Florida’s new six-week abortion restrict acts as a complete ban. What does it imply for the hundreds of thousands of girls in Florida and throughout the South who’ve relied on it for entry to abortion care?
Might 1 marks the primary day that Florida’s legislation banning abortion after simply six weeks of being pregnant takes impact.
In April 2022, months earlier than the overturning of Roe v. Wade, Florida handed a legislation decreasing the authorized interval for abortions from 24 weeks to fifteen weeks. A yr later, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) signed an more and more draconian invoice limiting abortions to 6 weeks of being pregnant. The enforcement of this six-week ban relied on the legality of the 15-week restrict.
On April 1, the Florida Supreme Court docket—with its 5 DeSantis appointees—delivered its verdict: The 15-week ban is constitutional below state legislation, and subsequently, the six-week ban can take impact.
The six-week cutoff successfully features as a complete ban. Being pregnant is decided from the final menstrual cycle; conception often happens within the second week, and the primary signal of being pregnant—a missed interval—usually seems round 4 weeks. This timeline provides sufferers as little as two weeks to acknowledge their being pregnant, schedule their appointment and prepare journey … assuming they understand they’re pregnant in any respect.
The legislation’s six-week timeframe is predicated on the state legislature’s assertion {that a} fetal heartbeat could be detected at six weeks. Nonetheless, this declare contradicts scientific proof, which exhibits {that a} fetal coronary heart doesn’t type till 10 to 12 weeks or later.
Florida additionally requires two in-person visits not less than 24 hours aside earlier than somebody can get an abortion.
The brand new legislation not solely bans abortion after six weeks, but additionally bans abortion by telemedicine and requires any treatment abortion to be allotted in individual, basically banning mail-order abortion drugs.
(Editor’s word: The group Plan C has a complete information to discovering abortion drugs on their web site at www.plancpills.org. Choose “Discover Abortion Drugs” after which choose the state the place you might be positioned from the drop-down menu. The web site is regularly up to date and has all the newest data on the place to seek out abortion drugs from anyplace within the U.S.)
Exceptions to the ban embrace instances of rape, human trafficking and incest as much as 15 weeks, however require substantiating documentation like a police report or restraining order. There are additionally provisions for the pregnant lady’s well being and deadly fetal abnormalities, the place the fetus is anticipated to die at delivery or shortly after. Nonetheless, “there could be uncertainty concerning the threshold for when a pregnant lady’s life is in danger and a few medical doctors are nervous to carry out abortions even once they’re in peril,” Deliberate Parenthood doctor Dr. Chelsea Daniels instructed NPR.
“This ban would stop 4 million Florida girls of reproductive age from accessing abortion care after six weeks—earlier than many ladies even know they’re pregnant,” stated White Home Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre in a press release issued final yr, after DeSantis signed the six-week ban into legislation. “This ban would additionally impression the practically 15 million girls of reproductive age who dwell in abortion-banning states all through the South, a lot of whom have beforehand relied on journey to Florida as an choice to entry care.”
Certainly, this tightening of abortion legal guidelines in Florida not solely impacts native residents but additionally impacts these throughout the South who’ve sought providers in Florida following restrictive adjustments in their very own states. Florida carried out over 84,000 abortions final yr, together with over 7,000 for ladies out-of-state, in line with state information.
The closest state the place abortions could be carried out after six weeks will now be North Carolina. Past 12 weeks, the choices slender additional to Virginia or Illinois. Virginia and North Carolina carried out considerably fewer abortions mixed final yr than Florida alone.
(Editor’s word: The World Well being Group has licensed use of abortion drugs to finish a being pregnant as much as 12 weeks.)
The Florida Entry Community (FAN) and different abortion funds throughout Florida are bracing for an inflow of requests for help. Already, because the courtroom authorised the brand new restrictions on April 1, FAN has reported a doubling of abortion requests in comparison with the identical time final yr. Within the wake of Dobbs, which ended federal safety for abortion rights, requests surged by 235 p.c.
Stephanie Loraine Piñeiro, govt director of FAN, estimates that prices to help a single particular person might now soar to $4,000—double the present common—as a result of journey required to entry providers out of state.
These restrictions have positioned vital operational and monetary burdens on organizations like FAN, which help girls in navigating the logistical and monetary hurdles of acquiring abortion care. By the second week of every month, FAN usually exhausts its funds, forcing the group to cap the quantity of assist it may present.
“There’s solely a lot cash that we are able to prolong,” Piñeiro stated. “We’re not going to have the ability to serve the variety of individuals [in need]. No group can—the necessity is so immense. The sources are by no means sufficient.”
The ban additionally has wider repercussions on the group and healthcare suppliers. Impartial abortion clinics, the most important suppliers of abortion care, face escalating fears of authorized penalties. This concern, coupled with the potential for extra clinic closures, threatens to considerably scale back entry to abortion providers inside the state, pushing extra people to hunt assist from funds like FAN.
“Folks will at all times want abortion care. That want won’t ever finish,” Piñeiro stated. “What’s going to change now are the journey patterns, and the flexibility for individuals to get care and the kind of reproductive care of their group. We anticipate, sadly, many individuals to maintain their pregnancies even once they don’t wish to now as a result of they merely don’t have the sources to have the ability to journey to finish their pregnancies.”
Come Nov. 4, Florida voters will determine whether or not to amend the Florida Structure to enshrine the precise to abortion, regardless of efforts by Gov. DeSantis to maintain the query off the poll. Now, greater than ever, it’s essential to indicate up and vote to guard these basic rights.
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