Editor, The Beacon:
On the first of the 2021 Florida legislative committee weeks, state Rep. Webster Barnaby filed House Bill 167, the Florida equivalent of the recently greenlighted Texas Senate Bill 8.
This is not good news for more than one reason.
First of all, if this bill were to pass, women would be legally barred from seeking an abortion for any reason six weeks from conception. If they were to seek one, any private citizen could sue them in retaliation.
Put another way, if someone were to rape a person capable of getting pregnant, and the victim decided to have an abortion, the rapist could sue her, further victimizing her with this negative presence in her life.
Another reason passing this bill in Florida would be catastrophic is economic fallout. Just as Lyft recently renounced SB 8 in Texas, a major company such as Hilton in this area could renounce HB 167 if they found it repulsive.
Hilton could go as far as to vacate Florida and inconvenience those workers as well as the business that supports them almost as badly as the victim by the rapist in my earlier example.
There is something readers can do to prevent the catastrophic consequences. I respectfully implore that those who see this contact Rep. Barnaby, as well as Reps. Paul Renner, Tom Leek and Elizabeth Anne Fetterhoff, and Sens. Travis Hutson, Jason Brodeur and Tom Wright, and call on them to renounce this bill.
Tony Cooper
Tallahassee
