City council member wants to reimburse city employees who travel for ‘medical treatment related to reproductive rights’

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Metropolis Councilman Reggie Gaffney has proposed laws that would develop a reimbursement possibility for town workers who journey for “medical remedies relevant to reproductive legal rights.”

Gaffney’s monthly bill will come on the heels of a leaked preliminary vast majority viewpoint from the Supreme Courtroom on Roe v. Wade that has abortion rights advocates scrambling.

Read: Gaffney’s monthly bill on travel reimbursement for reproductive rights

If the draft from the Supreme Court docket holds, it primarily sends the difficulty of abortion rights again to the states — like it was before 1973, when the Roe final decision founded federally that a female had the ideal to have an abortion.

If states are in the driver’s seat for abortion legal guidelines, Florida and Georgia both equally have Republican-dominated legislatures that have been efforting restricted abortion limitations. Florida just handed a 15-7 days abortion ban, and Georgia’s fetal heartbeat law has been primarily halted by a federal courtroom.

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That means a nearby woman who required to have an abortion may well have to vacation out of state, past neighboring Ga, to lawfully have one particular.

Gaffney’s invoice seems to be preparing for that probability by developing that Jacksonville town workforce who choose for this sort of treatment could be reimbursed for their journey charges.

If handed, the bill would go into result July 1 and allow for up to $4,000 in travel expenditures annually for a city staff for any medical therapies connected to reproductive legal rights if that treatment is not out there inside of 100 miles of the employee’s dwelling and digital care is not feasible.

Those solutions could involve medication, treatments or operations, which includes terminating a pregnancy, making use of contraceptives, spouse and children preparing or attaining obtain to reproductive well being providers, in accordance to the bill.

The bill will be launched at the upcoming Metropolis Council assembly on Tuesday and is staying submitted as an crisis bill, which would suggest it would have to have only one cycle just before it would go into effect. It is slated for a general public listening to on June 14.

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Friday afternoon, Councilman Reggie Gaffney launched a assertion expressing, “As a man of faith, working with this would not be my personal choice. On the other hand, as a legislator I symbolize all folks and I will struggle for their freedom and their proper to have options, and every single female deserves this solution.”

Gaffney included his workplace will be stating additional about this subsequent 7 days.