The following is proposed legislation that Personhood Florida will be submitting to our state representatives, senators and governor. We hope to find sponsors for this bill among the many legislators who have endorsed Personhood. The language of the bill is short and to the point. We begin by addressing the necessity of state nullification of wrongly decided federal court cases, such as Roe v. Wade and any further federal legislation that would seek to codify a so-called “right to abortion.” The rest of the bill is simple and says nothing beyond what can be drawn out of the language of our proposed Personhood Amendment. We will first ask those legislators who endorsed the Personhood Amendment to sponsor this bill. The Florida Personhood Act would supersede all previous inconsistent and contradictory provisions that would then need to be struck from the code of laws. We see sponsorship of this bill as a necessary first step to get legislators on board with Personhood language as part of our Florida statutes.

A bill to be entitled “The Florida Personhood Act” to amend the code of laws of the state of Florida

The God-given right to life of every human being at any stage of development shall be recognized and protected. This provision shall be deemed to supersede any other inconsistent provisions.

WHEREAS the Constitution of the State of Florida guarantees: “All natural persons, female and male alike, are equal before the law and have inalienable rights, among which are the right to enjoy and defend life and liberty, to pursue happiness, to be rewarded for industry, and to acquire, possess and protect property. No person shall be deprived of any right because of race, religion, national origin, or physical disability.”

WHEREAS under the Constitution of the State of Florida, the rights of all natural persons ought to extend to each human being from biological beginnings to natural death.

WHEREAS the framers of the United States Constitution included an important provision to the individual states in Article IV, Section 4 to guarantee that the blessings of life and liberty would indeed be secured and protected: “The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion; and on Application of the Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened) against domestic Violence.”

WHEREAS the Tenth Amendment more clearly defined that those powers not granted to the United States were reserved to the various states or to the people, although adding nothing to the Constitution as originally ratified: “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”

WHEREAS in order to resist unjust laws that originate as powers not enumerated by the United States Constitution, the original intent of our nation’s founders was that the individual states may follow the doctrine of nullification.

WHEREAS the United States Constitutional provision of nullification carries with it the force of state; cannot be legally repealed by Congress without amending the United States Constitution; cannot be lawfully abolished by an executive order; and cannot be overruled by the United States Supreme Court if the people in the state reject said Court’s opinion.

WHEREAS whenever the federal government exceeds its constitutional limits and begins to oppress the citizens of a state, that state’s legislature is duty-bound to interpose its power and prevent the federal government from victimizing its people.

WHEREAS the Florida Legislature desires to accept such responsibility by accepting not all United States federal government legislation, and not all United States Supreme Court precedents, but only those provisions that are consistent with the God-given right to life and liberty of all judicially innocent human persons.

WHEREAS the United State Supreme Court decision, Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973), was wrongly decided and is deemed unconstitutional both under the United States Constitution, as was recently decided in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, 19-1392 597 U.S. (2022), and the Florida Constitution as it deprives an entire class of natural persons, the preborn human being, of their right to life.

WHEREAS the State of Florida is duty-bound to protect the lives of preborn human beings subsequent to overturning Roe v. Wade.

WHEREAS the State of Florida will enact and enforce laws that recognize and defend the preborn as Persons with the right to life.

Therefore,

Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:

Section 1. This act may be cited as “The Florida Personhood Act”

The Florida State Legislature finds as follows regarding the sanctity of life:

(A) The July 4, 1776 Declaration of Independence is one of the Organic Laws of the United States of America found in the United States Code.

(B) All persons are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, the foremost of which is the right to life.

(C) The Preamble to the Constitution of the State of Florida contains the peoples’ acknowledgment of God as the source of constitutional liberty, saying: “We, the people of the State of Florida, being grateful to Almighty God for our constitutional liberty, in order to secure its benefits, perfect our government, insure domestic tranquility, maintain public order, and guarantee equal civil and political rights to all, do ordain and establish this constitution.”

(D) Personhood is God-given rather than an endowment of the State. All human beings, irrespective of age, race, sex, health, function, or condition of dependency, including unborn children at every stage of their biological development regardless of the method of creation, are created in the image of God and therefore have an equal right to life.

(E) The State of Florida has an absolute duty to establish and enforce laws that protect the lives of all judicially innocent persons, which is a primary responsibility of civil government.

(F) A human being is a unique person, a distinct person, and the same person at every stage of biological life, with unique genetic information, at every stage of their biological development regardless of the method of creation, and therefore asserts a compelling state interest in the protection of the rights to life, due process, and equal protection, from the beginning of the biological development of that human being onward.

(G) The right to life for each human being, including unborn children, is “endowed by their Creator,” “Almighty God,” at every stage of their biological development regardless of the method of creation until natural death.

(H) The words “person,” “human,” and “human being,” mean a member of the species homo sapiens, at any stage of biological development.

(I) The rights guaranteed by Article I, Section 2 of the Constitution of the State of Florida, that no person, including unborn children, shall be deprived of life without due process of law nor denied the equal protection of the laws at every stage of their biological development regardless of the method of creation.

(J) This section shall apply to Article I, Section 2 of the Constitution of the State of Florida, as well as to Section(s) ## of the Florida Statutes.

Section 2.

(A) Nothing in this article shall be construed to prohibit a licensed physician from performing a medical procedure or providing medical treatment designed or intended to prevent the death of a pregnant woman. However, the physician shall make reasonable medical efforts under the circumstances to preserve both the life of the mother and the life of the preborn human being or preborn human beings in a manner consistent with accepted medical standards. Under such circumstances, the accidental or unintentional injury or death to the preborn human being is not a violation of this article. The threat of the death of a pregnant woman must not be based on a diagnosis or claim of a mental or emotional condition of the pregnant woman or a diagnosis or claim that the pregnant woman is at risk of taking her own life. The provisions of this section must not be construed to authorize the intentional killing of a preborn human being.

(B) Nothing in this article shall be construed to prohibit contraception. As used in this subsection, “contraception” is defined as the prevention of fertilization.

(C ) Nothing in this article shall be construed to prohibit in vitro fertilization or assisted reproductive technology provided the process does not involve the intentional killing of a preborn human being.

(D) The authority to regulate in vitro fertilization and assisted reproductive technology procedures is reserved by the Legislature.

Section 3. This article is enacted pursuant to the power reserved to this State under the Tenth Amendment of the United States Constitution.

Section 4. This act shall be deemed to supersede any other inconsistent provisions in Florida state law and United States Federal law.

Section 5. This act takes effect upon approval by the Governor.

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Personhood Florida provides the opportunity to change the state constitution with an amendment protecting all life from biological beginnings to natural death by empowering teachable citizens to maintain a biblical and uncompromising voice, by pressing voters and politicians to action in defending life, and by moving Florida toward a culture of life.