A committee of the Florida Senate is approving a bill to spend millions of tax dollars on anti-abortion clinics.
They're called Crisis Pregnancy Centers and the sponsor, Fernandina Beach Republican Aaron Bean, admits their actual purpose is to convince women not to end a pregnancy.
Critics claim the clinics use religion, guilt and misinformation to browbeat women who want an abortion and the legislature has been funding them for more than a decade.
Florida has had a “pregnancy support services” program since 2005. Housed in the Florida Department of Health, the program exists because the Legislature annually provides money for it.
Lawmakers earmarked $4 million in general-revenue funds for the initiative in the fiscal year that started July 1.
Bean's bill, which was approved in a 5-3 vote Tuesday by the Senate Health Policy Committee, would make the program official and require that at least 90 percent of the state funds that support it be spent on pregnancy support and wellness services rather than the currently required 85 percent.
The bill would require the state to contract with the Florida Pregnancy Care Network, a nonprofit organization that provides financial and other support to pregnant women and their families through an alliance of pregnancy support organizations.
The bill is filed for the 2018 legislative session, which starts in January.