Maintaining reproductive care in Florida through informing and voting
“But what can we do?”
As a longstanding reproductive rights advocate, this question has been the chorus of my career.
On April 1, 2024, the Florida Supreme Court ruled to uphold a 15-week abortion ban and allow the pending six-week ban to take effect May 1. And, no, it was not an April Fool's joke. This decision wiped out four decades of legal precedence and gutted the long-standing constitutional privacy protection to abortion in Florida. This extreme ban outlaws abortion before many people even realize they are pregnant, strips millions of Floridians and others in surrounding states of their reproductive freedom and supercharges a public health crisis.
As we know, abortion bans do not eliminate abortions. Instead, they put pregnant people at serious risk and criminalize physicians to keep them from providing quality care. We need not look too far to see what lies ahead for Florida’s future. The recent report “Criminalized Care: How Louisiana’s Abortion Bans Endanger Patients and Clinicians” showcased unnerving examples of how pregnancy care has been turned upside down, including delaying pregnancy care, refusing miscarriage treatment, and forcing women to undergo serious Cesarean section – major abdominal surgery – rather than a simple abortion procedure. These egregious treatments exponentially increase risk and threaten doctors from providing a quality standard of care. The threat of felony charges, license suspension and penalties drive ob-gyns out of banned states, interfering with reproductive health and decreasing the quality of care across the entire medical system.
More on reproductive rights: Tamayo: Time for Florida voters to take back their abortion rights | Opinion
“But what can we do?”
For starters, share information regarding abortion options and resources with your friends and family. Among the resources is Charley, a private, secure online chatbot, built in the post-Roe era to meet critical reproductive healthcare needs and provide personalized, accurate, up-to-date information about abortion options (whether it be abortion pills by mail, a procedure, or care in another state).
Since Roe was overturned, online searches for information about abortion have surged. Abortion seekers are desperately looking for answers to urgent questions: How do abortion pills work? Where can I get an abortion? What’s legal where I live? How much will it cost? Between the constantly changing legal landscape of new abortion bans and restrictions, justified fears of digital surveillance, and disinformation running rampant, trying to find even the most basic information can be overwhelming. After six months of field research and expert interviews, they created the rapid response tool post-Roe along with co-hosts INeedAnA.com, Plan C, and the Miscarriage + Abortion Hotline.
More by Lillian Tamayo: Lillian Tamayo: Abortion ruling requires us to vote for our freedom
Charley’s expert team (co-founded by Former Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards and Chief Strategy Officer Tom Subak, and I'm also on their leadership team) has observed a 41% increase in abortion pill searches online and, since launching last fall, has found that 68% of users ask for information to access abortion pills.
Charley offers users (who remain completely anonymous) expert advice that fights misinformation. The bot has reached 20,000 users since launching in September. And the No. 1 location for Charley users is Texas, followed by Florida.
No matter what bans take effect in your state, support, resources, and pills by mail are and will continue to be available. Charley is here to provide information about your options.
“But what else can we do?”
You still have options for abortion care in Florida. Learn about and donate to your local abortion fund (you can find your local fund via the National Network of Abortion Funds) to support their critical work as the Florida ban goes into effect.
And make sure you are registered to vote! This November – thanks to the incredible leadership of the Vote Yes On 4 Campaign – a constitutional amendment to limit government interference will be on the ballot. Floridians will have an opportunity to vote in support of restoring access to care and put healthcare decision-making back in the hands of people where it belongs, not with politicians.
Lillian Tamayo, a member of the Palm Beach Post Editorial Advisory Board, previously was president/CEO of Planned Parenthood South, East and North Florida.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Vote yes on Florida amendment to stop government abortion interference
