MIAMI – A more stringent abortion law in Florida is slated to go into effect on Wednesday, reducing the state’s ban from 15 weeks to six weeks. This change is expected to impact thousands seeking abortion care within the initial month.
Among the 16 Southern states in the U.S., nine have currently implemented abortion bans. Florida will align with Georgia and South Carolina in enforcing a six-week ban.
“It’s really as early as tomorrow because we have a 24-hour waiting period in place. We will start having to tell patients that we will be forced to give birth or travel out of state. Planned Parenthood has patient navigators that will attempt to help them make an appointment and refer them to someone else but increasingly, this is going to be difficult as there are providers in the north that will not be able to handle the flow,” said Laura Goodhue, Vice President of Public Policy with Planned Parenthood of South, East and North Florida.
“This is really traumatic,” Goodhue added. “Most don’t even know that they are pregnant at six weeks, especially if they are not trying to get pregnant.”
Only three states in the U.S. Census region — Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia — maintain legal abortion access beyond the first trimester, while North Carolina imposes a 12-week limit and 72-hour waiting period.
“Planned Parenthood has patient navigators that will attempt to help them make an appointment and refer them to someone else, but increasingly this is going to be difficult as there are providers in the north that will not be able to handle the flow,” said Goodhue.
When Florida’s Supreme Court decided to uphold the 15-week abortion ban, it upended decades of legal precedent which had extended the state constitution’s privacy clause to abortion access and ushered in a countdown clock to the six-week abortion ban taking effect May 1.
Providers will now look ahead to November when Florida voters will have the chance to vote on the constitutional amendment pertaining to abortion access.
“And so, the Yes on 4 campaign is up and running, and people should know that this is the opportunity to stop this public health crisis in its tracks,” Goodhue emphasized.
Goodhue stated that one group that could be most impacted is teenagers. Many of them may not know they are pregnant by six weeks given during adolescence menstrual cycles can vary. She also shared what she views as the time-consuming baked-in bureaucratic hurdles to teen access.
“If you are a young person under 18, you have to identify the fact that you are pregnant before six weeks,” Goodhue said. “You have to go in for two visits, and if your parents are guardians and do not give you permission. You have to go before a judge so there are many to talk about just one group of people. Teenagers in this state will find it almost impossible to access the reproductive healthcare that they need.”
In November, Florida voters will have a chance to weigh in.
“Florida has a constitutional amendment process where voters will have the opportunity to limit government interference in our personal, private lives and so the “Yes on 4″ campaign is up and running and people should know that is the opportunity to stop this public health crisis in its tracks.”
While Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has stated the amendment “overrides our parental consent laws” the ballot question states it does not change the legislature’s constitutional authority to require notification to a parent or guardian before a minor has an abortion.
Read the ballot question by clicking here.
Local 10 News attempted to interview DeSantis to hear his thoughts on Wednesday’s start to the six-week abortion ban at an event he attended in Delray Beach Monday morning, but his team said he was not taking questions and the governor did not stop the golf cart he was riding in to take questions.
The group behind the ballot initiative — Floridians Protecting Freedom — told Local 10 News in a statement:
“We believe parents should have the freedom to guide their teen’s healthcare decisions. Florida voters codified parental rights around abortion in the constitution in 2004. Amendment 4 clearly outlines that it does nothing to impact those rights. When amendment 4 passes, families will be able to have these conversations and be involved in these decisions without government interference.”
Regional impact
As neighboring states started to restrict abortion access, state data documented an increase in the number of out-of-state parents seeking abortion care in Florida.
According to data from the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration, there was a 15% increase in out-of-state abortion care from 2022 to 2023.
View the data by clicking here.
“Florida has been seeing patients since Roe v Wade was overturned from all over the south from Texas, Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana,” said Goodhue. “They have been showing up to the health centers in Tallahassee and Jacksonville where planned parenthood provides care.”
Related: Abortion provider fears for patients’ access to care under looming 6-week ban
Dr. Chelsea Daniels, a Planned Parenthood Physician, told Local 10 News “six weeks leaves very little room for patients to figure out if they are pregnant and to get an appointment in an already packed medical climate where it is harder to get in for a slot.”
CONDITIONAL RAPE EXCEPTION:
“In no other form of healthcare do we require somebody to prove that a crime took place in order to provide care that a patient needs,” said Dr. Sami Heywood.
Advocates worry Florida’s six-week abortion ban’s conditional rape exception will limit access for sexual violence victims— a concern grounded in emerging evidence from other states with similar conditional rape exceptions which some researchers say is preventing “reasonable access.”
“We work with kids who are victims of trauma, primarily sexual abuse, and we have a specialized program for girls who are survivors of sex trafficking. I am incredibly concerned about them.” -Amanda Altman, CEO of Kristi House, the nationally accredited Child Advocacy Center for Miami-Dade County.
Altman expresses concern about the potential impact Florida’s six-week abortion ban will have on victims of sexual violence. Florida’s Heartbeat Protection Act, also known as Senate Bill 300, offers an exception up to weeks for rape, incest, and human trafficking victims, but the victims need to show proof, such as a copy of a restraining order or police report.
“It really denies sex crime victims access to abortion so often disclosure happens very delayed,” she stated.
Heywood explains how Florida will soon be joining other states that have already implemented restrictive abortion bans with rape exceptions, which some researchers have said prevented reasonable access to abortion care.
“A quick tally of the five states that have bans and abortion rape exceptions, their populations, does not even equal Florida’s so this is a huge impact,” she said. “These laws are written in such a way that politicians can say, here in Florida that won’t happen, but when we look at very similar laws in similar states, we are seeing that those victims are being re-victimized because they are not able to obtain abortions in their home state.”
“If a child who has been the victim of a sex crime is forced to carry an unwanted child, they are being re-traumatized and re-victimized,” said Altman.
When Florida’s Supreme Court decided to uphold the 15-week abortion ban, it upended decades of legal precedent which had extended the state constitution’s privacy clause to abortion access and ushered in a 30-day countdown clock to when the six-week abortion ban takes effect.
Daniels expressed concern about the impact on patients’ health outcomes, saying, “I have been in school and training for half my life, and I am suddenly being told by someone with no medical background how and when and where and should practice medicine. I’m scared for my patients.”
“With felony violations baked into the bill text, she also worries about medical exception language too vague to interpret,” she added.
“Florida is very isolated geographically, especially in South Florida. At this point [once the six-week ban takes effect] the nearest state providing care is North Carolina up to twelve weeks. If you are above 12 weeks the nearest state will be the Virginia, D.C., Maryland area. So, we are really placing patients in this super onerous, unimaginable situation here in South Florida,” Daniels further explained.
Michelle Quesada of Planned Parenthood highlighted the organization’s efforts to schedule more ultrasound appointments to help patients with early pregnancy detection.
“We have been preparing for several months,” she said. “We have cross-trained many of our staff to do ultrasounds.”
“As they look ahead to November when Florida voters will have the chance to weigh in on abortion access, Daniels expressed hope that the situation could be reversed, stating, “It feels like I am not being trusted to make decisions about my health and I am not being trusted as a doctor to make decisions with my patients. I think we have a really good shot at turning this around in November.”
Quesada expressed hope that the ballot amendment will protect abortion rights once and for all.
This focus between May and November includes amping up staffing levels, hiring additional physicians, and cross-training staff in ultrasounds to help patients with early pregnancy detection and allow for more appointment availability.
Click here for more information on the campaign.
For more information on the Heartbeat Protection Act, click here and/or here.