Florida Governor Rick Scott recently signed a bill making abortions more difficult to receive in the state of Florida. According to the Miami Herald, the bill involves restrictions on abortion clinics as well as increasing the use of medical marijuana for patients, however, I'll be focusing more on the abortion aspect of the article.

This bill will require women wishing to get an abortion to have permission from a local hospital before. This is all in addition to the 24-hour rule that requires women to wait 24 hours to get an abortion after first visiting the clinic. Annual inspections will also be required by the clinics in order to ensure women's safety, an aspect that according to the article would likely cause clinics to shut down at a fast pace.

In addition to these new requirements for clinics, there is also the fact that any clinics that perform abortions will no longer have state funding to run cancer screenings, STI screenings or give treatment for STIs. Considering that these aspects make up about 51 percent of Planned Parenthood's revenue, this is going to have a disastrous effect on the clinics' income. If 51 percent of their revenue is lost, then the clinics will likely be unable to continue functioning, especially since only 3 percent of their income comes from performing abortions.

A similar law was passed in Texas and caused the shutdown of at least 20 abortion clinics in the state. Cuts and requirements such as these are likely to have a negative impact on abortion clinics throughout Florida. Republican Senator Kelli Stargel stated, "What we did with these clinics is just treat them similar to other surgery centers."

While the senator claims to be giving the abortion clinics fair treatment, the halt of cancer and STI screenings seems like a personal jab to further difficult funding for these clinics.

The comments on the article were mixed, but the majority seemed to be in disapproval of Scott's decision to pass these abortion laws. Whether or not the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida will sue the government over these changes is undetermined. They are still in the process of suing over the 24-hour law.