Florida’s 6-week abortion ban, backed by DeSantis, takes effect Wednesday
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Video above: President Biden speaks on abortion rights at Tampa campaign stop
TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — Reproductive health advocates across the southeastern U.S. are bracing for a major change in Florida’s abortion laws.
The state’s six-week abortion ban, titled the “Heartbeat Protection Act,” goes into effect on Wednesday, replacing a less restrictive 15-week ban signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis in 2022.
In an April 1 opinion filed in the Florida Supreme Court, justices ruled that there is no right to an abortion under the privacy clause in the state Constitution. They upheld the 15-week abortion ban in a decision that automatically triggered the six-week ban to take effect 30 days later.
The court has taken a considerable conservative shift in recent years, with five of the seven Florida Supreme Court justices appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis. The court approved an abortion rights amendment to appear on the 2024 ballot in an opinion release that simultaneously gave the green light to the six week ban.
Justice Charles T. Canady is married to Rep. Jennifer Canady, a lawmaker who co-wrote the Florida House of Representatives version of the six-week abortion bill. DeSantis would go on to sign its Senate companion bill into law in 2023.
While speaking in Tampa last week, President Joe Biden called Florida’s six-week abortion ban “one of the nation’s most extreme anti-abortion laws.” Abortion rights advocates say it is effectively a total ban: six weeks gestation is before many women know they are pregnant, and the state will still require two in-person visits with the abortion provider, occurring 24 hours apart.
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Advocates have scrambled to prepare for the shockwaves Florida’s new law will send throughout the southeastern U.S., including in the critical swing states of Georgia and North Carolina. That’s why the Biden-Harris campaign recently zeroed in on the state, focusing their efforts on urging Florida voters to oppose Republican candidates who support limiting abortion access and calling for them to vote for an amendment that would enshrine abortion rights in the state Constitution.
Women from states with more restrictive laws frequently seek abortions in Florida. 6,566 out-of-state residents travelled to the Sunshine State for an abortion in 2023, according to the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration.
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