(C) Florida Phoenix This story was originally published by Florida Phoenix and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Lawmakers vote to spend $466,200 on pregnancy and parenting resources website; Dems ask why • Florida Phoenix [1] ['Jackie Llanos', 'More From Author', '- March'] Date: 2024-03-05 The Florida Department of Health would receive $466,200 for the development of a website to share public and private resources for pregnant people and parents. The bill is now headed to Gov. Ron DeSantis’ desk, but Democrats questioned the need for it and its price tag. Senators voted along party lines in favor of HB 415, which instructs the Florida health department to hire a vendor to create a website that would include resources such as educational materials on pregnancy and parenting, maternal health services, prenatal and postnatal services and adoption services. One topic that could be missing from the website is abortion. “Because the state of Florida does not fund abortion, I don’t know that that would be included there. I think that pregnancy and parenting together suggest that the child will come into this world,” said the sponsor of the bill, Republican Sen. Erin Grall. She represents Glades, Highlands, Indian River and Okeechobee counties and part of St. Lucie County. Democratic senators criticized that the website may not include information about abortion access, even though the procedure is still legal until 15 weeks of pregnancy. On the other hand, Grall stated that information related to crisis pregnancy centers would be available on the website. “We’re spending state dollars to develop this website. Information regarding reproductive freedom, I’m not assured that that is going to be there. What is going to be there very clearly are the pregnancy crisis centers that we’re spending state funds on. So for that reason, because I have no faith in the department of health, I will be voting no today,” said Orange County Democratic Sen. Geraldine Thompson. ‘A waste of money’ Palm Beach and Broward counties Democrat Sen. Tina Polksy said the agencies’ IT departments could handle building the website. “Just from a fiscal perspective, this is such a waste of money because we can do this ourselves, and if it’s the collaboration of the different departments that’s at issue and ask them to work together,” she said. Grall insisted Floridians need the website because there isn’t one displaying all the pregnancy and parenting resources the state offers. “I always find it fascinating that everything that we talk about turns into abortion — when we’re here to talk about pregnancy and parenting and all of the services that we provide in the state around that — and the not true and legitimate information that was just said over and over and over again,” she said. “I just think the most liberal woman who’s pregnant next to the most conservative woman who’s pregnant, the facts are still the same about the development of that child. There’s information that we can share, and we should share it when we spend billions of dollars in services to wrap around women and families when they are expecting a child.” [END] --- [1] Url: https://floridaphoenix.com/2024/03/05/lawmakers-vote-to-spend-466200-on-pregnancy-and-parenting-resources-website-dems-ask-why/ Published and (C) by Florida Phoenix Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/floridaphoenix/