Legal And Ethical Issues: Florida's New Abortion Debate

Florida’s New Abortion Bill
Larisa Myers
Nova Southeastern University

Florida’s New Abortion Bill
Since the 1973 Supreme Court ruling “legalizing abortion” in the United States, opponents against the law has been using scare tactics to discourage women from pursuing the procedure(Wysoki, 2007). The latest attack on abortion rights is the state of Florida’s new mandatory ultrasound bill. Nurses are at the forefront of this political and ethical issue. One of the goals of the advanced nurse is to ensure patient’s rights are being protected in relation to abortion (Beal, 2011). The advanced nurse have a legally responsibility to provide optimal medical care to its clients in need of care. In the process of doing so, however, the advanced…show more content…
Mandatory ultrasound is about punishing women who take motherhood seriously but differ from pro-life legislators views on abortions (Sheppard, 2011). According to Sheppard, the statues are about making abortions harder for women by imposing the view that abortion is murder. It could also be argued that this new law may regulate the ethics of the medical community. This can pose a problem for nurses who are ethically bound to protect patient’s rights (American Association for Nurses,…show more content…
Silver Spring, MD: The Publishing Program of ANA.
Beal, M.(2011). Clinical issues in abortion care. The American Journal of Primary Health, 36(5), 35-40.
Ertelt, S.(2011). Governor rick scott signs two pro-life bills on abortion. Retrieved from: http://www.lifenews.com/two-pro-life-bills.
Florida Senate.(2011). Cs/hb 1127:Abortions. Retrieved from: http://www.flsenate.gov sessions/bill/2011.
Florida House of Representative.(2011). Representative elizabeth porter. Retrieved from: www.myfloridahouse.gov.
Planned Parenthood.(2011). Mandatory ultrasound. Retrieved from: http://www. plannedparenthood.org/ppgwcf.
Sheppard, K.(2011). Florida bill will force women to look at their fetus. Retrieved from: http://www.motherjones.com/floridaabortionbill.
Wysocki, S.( 2007). A clinician’s view of abortion. The American Journal of Primary Health Care, 28(11),