Politicians predictably vote for motherhood and apple pie issues. But every so often, legislators in Florida should think twice about it.
In this year’s session, no one objected to letting pregnant women park in handicapped parking spaces. An “expectant mother parking permit,” valid for up to a year, became part of a transportation bill (SB 462) that passed unanimously and was signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis.
It’s now being challenged in a lawsuit that calls it a violation of the Americans with Disability Act (ADA) and other laws that protect disabled people. The federal case is the first of its kind because Florida’s law is the first of its kind, so it could go all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Plaintiff Olivia Keller, 48, was born without arms and with a shortened right leg that turned worse after knee surgery. To get around, she needs a motorized wheelchair and special van with a side ramp.
But she can’t exit the van if there isn’t a van-accessible disabled parking space with eight feet of side clearance, and there have been times when she found all of those reserved spots already taken.
“Just imagine if every day of your life were Black Friday, and that’s what my life is like when I have to find parking,” she told the Sun Sentinel Editorial Board.
Unintended consequences
The Legislature created a new entitlement for pregnant women, but did not require more reserved parking spaces. Keller’s point is that the state infringed on her entitlement for the sake of people who may not be disabled themselves.
Pregnancy per se is not a disability. Federal law is clear on that, and so was the House bill sponsor, Rep. Fiona McFarland, R-Sarasota.
“I feel very strongly that pregnancy is not a disability,” McFarland told a House subcommittee. She wanted “to be able to park up front.”
McFarland, who has three children, talked of sweating on a hot September day in her ninth month of pregnancy, as she “waddled” across a parking lot past unused disability spaces.
“I realized that I had it within my power to help women like me not have to walk uncomfortably for such a long distance,” she said.
No questions asked
The problem is, her bill converts a necessity for disabled people into a convenience for healthy ones — no questions asked.
The best exercises for otherwise healthy pregnant women, many doctors say, are walking and climbing stairs.
A medical professional’s certificate of pregnancy is now all it takes to apply for the special permit. Everyone else needs a certificate that they’re either legally blind or have short- or long-term mobility impairment.
At a hearing where McFarland described the pregnancy provision, Rep. Kelly Skidmore, D-Boca Raton, said she was “sensitive to expectant mothers being considered disabled,” but she did not try to remove the provision.
A House staff report that apparently escaped everyone’s attention suggested that some pregnant women would qualify for temporary permits under existing law.
“There are circumstances under which an expectant mother with temporary mobility issues would qualify” with a doctor’s certificate, the report said.
The report attributed that to advice from the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, the primary defendant in the suit filled on Keller’s behalf by Nova Southeastern University’s Disability Inclusion and Advocacy Law Clinic and lawyer Matthew Dietz.
The case was assigned to U.S. District Judge Allen Winsor, a conservative nominated by President Trump in his first term.
Setting a precedent
The Legislature should amend the law so that pregnancy in itself would not be an automatic entitlement, leaving it to a medical professional’s judgment whether the woman has pregnancy complications or a pre-existing disability to qualify for a red pregnancy placard.
Keller, who lives in Tallahassee and works remotely for the nonprofit Amputee Coalition as its registered Florida lobbyist, said she tries to ignore “the trolls” who object to her lawsuit. She’s concerned that Florida may have set a bad precedent for other states (a similar bill is pending in Ohio).
A commonsense answer to this dispute would be for places that pregnant women have to visit — grocery stores, malls and doctors’ offices, for example — to set aside more regular parking spaces for pregnant women and families with small children.
They would not be legally enforceable as disabled parking spaces are, but most people of good will would respect them, we believe, and the millions of truly disabled Americans like Olivia Keller would have less to worry about.
The Sun Sentinel Editorial Board consists of Opinion Editor Steve Bousquet, Deputy Opinion Editor Dan Sweeney, editorial writers Pat Beall and Martin Dyckman, and Executive Editor Gretchen Day-Bryant. To contact us, email at letters@sun-sentinel.com.
