Bob Harden
Thanks so much for joining us here on the show or providing you with news and commentary rooted in a commitment to individual liberty, personal responsibility, limited government, and the rule of law. We have with us Scott Beyer. He is the CEO of the Community Pregnancy Clinics. Scott, thank you so much for joining us here on the show.
Scott Baier
Good morning, Bob. Thanks for having me.
Bob Harden
Always a pleasure, Scott. Tell us about the Community Pregnancy Clinics.
Scott Baier
So community Pregnancy Clinics is one of the largest and one of the oldest pregnancy resource centers in the country, starting in 1974. We’ve got clinics that serve men and women and children from Naples all the way up to Gainesville, providing services for pregnancy and ultrasound exams and community referrals and so many other services that that we that we provide every day.
Bob Harden
Terrific organization. I’ve been to meetings, meeting some of the children who have been born with the help of the community pregnancy clinics and the families that support them. It’s just a terrific experience. I hope you’ll now what is the website. Scott.
Scott Baier
So the best way to reach us is supportcpci.com. That’s supportcpci.com or if you are in need of our services, that would be communitypregnancyclinics.com.
Bob Harden
Thank you, Scott. So I wanted to speak with you about Florida’s proposed abortion amendment. Seems I’m going to. Do you want to read it? Would you like me to? No, I.
Scott Baier
I can, I’ve got it right in front of me.
Bob Harden
Okay. Uh, maybe you could. It sounds somewhat innocuous, but maybe you could tell us about it.
Scott Baier
Yeah, well, first of all, I just wanted before I read it to you, I, you know, for the advantage of your listeners, this is one of the most deceptive and ambiguous ballot initiatives. Actually, it’s an amendment. It’s not even a bill, but an amendment to the Florida Constitution that would radically change life here in Florida by reducing the safety precautions for women, and also obviously for babies. But, you know, this is 34 words and reads like this. No law shall prohibit penalized delay or restrict abortion before viability or when necessary, to protect the patient’s health as determined by the patient’s health care provider. This amendment does not change the legislature’s constitutional authority to require notification to a parent or guardian before a minor has an abortion. So that’s 34 words if you compare it with the marijuana bill, amendment three, that’s on the ballot, that’s four pages. So these 34 words have a lot of ambiguity and a lot of deception contained in it.
Bob Harden
Yeah. So again, just to underscore the fact it sounds very innocuous, but there’s so many loopholes in this thing, maybe we could take it through some of your, your major concerns.
Scott Baier
Sure. I’ll start with the first two words. No law. So this is going to repeal all common sense laws enacted by our duly elected, elected state representatives. So that means anything that’s going to prohibit, penalize delay or restrict abortion would not be allowed. So things like the 24-hour waiting period that’s currently in the six-week Heartbeat Protection Act, and all other laws that could restrict, including inspections, requirements for health, for abortion facilities, it doesn’t have to be a doctor to perform the abortion or refer for one. That means it could be any health care provider as it’s listed here. So that’s first. And then the second word that really jumps out as ambiguous is the viability word. You can’t restrict abortion before viability in the amendment. Currently, viability at 24 weeks is generally accepted, but it’s not defined here. So effectively it could allow abortions all the way up until birth. And then it also says
or when necessary to protect the patient’s health. So another very ambiguous term here. In Florida patients health can refer to physical or emotional stress of course, but also financial stressors and familial stressors. So if someone can’t afford an abortion or if they have any family member who doesn’t want them to have the baby, that would also allow it in the state of Florida. And then the last part is just this idea that it doesn’t take away parental notification, but that’s very deceptive, because what it does take away is parental consent. So effectively that means any parent of a minor could just receive an email. It doesn’t define how they would be notified. Could be text message, voice mail, maybe letter before, during or after the abortion that their minor child in the state of Florida just had an abortion.
Bob Harden
Yeah, kind of scary. I mean, who gets to decide on viability? I guess it’s the healthcare provider. And I mean, the health care could provider could be somebody from Planned Parenthood.
Scott Baier
Absolutely. So a health care provider in the state of Florida is anybody who has contact with someone else in a health care setting. So that could be the receptionist at the abortion clinic, could be your podiatrist, it could be a tattoo artist, it could be any number of so-called “health care providers.” And effectively, if it’s inside the abortion clinic, well, that’s anybody who has a vested interest in seeing that abortion performed for obviously, what amounts to financial gain for them.
Bob Harden
This is bad news. I mean, whoever constructed this is 34 words, as you stated, and it’s sounds innocuous when you read it, but when you dig into it, it’s it’s very destructive to preventing, uh, well, to, to voters could be deceived, quite frankly, with the way the word the amendment is worded and, uh, it should be worded a lot more differently, differently than it is right now.
Scott Baier
Exactly. This is what happened in Ohio, which needed 50% of the vote to pass. Here in Florida, we need 60%. But current polls right now are showing very favorable trends for this amendment to pass. Unfortunately, I think the last Fox poll last week showed 69% of Floridians right now are for this amendment. So we really need to get the word out. We need to do everything we can do to get people registered to vote, especially if they’re going to vote against this amendment. Really, just right in the title, you know, the title is going to get people to think it’s a conservative amendment, The Amendment to Limit Government Interference with Abortion.” So they’re even using conservative language to deceive people. And unfortunately, the Supreme Court of the state of Florida, voted four to three in favor of keeping this verbiage. By the way, all four who voted for it were men. And the three women were overruled in that hearing. So the reality is this will deceive people and will allow, just to summarize for people, abortion up to birth by anyone, without parental consent in the state of Florida, which is just really horrible, you know, you think about Florida right now, we’re known as the Sunshine State.
Scott Baier
And people come here for our, you know, great communities and beaches. This will put us on the map even more so as the abortion destination state of the South. And I don’t think we want to be known for that. And there’s the gruesome details of what that looks like to be an abortion destination state. Abortion destination states are not pretty. And I think all Floridians, no matter where you land on the pro-life spectrum, need to realize that this is not going to protect women. This is not a pro-woman amendment. This is a pro-abortion amendment by all indications. And so again, I just encourage all of your listeners to get out there, go to donoharmfl.org, donoharm.org, and get educated. Tell as many
people as you can about this amendment and how it’s going to harm women and babies and really hurt the state of Florida for years to come.
Bob Harden
So well said. And again, that’s the website I’m looking at right now. Donoharmfl.org is the website. Check it out and you can see the information that Scott’s discussing right now and spread the word. Uh, you know, we should not have an amendment like this. The Supreme Court had approved this language?
Scott Baier
That’s correct. It went before the Supreme Court and and I actually listened to the hearings. You could hear the verbiage and, uh, you know, even Chief Justice Nunez said, well, you know, there’s a little ambiguity here, but, you know, Floridians are not that dumb. Well, unfortunately, you know, people here are going to be affected by the 50 to $75 million that are going to be poured into Florida, for this amendment. And I think, unfortunately, people hear the soundbites, they’ll see some TV commercials. And unless they really get educated, many people will be deceived by this amendment.
Bob Harden
Absolutely, donoharmfl.org is the website also, for you, is it cpci.org?
Scott Baier
supportcpci.com
Bob Harden
Scott Baier, CEO of Community Pregnancy Clinics here in Florida. Really appreciate your commentary on the show today. Thanks so much for joining us. Thank you.
Scott Baier
Bob, have a great day. You as well.
