RSS Feed of the blog

Contributors:

Reporter William March has covered state and national politics since 1994. Email

Reporter Christian M. Wade has covered the City of Tampa since 2008. Email

Reporter Mike Salinero has covered Hillsborough County government for The Tampa Tribune since 2007. Email

Reporter Lindsay Peterson has been a general assignment reporter at the Tampa Tribune since 2005, focusing on higher education since 2009. Email

Tribune Politics Coverage

Florida Political Blogs:

• State Of Sunshine
• Pushing Rope
• Interstate4Jamming
• News Service of Florida
• FLA Politics
• Sayfie Review/

More Resources:

• TBO.com Home Page
• TBO.com Politics
• TBO.com News Updates
• Live Traffic Updates
• TBO.com Communities

Most Recent Entries

• 1 Killed This Week in Afghanistan
• Nelson: Obama birth control compromise “seems to solve the problem”
• Sharpe suspending campaign
• Sharpe to make announcement, may be out of House race
• Largo Military Museum Gets New Name, Mission
• Planned Parenthood: Polls show Catholics, voters favor contraception coverage
• Weatherford denies any attempt to undermine West
• Michelle Obama to tour Florida for healthy eating
• Pentagon Co-Spokesman Changed Trim After Boss’ Haircuts
• Brig. Gen. Becomes Highest-Ranking Death in Afghanistan
• Special Operations Command To Go Para-Commando Over University of Tampa
• Air Force To Cut Nearly 300 Planes, But None From MacDill
• POTUS Veterans Job Act: Billions To Hire Vets As Law Enforcement, First Reponders, Park Workers
• Will Israel Really Strike Iran? SECDEF Won’t Comment On Ignatius Assertion
• College Scholarship Available To a Lucky Family At MacDIll

More

• Breaking News
• Command Post Tampa
• Fact Finders - Databay Blog
• Guestbook: Remembering The Fallen Soldiers
• Fresh Squeezed Politics
• Political Safari

Monthly Archives

• Breaking News
• Command Post Tampa
• Fact Finders - Databay Blog
• Guestbook: Remembering The Fallen Soldiers
• Fresh Squeezed Politics
• Political Safari

Senate Kills Abortion Bill With Tie Vote

Posted Apr 30, 2008 by Jerome R. Stockfisch, Tribune Tallahassee Bureau

Updated Apr 30, 2008 at 02:55 PM

Tribune photo by COLIN HACKLEY
Sen. Daniel Webster, R-Winter Garden, left,
looks at a vote board as his bill is defeated.

The Florida Senate has rejected an effort to require women to have an ultrasound and view the image of the fetus before having an abortion.

The vote was 20-20 after an hour of emotional debate, meaning that unless a senator asks for the issue to be reconsidered, it is dead for this year’s legislative session. The measure had already passed out of the House.

The controversial abortion bill was a signature issue of Sen. Daniel Webster, R-Winter Garden, a conservative stalwart who is ending a 28-year legislative career. Republicans outnumber Democrats 26-14 in the upper chamber, but seven GOP senators voted against the bill. One Democrat voted “yes.”

“We have before us an opportunity to speak out for the women of this state who have been granted constitutionally the right to have an abortion,” said Sen. Jim King, R-Jacksonville. “Make no bones about it, what we’re asking women to do is an impediment to that right. Because we’re hopeful that by making them take the sonogram, by making them sign a sheet, by making them hear or see, that they are somehow going to be somewhat less inclined to have the abortion. Personally, I don’t think that’s our right.”