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The rare 20-20 tie vote -- and the behind-the-scenes maneuvering that led to it -- pitted Senate Republican leader Dan Webster, who sponsored the bill, against former Senate President Jim King, a Republican who built a coalition of GOP moderates and Democrats to kill it.
''Unless you ovulate or have ovulated, we have no business as males interfering with your female decision on reproduction,'' King said. ``A woman making a decision that she wants to abort, that decision should be honored.''
Webster, clearly disappointed, wasn't surprised.
''I have lost more bills on the floor of the Senate than the entire Senate [membership] combined,'' said Webster, who is leaving office due to term limits after 28 years in the Legislature.
Key to the bill's defeat were members of a GOP Senate coalition known as the ''Schiavo Nine,'' named for joining Democrats in 2005 to block the Legislature from intervening in the case of Terri Schiavo, a brain-damaged woman whose family fought over ending her life support. Seven Republicans and 13 Democrats voted against the abortion bill, creating the 20-20 tie that meant it failed. One Democrat, Sen. Gary Siplin of Orlando, voted with 19 Republicans in favor of the bill...............
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Republicans outnumber Democrats 26-14 in the upper chamber, but seven GOP senators voted against the bill. One Democrat voted "yes."
The seven Republicans were all among those who also strayed from party leadership on the issue of keeping Terri Schiavo alive artificially in 2005. The St. Petersburg woman, considered in a permanent vegetative state by the courts, eventually died after a drawn-out effort to keep her alive against the wishes of her husband, including failed legislation to force-feed her.
Republican Dennis Jones of Seminole repeated his support for privacy rights in the abortion debate, just as he and his like-minded GOP colleagues did in the Schiavo case.
"My lord, you look at this bill, and where did that right to privacy go?" Jones said. "It takes everything away."
Sen. Jim King, the influential former president of the upper chamber, also objected to government intrusion.
Tie Vote Kills Ultrasound Abortion Bill
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Perish the thought of JIM KING as a woman. He’s one ugly, evil sphere.