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March 21, 2025
This year's Catholic Days outreach to lawmakers centered on four distinct issues that are being considered during the legislative session.
Assisted Suicide (Oppose): SB 1700 (Berman) / HB 471 (Casello)
While Florida law prohibits assisted suicide, the deceptively named “Death with Dignity” movement has targeted Florida as a priority state to change our laws to allow a patient to actively end their own life. Physician-assisted suicide devalues the lives of the elderly, seriously ill, and disabled because it encourages and sanctions these weak and vulnerable individuals to deliberately end their lives. The bills have yet to be heard in any committees of reference, and are likely dead for this session.
Death Penalty Expansion (Oppose)
Several bills have been filed that would expand the pool of persons eligible for execution.
- HB 653 (Holcomb) / SB 776 (Ingoglia) would add a new aggravating factor to the list by which capital offenders may be considered eligible to be sentenced to death. The new factor is that the victim was a head of state (or bystander in an attempt to kill a head of state).
- HB 693 (Redondo) / SB 984 (Gruters) would also add a new aggravating factor: that the victim “was gathered with one or more persons for school activities, religious activities, or public government meetings.”
- HB 1283 (Jacques) / SB 1804 (Martin) would make sex trafficking of children under 12 or persons who are mentally incapacitated a capital felony, which could result in a death sentence.
This is a step in the wrong direction for Florida. The state is an outlier in the US when it comes to the death penalty: with the lowest threshold for a jury recommendation of the death sentence (8-4), second in the size of its death row and the number of executions, first in the number of new death sentences, and most serious of all, first in the number of people exonerated due to evidence of wrongful conviction.
The alternative of life in prison without the possibility of parole protects society from further harm and is a severe punishment.
Required Instruction in Human Embryology (Support): HB 1255 (Trabulsy)
Currently, health education in Florida does not require instruction on human embryologic and fetal development. A provision of the bill would require health education in grades 6-12 to address human embryologic and fetal development. Curriculum must include a high-definition ultrasound video showing the development of the heart and other organs and movement of the limbs and head. It also must include a high-quality video showing and describing the process of fertilization and various stages of human development inside the uterus.
This is valuable information for middle and high schoolers as they grow in their knowledge of health science. It enhances students’ understanding of biology, anatomy, and physiology, laying a foundation for informed decision-making about reproductive health. Most importantly, it helps students more deeply understand that all human life possesses inherent dignity and is worthy of respect from the moment of conception and throughout all stages of development.
Improving Prison Infrastructure and Conditions (Support)
The legislature has recognized that the state’s prison system is underfunded and understaffed, while the number of offenders to be incarcerated is projected to rise over the coming years. Staff turnover remains very high: 58% of officers have been on the job less than 2 years. The physical condition of many facilities is very bad: electrical infrastructure and plumbing, windows, roofing, flooring and more are in urgent need of repair. Around 75% of housing units lack air conditioning.
Not enough funding on the front end leads to large and unexpected costs on the back end. The state has had to deploy the National Guard to staff prisons and to divert funds for excessive overtime pay in order to meet staffing requirements and costly emergency repairs.
The Catholic Church—reflecting on the divinely revealed truth that every human being is made in God’s image and likeness, and impelled by the example of the Son of God who emptied himself and even descended into hell out of love for undeserving sinners—calls for the humane treatment of prisoners, even of those guilty of heinous crimes.