Freshman Rep. Jacqueline Schaffer used a parliamentary maneuver to end debate in the House Thursday on her bill which would place further limits on abortion.

House Bill 730 – the Insurance & Health Care Conscience Protection Act -  would prohibit local governments from offering health plans that include abortion coverage to employees, and prohibit health care plans offered through the exchange under the Affordable Care Act from offering coverage for elective abortion procedures. The measure further allows public hospital employees to refuse to participate in abortion care if they object on religious or moral grounds.

Rep. Rick Glazier said lawmakers were wrong to interfere in “one of the most intense, personal, spiritual, and private decisions” a person could make, warning the courts have struck down portions of this bill in other states:

“The Affordable Care Act preempts what we are trying to do on the floor. At some point, we ought to follow the law,” said the Cumberland County Democrat.

Rep. Schaffer argued the legislation protects the rights of conscience of all health care providers, and has nothing to do with restricting access to abortion.

The bill passed 72-39 to survive the crossover deadline, and now heads to the Senate. To hear Rep. Glazier speak on the bill, click below:

From the annals of  ”we have seen the future,”  Mother Jones schools us on what’s happened in Florida under two years of Tea Party control:

In just one year, Scott and his conservative allies slashed state spending by $4 billion even as they cut corporate taxes. They’ve rejected billions in federal funds in one of the states hardest hit by the recession. They’ve axed everything from health care and public transportation initiatives to mosquito control and water supply programs.

The results are not pretty.