Councilman discusses proposal to reimburse city employees who travel for ‘medical treatment related to reproductive rights’

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Jacksonville Metropolis Councilman Reggie Gaffney held a news meeting Monday on proposed legislation that would develop a reimbursement choice for metropolis workers who journey for “medical remedies similar to reproductive legal rights.”

At the news meeting on the methods of Metropolis Corridor, Gaffney, who is also functioning for a state Senate seat, stated he does not think in abortion, but that is not stopping him from introducing the monthly bill.

“I really like Jesus like any one particular person, but I just feel that a lady has the proper to choose what she wants to do with her body, and I never imagine it’s a man’s career to do that,” stated Gaffney.

Information4JAX 1st documented about this bill on Friday, and at that time, even while he introduced the laws, Gaffney did not want to talk about it on camera. On Monday, he did but didn’t want to take questions, but I pressed him on some of the challenges.

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Study: Gaffney’s invoice on vacation reimbursement for reproductive rights

Standing guiding Gaffney at Monday’s information convention were being individuals in help, like Christina Kittle of Florida Growing.

“It is a way to fight again from the streets to the legislative bodies,” Kittle explained. “We have hundreds of folks in the streets for this, so the desire is there, and then we have an elected formal who is intended to signify us, be a representative and try out to converse out and do the best that he could with a invoice that I consider we all know will not get the votes that it needs.”

Observing from afar was Margie Watkins who’s experienced abortions in the previous and is now towards them.

“He would like to move this bill, so if it is the woman’s suitable, why is he standing with passing the invoice for them for our tax income?” Watkins explained. “No, I’m not agreeing that our tax income goes to the workers. If he needs to pay for the abortion out of his pocket, good for him.”

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That is one particular of the thoughts that I questioned Gaffney. He said that is what his nonprofit will do, reimburse females, and that he urges other organizations in Jacksonville to do the similar.

Gaffney’s invoice will come on the heels of a leaked preliminary the greater part belief from the Supreme Court docket on Roe v. Wade that has abortion rights advocates scrambling.

If the draft from the Supreme Courtroom holds, it in essence sends the difficulty of abortion legal rights back again to the states — like it was before 1973, when the Roe conclusion proven federally that a girl had the proper to have an abortion.

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

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That implies a neighborhood girl who needed to have an abortion could possibly have to journey out of point out, beyond neighboring Georgia, to legally have one particular.

Gaffney’s monthly bill appears to be making ready for that possibility by developing that Jacksonville town workers who choose for these kinds of cure could be reimbursed for their travel charges.

If handed, the invoice would go into impact July 1 and make it possible for up to $4,000 in vacation expenditures per year for a metropolis employee for any medical remedies similar to reproductive legal rights if that therapy is not offered in just 100 miles of the employee’s dwelling and virtual treatment is not feasible.

According to the bill, these solutions could involve medicine, treatments or functions — like terminating a being pregnant, utilizing contraceptives, relatives setting up or attaining obtain to reproductive overall health companies.

The monthly bill will be released at the Jacksonville City Council assembly on Tuesday and is becoming submitted as an emergency bill, which would necessarily mean it would need only one cycle prior to it would go into effect, but it’s not anticipated to go.

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On Friday afternoon, Gaffney launched a statement stating, “As a gentleman of religion, using this would not be my own preference. Even so, as a legislator I characterize all folks and I will combat for their freedom and their suitable to have solutions, and each and every female deserves this selection.”

Republican members of the City Council, like Metropolis Councilman Rory Diamond, say the monthly bill will hardly ever go. Because Friday, I have been reaching out to Republican City Councilwoman LeAnna Cumber, who is also managing for mayor, to get her viewpoint, but I have not heard back. As for the mayor’s business office, this is one piece of laws that it is not commenting on at this time.