Florida’s new abortion ban goes into effect, but voters will decide its future
Democrats and abortion-access advocates have been warning for months of an impending voter backlash against Republicans who backed Florida’s six-week ban on the procedure. Now, it’s time to find out whether they’re right or wrong.
The six-week ban, which was quietly signed into law last year by Gov. Ron DeSantis, went into force on Wednesday, formally adding Florida to the list of states that have strictly curtailed abortion access since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade nearly two years ago.
But the abortion debate isn’t open and shut in Florida. Voters will have a choice in November: keep the new ban in effect or approve a proposed constitutional amendment that would guarantee abortion access before “fetal viability” — generally understood to be around 24 weeks of pregnancy — or if deemed medically necessary by a patient’s doctor.
Democrats say they stand to benefit from the ballot measure, known as Amendment 4, in November, believing their position on abortion resonates with a majority of Floridians. Polls show broad support for abortion access among Florida voters, and the issue has proved difficult for Republicans in other states to navigate in recent years.
Nikki Fried, the chairwoman of the Florida Democratic Party, said that by enacting a six-week ban on the procedure, Republicans have overplayed their hand.
“They have completely removed themselves from the reality of what is about to happen here in the state of Florida,” Fried told the Miami Herald in an interview on Wednesday. “Women are going to die. Women are going to be denied the care they need.”
READ MORE: Seven things to know about what Florida’s six-week abortion ban means
Florida’s 6-week ban maintains exceptions allowing abortions up to 15 weeks in instances of rape and incest, and even later in pregnancy for medical necessity, as determined by doctors. Republicans believe it’s a policy in line with Floridians’ values.
But Fried said that the state’s newly enacted law drastically limits women’s access to reproductive health care, not just in Florida, but across the South. Data released in January by the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration showed that more abortions were performed in Florida last year than in 2022 — an increase driven by a 15% jump in the number of out-of-state residents who had an abortion in Florida.
With Florida joining other states that have either eliminated or drastically limited abortion access, the Sunshine State will no longer be a refuge for women seeking to have the procedure, Fried said. She said that, for the next six months, it will be the job of Democrats to “connect the dots” between Florida’s new abortion ban and the Republicans who paved the way for it.
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“You can’t go into the voting booth and vote for enshrining abortion rights into our constitution and then vote for legislators and congressmen and U.S. senators who would just strip away your right,” she said.
Beyond the political debate, Dr. Chelsea Daniels, an abortion provider at Planned Parenthood in Miami, said that the new six-week ban has already had impacts on her patients.
In the weeks before the law took effect, Daniels said that she and other abortion providers worked “overtime to see as many patients as possible.” As of Wednesday, however, she said she has begun referring patients to clinics in states with looser abortion restrictions, like North Carolina, Virginia and Maryland.
“We are really on the ground seeing that patients are panicked, they’re terrified,” Daniels said. “All morning I’ve been in conversations with patients … who are extremely early in pregnancy and are still not able to receive necessary care here.”
But she noted that, for many patients, traveling several states away to have an abortion isn’t an option, because of financial costs and logistical hurdles. She said that sending women elsewhere also creates a burden on clinics in other states that aren’t equipped to handle a sudden influx of patients.
“There is no single state and no single clinic that can possibly accommodate all of Florida,” she said.
Democrats highlight Florida’s new law
Democrats are going all-in on the abortion debate as they look to claw back some semblance of political power in Florida, where Republicans now hold every statewide elected office, as well as supermajorities in the state Legislature.
Speaking in Jacksonville on Wednesday afternoon, Vice President Kamala Harris pinned Florida’s new abortion law squarely on former President Donald Trump. She warned that, if he wins another term in the White House, Trump would move to ban access to the procedure nationally, though the former president has said he supports leaving abortion policy to the states.
“Donald Trump has told us who he is,” Harris told a crowd at the Prime F. Osborn III Convention Center. “So here’s what a second Trump term looks like: more bans, more suffering and less freedom. But we are not going to let that happen, because you see we trust women. We trust women to know what is in their own best interest. And women trust all of us to fight to protect their most fundamental freedoms.”
Harris said that Trump thinks “he can take Florida for granted,” but insisted that the political “momentum” is on the side of Democrats and abortion access advocates.
“This November, up and down the ballot, reproductive freedom is on the ballot,” Harris said. “And you, the leaders, you, the people, have the power to protect it with your vote.”
Her remarks came just over a week after President Joe Biden campaigned in Tampa on the same message. It also followed a flurry of activity from the Democratic National Committee surrounding the enactment of Florida’s six-week abortion ban.
The group placed billboards across the state — in English and in Spanish — blaming Trump for Florida’s abortion ban. The DNC is also flying a banner above Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach on Wednesday, reading: “Trump’s plan: ban abortion, punish women.”
Trump, a Florida resident who’s seeking to return to the White House, has repeatedly taken credit for appointing the U.S. Supreme Court justices who overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. A spokesperson for Trump’s campaign did not respond to the Herald’s request for comment on Wednesday.
While Democrats see Florida’s new abortion ban and Amendment 4 as a potential political boon, the ballot measure is already drawing stiff opposition. Republicans and anti-abortion advocates have cast the amendment as an extreme proposal that would effectively allow abortions up until birth. Proponents of the ballot measure have rejected that claim.
READ MORE: DeSantis says ballot proposal allows abortion ‘until birth.’ Here’s what you should know
DeSantis has said that he will oppose Amendment 4, which he has described as “radical” and going far beyond what most Floridians are comfortable with. He predicted during a bill signing last month that the ballot measure would fall short of the 60% support it will need in November in order to pass.
U.S. Sen. Rick Scott, who is up for reelection this year, is among the Republicans facing fierce criticism from Democrats over his abortion stance. He has previously said that he would have signed the six-week ban into law if he were still Florida governor, and previously co-sponsored legislation that would establish a national 20-week prohibition on abortions.
In a recent interview with the Herald, Scott said that abortion access should be left to state governments to decide, but argued that Amendment 4 was far from a consensus choice for Floridians and would be rejected by voters. He suggested that a 15-week abortion ban would be more appropriate.
“If you look at where the consensus is in our state, the consensus isn’t even close to where the Democrats are,” Scott said. “The consensus is around 15 weeks with exceptions for rape, incest and life of the mother.”
For now, the fate of abortion access in Florida is unclear. Recent polls show that while more voters back Amendment 4 than oppose it, it’s still short of the 60% support it will need to pass in November.
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Still, Democrats say that similar proposals have passed in other parts of the country — including staunchly Republican states like Kansas and Ohio — when put before voters, arguing that abortion access isn’t a partisan issue.
“In state after state, when the decision is in the hands of the people, they have chosen to reject government interference,” Florida state House Minority Leader Fentrice Driskell said. “For the people, this isn’t a ‘Democrat vs. Republican’ fight. The majority of people, including Republicans, Democrats and NPA voters, all agree that access to abortions should be protected.”
