Florida is one day away of becoming the latest state to enact a rigid six-week abortion ban
Gov. Ron DeSantis signs the six-week abortion ban into law late at night on April 13, 2023. Credit: governor's office
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Since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a woman’s federal right to an abortion in 2022, Florida has been a refuge and haven for women across the Southeast who needed abortion care as bans swept the Deep South. That changes on Wednesday, however, when Florida’s six-week abortion ban goes into effect.
Under the state’s current law, which allows for abortions up until 15 weeks of pregnancy, there were more than 84,000 abortions provided in Florida last year, according to state records – and 7,736 were performed on women who crossed state lines to access abortion care here.
Of the 16 states that ban abortion outright, eight are in the South (Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Texas, Oklahoma, Kentucky, Tennessee), according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research and policy organization that focuses on reproductive rights worldwide. Now Florida will join Georgia and South Carolina with six-week abortion bans — a time when a woman may not be aware she is even pregnant.
“We know that Florida prior to this bill going into effect has really been an important point for access in a region as a whole,” says Kimya Forouzan, a principal policy advisor with the Guttmacher. “We saw in 2023 8,940 more abortions provided in Florida compared to 2020, which was a 12% increase. And we know that looking at the policies of nearby states, so much of this is because Florida is in the region that it’s in and was the state that had policies that still allowed people to access care, and obviously with this upcoming change, that’s really going to change things for the whole region.”
Abortion providers in Florida say that they’ve seen an increase in admissions since the state Supreme Court announced four weeks ago that justices upheld the 15-week abortion ban, which will trigger the six-week ban on May 1. (Gov. Ron DeSantis had already signed the six-week ban on April 13, 2023, but it got wrapped up in legal challenges for a year.)
Seeing more patients
“We’ve definitely seen our numbers double in the last few weeks with people trying to make sure that they get the care that they need before they’re no longer allowed to legally in Florida. Our staff is staying longer and we’re seeing more patients in the leadup to May 1,” says Amber Gavin, vice president of advocacy and operations at A Woman’s Choice, which has clinics in Jacksonville, North Carolina, and Virginia.
While North Carolina, with abortion services legal during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, is the closest state for women to get an abortion when they learn after six weeks that they are pregnant, Gavin notes that there are certain restrictions that women need to be aware of that pushes care out of reach for many in that state. Those restrictions include requiring a pregnant woman to get counseling information from their abortion provider, then wait 72 hours before getting an abortion.
“I don’t know about you, but I don’t know how many people can take an entire week off of work for two healthcare appointments,” Gavin says. She adds that’s why A Woman’s Choice added a new abortion clinic in Danville, Virginia in February. Abortions are legal in Virginia through the second trimester of pregnancy with no mandatory waiting period.
ST LOUIS, MO – MAY 28: The exterior of a Planned Parenthood Reproductive Health Services Center is seen on May 28, 2019 in St. Louis, Missouri. (Photo by Michael B. Thomas/Getty Images)
Even with those abortion restrictions in place in North Carolina, a third of the patients seeking abortions through that state’s Planned Parenthood clinics come from other states, according to the group. In Virginia, 25% of abortion patients visiting Planned Parenthood clinics come from other states.
The wait time for an appointment in Planned Parenthood clinics is two weeks in North Carolina and five to 10 days in Virginia, says Alison Kiser, the group’s South Atlantic senior director of external affairs, who spoke with the Phoenix on Monday.
Kiser says that in order to absorb the increased demand after the six-week ban goes into effect, Planned Parenthood South Atlantic is in the process of adding five to seven more days during which North Carolina and Virginia clinics can perform abortions.
“We want to be really clear about the challenges ahead because all of this expansion of capacity is not going to be enough to stem the tide of patients from across the South who have few options left at this point,” Kiser said. “So, patients who would have gotten an abortion in Florida will now be forced to travel hundreds of miles to obtain care in North Carolina and others may have to travel even farther to Virginia. Tragically, there are going to be countless others who are going to be forced to obtain care outside their formal healthcare system or to give birth against their will.”
After seeing an uptick of out-of-state patients, Planned Parenthood of Illinois expanded its health centers in Chicago and Champaign, which borders another state with a near-total ban, Indiana, CEO Jennifer Welch said. Late last year, they opened another clinic in Carbondale, a city located on the southern tip of the state.
“Last week, I was in Carbondale, and in one day we had patients scheduled from nine other states,” Welch said. “Nine other states and that was when Florida’s 15-week ban was in place. So we didn’t see anybody from Florida that day, but I know that we have already seen Florida patients here.”
