez in the wake of a high court ruling giving states greater power to restrict abortions.

Just before lawmakers began the session, thousands of pro-choice activists marched through a light fog to the Capitol--similar to a Monday night march by about 8,000 anti-abortion activists.

Anti-abortion demonstrators lined the route. No trouble was reported, although there was jeering and yelling from both sides.

Also today, about 100 anti-abortion protesters gathered at a local cemetery to pray at a grave site where the remains of 782 aborted fetuses were buried last year.

Senate President Bob Crawford and House Speaker Tom Gustafson, both Democrats, said Martinez’s proposals would get a full hearing in committees. But they said the legislation is unlikely to pass.

“I don’t believe a session called to restrict abortion is a wise expenditure of time,” Gustafson said.

He said the session would cost $40,000 a day and that he hopes to adjourn it Wednesday or Thursday, even though Martinez called for the session to run through Friday.

Florida’s anti-abortion movement suffered a setback last week when the state Supreme Court struck down a 1988 law that required girls under 18 to obtain the consent of a parent or a judge before getting an abortion. The court ruled the law violated a privacy clause in the state Constitution.

“I haven’t seen a bill yet that doesn’t violate (the Florida Constitution’s right to) privacy,” said Gustafson.

Uniformed officers maintained tight security at the Capitol, patrolling corridors and guarding the doors to the Senate and House chambers.

“You are being heard on this issue,” Martinez told a cheering crowd of 7,000 anti-abortion activists in a rally outside the Capitol on Monday night.

“More than 1,000 babies could be saved by pending legislation, whose voices we won’t hear, whose cries will not be acknowledged,” Martinez said as the crowd chanted, “Pro-life! Pro-life!”

Martinez called the session in July in response to the Supreme Court ruling in the Missouri case Webster vs. Reproductive Health Services. The ruling prompted efforts in several states to impose limits on abortions.

Among the governor’s proposals are a ban on the use of public money and facilities for abortions and expanded regulation of abortion clinics. Measures intended to make women think twice about having an abortion would require doctors to tell patients about the development of their fetuses and require women more than 20 weeks pregnant to be tested to see if the fetus could survive outside the womb before an abortion is performed.