TALLAHASSEE — Disability-rights advocates are challenging a new state law allowing pregnant women to use parking spaces reserved for people with disabilities, alleging the measure violates federal protections.
The “expectant mother parking permit” allows pregnant women to obtain disabled parking placards at any point in their pregnancies. The permit, which women can get with notes from their doctors confirming they are pregnant, costs $15 and lasts for a year.
A federal lawsuit filed last week alleges the parking permits for pregnant women violate the federal Americans with Disabilities Act and other protections designed to ensure people with disabilities have access to places where they can work, attend school, shop for food and get medical care, among other things.
Challenged under the Americans with Disabilities Act
Federal and state laws set minimum numbers of spaces required for people with disabilities, but the need for the parking spots far outstrips the amount provided, the lawsuit filed on Oct. 27 on behalf of plaintiff Olivia Keller said.
Keller is a longtime advocate for people with disabilities. Keller, a Leon County resident with disabilities who can only park in van-accessible spaces with access aisles, “already faced significant challenges securing accessible parking” before the law allowing pregnant women to use the limited spots went into effect, according to the challenge filed in the federal Northern District of Florida.
The inclusion of pregnant women has “exacerbated these challenges,” according to the lawsuit, filed by attorney Matthew Dietz, clinical director of the Disability Inclusion and Advocacy Law Clinic at Nova University’s Shepard Broad College of Law.
The reduction in van-accessible disabled parking and an increase in competition for the spaces “severely limits Ms. Keller’s ability to participate in work, medical care, social, and community activities,” Dietz wrote.
The Americans with Disabilities Act says that “no qualified individual with a disability shall, by reason of such disability, be excluded from participation in or be denied the benefits of services, programs, or activities of a public entity, or be subjected to discrimination by any such entity.”
Permitting pregnant women to use parking spaces designated for people with disabilities violates the law because it “excludes or otherwise makes the program of accessible parking required by federal law and regulation unavailable to plaintiff and any other person with a qualified disability,” Dietz argued in the lawsuit.
Lawmaker's perspective
The expectant-mother permit program was tucked into a wide-ranging transportation package (SB 462) unanimously approved by the House and Senate and signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis in June.
The lawsuit points to comments made by state Rep. Fiona McFarland, a Sarasota Republican who included the program in the transportation bill, during a House committee meeting on March 25. She said she came up with the idea when she was nine months pregnant.
McFarland told the House Economic Infrastructure Subcommittee that she “walked past all of these handicapped spots that were vacant” as she “waddled” across a parking lot in the September heat.
“And rather than complain about a problem without a solution, I realized that I had it within my power to help women like me not have to walk uncomfortably for such a long distance,” McFarland, who has four children, told the panel. “I mean, I feel very strongly that pregnancy is not a disability. I just want to be able to park up front.”
According to the lawsuit, 1.3 million of Florida’s 18.5 million drivers — 7 percent — have permanent parking permits issued because of a disability. The number doesn’t include permits issued for temporary disabilities. Meanwhile, the number of parking spaces required to be reserved for disabled permits generally ranges from 2 percent to 4 percent, with medical facilities requiring more.
Keller told The News Service of Florida that the Florida heat can be dangerous for people with disabilities. As an example, Keller’s body is unable to cool itself efficiently because she does not have arms. People without sweat glands or who have high-level spinal cord injuries also are susceptible to overheating very quickly, she said.
“Pregnancy is uncomfortable. I get that. But these are not comparable things,” Keller said in a phone interview. “People having a heat stroke is not comparable to you being hot and uncomfortable. … I’m sorry. It’s Florida. We’re all hot and uncomfortable. But these are not the same things. You are putting people in danger because of your inconvenience.”
McFarland defended the law in an interview with Tampa Bay’s Fox News 13 last week.
“I just really wanted to be able to park in a convenient location, when I was really uncomfortable at late stages of my pregnancy, and I wanted that for other women, too,” she said.
The lawmaker said she wasn’t aiming to take parking spots away from “handicapped people who truly have a physical limit in their mobility” but wanted to “help moms.”
“Sometimes when we pass laws, we need the courts to rule on what the details of the case are, and perhaps that’s the case here. But truly, if the passage of this law has negatively impacted any community and there’s data that shows it, I would love to see that data so I can make more informed laws,” she said.
Not a disability
Under federal law, pregnancy is not considered a disability but is covered by discrimination protections. Women with "complicated pregnancies" have always been able to get disabled-parking permits if their doctors deem they are needed, Keller said.
It’s unknown how many pregnant women have applied for and received the permits, which are being advertised on websites of county tax collectors and the state Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles Department. The agency and its secretary, Dave Kerner, are named defendants in the lawsuit.
“Talk to your physician to get started and make parking a little easier during your pregnancy!” a website highlighting the program on the Miami-Dade County tax collector’s website advises.
Lawmakers could require parking spots to be designated for pregnant women without diminishing the limited number of disabled-parking spaces, Keller suggested.
“It’s not us hating on pregnant women. I don’t care if you want to do separate, expectant mother spaces. Take it out of the other 98 percent of parking that isn’t accessible to me,” Keller said.
