A Florida State Senator has proposed a bill which would require health care workers and abortion clinics to take DNA samples from pregnant girls under 16 and submit them to law enforcement within 24 hours. The samples would then be forwarded to the state Department of Law Enforcement, and then kept on file should they ever be needed in a sexual crime case.
The bill does not yet have any sponsors, and woe betide any fool who signs on. I appreciate the inclination to protect the young-uns from predators, but the right to privacy is what's at stake in cases such as these. We cannot force people to offer up DNA samples in the name of safety, no matter how compelling the argument. Not surprisingly, the bill has not yet been referred to a committee. And let's hope for the sake of this misdirected bill proponent that it never does.
