Dear AAPS Members and Friends in Florida:
Employers, licensing and certification boards, hospitals, insurers, and other entities who seek to exert control over the practice of medicine must not retaliate against physicians because of their religious beliefs or expression of medical opinions. These entities should not be able to force medical professionals into participating in procedures that violate their rights of conscience or silence them from speaking out.
Both Florida Senate Bill 1580 and House Bill 1403 have been introduced with goals of protecting medical professionals’ right to exercise a conscience-based objection as well as ability to speak freely about important issues that affect their patients.
Unfortunately SB 1580, which appears positioned to be voted on first, has weaker language than HB 1403. Specifically, the Senate version does not contain a “private cause of action” and also includes wording that would significantly reduce the free speech protections compared to HB 1403. In other words, SB 1580 would essentially leave doctors with little ability to adequately defend their rights.
Please contact Senate and House leaders as well as Gov. DeSantis to tell them that HB 1403 needs to be adopted instead of SB 1580.
You can get your messages on the way with just a few clicks using the following link: https://p2a.co/07BDaui
After you send your messages, if you have an extra minute or two, please call Gov. DeSantis and Sen. President Passidomo to let them know that HB 1403 is a significantly better bill than SB 1580. Here are their phone numbers:
FL Governor Ron DeSantis 850-717-9337
FL Senate President Kathleen Passidomo 850-487-5028
Thank you for speaking out! Your voice makes a difference. ~AAPS
