JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Proposed laws that will create a reimbursement choice for metropolis staff who journey for “medical therapies associated to reproductive rights” will likely be launched on the Jacksonville Metropolis Council assembly on Tuesday.
Metropolis Councilman Reggie Gaffney’s invoice is being filed as an emergency invoice, which might imply it will want just one cycle earlier than it will go into impact, nevertheless it’s not anticipated to go.
At a news conference Monday on the steps of City Hall, Gaffney, who can also be working for a state Senate seat, talked concerning the invoice. He mentioned he doesn’t imagine in abortion, however that’s not stopping him from introducing the invoice.
“I really like Jesus like all one individual, however I simply imagine {that a} lady has the best to decide on what she needs to do together with her physique, and I don’t assume it’s a person’s job to try this,” mentioned Gaffney.
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READ: Gaffney’s bill on travel reimbursement for reproductive rights
News4JAX first reported about this bill on Friday, and at the moment, despite the fact that he launched the laws, Gaffney didn’t need to discuss it on digicam.
On Friday afternoon, Gaffney launched a press release saying, “As a person of religion, utilizing this is able to not be my private desire. Nonetheless, as a legislator I characterize all individuals and I’ll battle for his or her freedom and their proper to have choices, and each lady deserves this selection.”
Gaffney’s invoice comes on the heels of a leaked initial majority opinion from the Supreme Courtroom on Roe v. Wade that has abortion rights advocates scrambling.
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If the draft from the Supreme Courtroom holds, it basically sends the problem of abortion rights again to the states — prefer it was earlier than 1973, when the Roe determination established federally {that a} lady had the best to have an abortion.
If states are within the driver’s seat for abortion legal guidelines, Florida and Georgia each have Republican-dominated legislatures which have been efforting tight abortion restrictions. Florida just passed a 15-week abortion ban, and Georgia’s fetal heartbeat regulation has been basically halted by a federal courtroom.
Which means an area lady who wished to have an abortion might need to journey out of state, past neighboring Georgia, to legally have one.
Gaffney’s invoice seems to be getting ready for that chance by establishing that Jacksonville metropolis staff who go for such therapy might be reimbursed for his or her journey bills.
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If handed, the invoice would go into impact July 1 and permit as much as $4,000 in journey bills yearly for a metropolis worker for any medical therapies associated to reproductive rights if that therapy isn’t out there inside 100 miles of the worker’s dwelling and digital care isn’t potential.
In response to the invoice, these therapies may embrace remedy, procedures or operations — together with terminating a being pregnant, utilizing contraceptives, household planning or getting access to reproductive well being companies.
Republican members of the Metropolis Council, like Metropolis Councilman Rory Diamond, say the invoice won’t ever go.
As for the mayor’s workplace, that is one piece of laws that it’s not commenting on at the moment.
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