On March 13 at 3:00 pm, a rally sponsored by twelve pro-family organizations, including Liberty Counsel, will be held on the steps of the "old" Florida capitol to plead with Florida lawmakers to pass a bill which would spare the life of Terri Schiavo. Terri is a 41-year-old woman who, though brain-damaged, survives on a feeding tube and is responsive. This rally is being held after a judge ordered the removal of Terri's feeding tubes on March 18, 2005. The removal of the feeding tubes will deprive her of all nourishment until she dies by starvation and dehydration.

Legislative action is proceeding on the state and federal level to help save Terri's life. Florida Senator Mel Martinez (S. 539) and Florida Representative Dave Weldon (H.R. 1151) introduced a bill into the United States Congress entitled the "Incapacitated Persons' Legal Protection Act." This Bill would allow persons with disabilities to have their own legal counsel to protect their constitutional rights. Terri's husband, Michael Schiavo, has been Terri's legal guardian and has refused to allow separate counsel to represent her, despite the pleas from Terri's parents. This federal legislation would ensure that Terri receives the right to a lawyer when there is a family disagreement.

On the state level, elected representatives in Florida are being called upon to support H.B. 701, which was recently passed through the House Committee on Health Care Regulation. This bill, entitled the "Starvation & Dehydration of Persons with Disabilities Prevention Act," "declares that incompetent person is presumed to have directed health care providers to provide necessary nutrition & hydration to sustain life; prohibits court, proxy, or surrogate from withholding or withdrawing nutrition or hydration except under specified circumstances."

Mathew D. Staver, President and General Counsel of Liberty Counsel, stated, "The law ought to provide protection to an incompetent person who has no written directive and where the circumstances surrounding the guardian's decision to terminate the person's life by starvation and dehydration is clearly suspect. Here we have a 'husband' who allegedly lives with another woman with whom he has fathered children, and who several years after Terri's accident 'remembered' that Terri expressed she would not want to be kept alive by artificial means. Add to this situation two parents who have undertaken Herculean efforts to save their daughter's life and who are willing to take full responsibility and care for Terri. Terri's case cries out for additional safeguards to be put in place. Even death row inmates have the constitutional right to counsel. The same right should be afforded to Terri, whose value of life is not diminished just because she has a disability."