The Florida Senate’s Rules Committee elected to postpone voting on the Conscience Protection bill (CS/HB 7111) after hearing two hours of testimony for and against the bill.
The committee chair, Sen. David Simmons (Altamonte Springs-R), continually asked for all speakers to be brief and to the point as “they had many people there who wanted to speak”.
Simmons began the proceedings stating “we will be the only Senate Committee to hear this bill so I want to make sure everyone gets heard.”
The Conscience Protection bill would allow private adoption agencies and family foster homes to deny placing a child with a family or couple, if they feel placing the child would conflict with the agency’s religious beliefs or moral code.
The debate went back and forth with supporters of the bill arguing that it protects religious freedom and opponents stating that it put the personal beliefs of the agency above the best interest of the children.
“This bill is state sanctioned discrimination,” said Amy Dats, who represented the National Council of Jewish Women, speaking to the Committee. “[This bill] has me troubled. it does not put the needs of the child first.”
Sen. Bill Montford (Quincy-D) was having difficulty understanding why the bill had so few restrictions. “I’m trying to get my arms around how broad this bill is,” he said.
The Committee continued to hear from speakers causing them to run to the end of session leaving the bill postponed and not voted on.
“I will need to take this up with the Senate President,” said Simmons. “We will reconvene to finish at a later time.”
The Committee moved to postpone as they heard the testimony of Nathan Gill, the 10-year-old boy who also spoke at the House Judiciary Committee on this topic. He is the son of Martin Gill, whose lawsuit paved the way for legal adoption by gays in Florida.
With the Conscience Protection bill “temporarily postponed” and less than two weeks left in the 2015 session, it is likely that the law will die in Committee.
“With the clock running out, it is very likely the end of the line for this bad bill,” said Nadine Smith, CEO of LGBT-rights group Equality Florida. “The bottom line is the bill is unconstitutional. It would have allowed state-funded discrimination and in doing so threatened hundreds of millions of federal dollars for foster care and adoption. It was written in way to allow a broad range of discrimination at taxpayer expense.”
