Since passing its anti-abortion law—a law so reprehensible that cities like Los Angeles have subsequently banned travel to the state—Alabama has become the bane of the entire universe.
Not to be outdone, the Pensacola News Journal reports that a Florida lawmaker is so impressed by Alabama’s commitment to punishing women for owning ovaries that he’s expressed his desire to follow suit.
And he’s somehow giving God the glory in the process.
“As plain as day, God spoke to me,” Rep. Mike Hill said Thursday, while discussing his plans to ban virtually all abortions in the state of Florida. “He said, ‘That wasn’t my bill,’ talking about the heartbeat detection bill that I filed. He said, ‘That wasn’t my bill.’ I knew immediately what he was talking about. He said, ‘You remove those exceptions and you file it again.’ And I said, ‘yes Lord. I will. It’s coming back. It’s coming back.’ We are going to file that bill without any exceptions just like what we saw passed in Alabama.”
In January, Hill sponsored a bill that would have banned abortions in Florida if a fetal heartbeat was detected. But worried that it wouldn’t pass, he included exceptions to increase his odds. Yet despite receiving 20 co-sponsors, the bill was still a resounding flop and never got a hearing in any committee.
Perhaps emboldened by the wave of similar legislation in Alabama, Georgia and Missouri, the Republican lawmaker will take another crack at telling women what to do with their bodies when Florida’s next legislative session begins in January 2020.
And no, he doesn’t believe he’ll need the approval or sponsorship of women this time around, either.
“They said, ‘Well it seems to be accepted more, particularly during debate when a woman is presenting it,’” Hill said. “I said, wait a minute, a hundred percent of all pregnancies are caused by a man, so why can’t a man be involved in this? And that child that is there, 50% chance it’s going to be a man. Why can’t a man present this? That doesn’t hold any water with me at all.”
Hopefully he catches the same L the Houston Rockets did when they ran it back against the Golden State Warriors this year in the NBA playoffs.