Traveling out of state is expensive
The price of lodging, transportation and meals for someone traveling out of state to get an abortion can add up, but groups such as Emergency Medical Assistance in West Palm Beach can help shoulder the cost. The group typically directs people to clinics in the D.C. and Baltimore area, New York and Illinois, EMA’s Executive Director Jessica Hatem said.
But EMA and Planned Parenthood of South, East and North Florida say that where they help people travel to get an abortion depends in part on the patient’s preference and their pregnancy. It may be easier for someone to go to a state that is farther away if they have family in that area.
So far this year, EMA has spent more than $80,000 paying for abortion procedures and travel, which puts the West Palm Beach group on pace to need more funds than the $320,000 they spent last year, Hatem said.
“It’s overwhelming, to say the least, but at the same time, we’re in community with a lot of other groups like us within Florida and throughout the country, specifically throughout the South,” she said. “The South has been the hardest-hit region since the Dobbs decision, and other abortion funds like ours in Texas and Louisiana. They’ve really shown the roadmap to still be able to work with people that need care, even when they’re in full ban states, and sometimes that’s just as simple as making sure they have accurate medical information and resources at their disposal.”
Funds are always a concern for EMA, Hatem said, but they sometimes divide the cost with other groups in the state where a patient is getting an abortion.
“Nothing has been the same as it was the summer of the Dobbs decision,” she said. “All of the abortion funds like mine across the country received a lot of donations, but those are coming in less and less. We did get an uptick when they made the announcement on April 1, not at the same rate as what we saw almost two years ago.”
Anti-abortion groups excited
While abortion rights advocates are cautious about the immediate future, anti-abortion advocates in Florida are excited that the six-week law is about to go into effect.
Andrew Shirvell of Florida Voice for the Unborn speaks at an anti-abortion rally on the steps of the Historic Florida Capitol Building May 24, 2022. Credit: Danielle J. Brown
“While the new law is far from perfect, Florida Voice for the Unborn expects it to save a significant amount of children’s lives by greatly reducing Florida’s horrendous abortion rate and forcing the closure of perhaps up to half of Florida’s more than fifty currently operating abortion mills,” says Andrew Shirvell, the founder and executive director for Florida Voice for the Unborn.
In addition to prohibiting abortions after six weeks gestation, the law creates a new exemption for victims of rape, incest and human trafficking, which is available up to 15 weeks gestation. The law requires that if a woman has been the victim of one of those incidents, she must provide a copy of a restraining order, police report, medical report or other court order or documentation providing evidence at the time that she schedules or arrives for her appointment to obtain the abortion.
Out of the abortions reported to the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration last year , 120 abortions were performed because of rape, incest and human trafficking.
Critics of the six-week law are hoping that it will last only through the end of this year. In November, Florida voters will weigh in on Amendment 4, a constitutional amendment which would protect a woman’s right to an abortion up until the time of viability, putting the law back where it was before the Legislature passed a 15-week abortion ban in 2022.
“We do have the ballot initiative, which is potentially a light at the end of the tunnel,” Hatem of EMA said. “I personally feel that that measure will pass. It’s just going to be an issue as to whether or not you know the powers that be are going to allow that to actually be enacted.”
U.S. President, VP in Florida
Vice President Kamala Harris looks on as President Joe Biden delivers remarks in the Roosevelt Room in the White House on Jan. 5, 2023 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
President Joe Biden appeared in Tampa last week to highlight the six-week ban and to predict that Florida will join other states that have approved ballot measures over the past two years. “This November, you can add Florida to that list,” Biden said. “You’ve gotta show up to vote.”
And this week Vice President Kamala Harris is scheduled to travel to Jacksonville on Wednesday to give a speech that will focus on reproductive rights.
“The Vice President will discuss the harms inflicted by state abortion bans and continue to make the case that Donald Trump did this,” according to a press release issued from the Biden-Harris campaign last week.
It will be Harris’ 12th trip to Florida as vice president, and the fourth event where she is talking about abortion rights in the past month.
In addition to former President Donald Trump, who has boasted that his three picks to the U.S. Supreme Court helped overturn the Roe v. Wade decision that legalized a federal right to an abortion in 2022, Florida Democrats are using the issue of abortion rights to go after GOP U.S. Sen. Rick Scott, who has given conflicting opinions about the six-week abortion law.
The Florida Democratic Party announced Monday that they will hold a protest at 2:15 p.m. in Tallahassee on Tuesday, a day before the law goes into effect.
And the party is trying to raise campaign cash out of the situation. In a press release sent via email with the subject heading, “All Eyes on Florida,” the Florida Democratic Party is now making a fundraising pitch focusing on abortion rights, with a goal of raising $10,000 by May 1.
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