Florida’s six-week abortion ban goes into effect as doctors fear women will lose access to health care

BOCA RATON, Fla. (AP) – Florida’s ban on most abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, before many women even know they’re pregnant, went into effect Wednesday, and a few doctors fear women within the state will not had access to the health care they needed.

Dr. Leah Roberts, a reproductive endocrinologist and fertility specialist at Boca Fertility in Boca Raton, said anti-abortion laws passed in Florida and other red states are written vaguely by individuals who don’t understand medical science. The laws apply not only to women who need a therapeutic abortion, which implies procedures intended to terminate a viable pregnancy due to personal alternative, but additionally to non-viable pregnancies of women who want to have children.

“We stand between them and their doctors and prevent them from getting care until it literally saves their life, sometimes at the expense of their fertility,” Roberts said.

The recent ban includes exceptions for saving a girl’s life, as well as for cases of rape and incest, but Roberts said health care employees are still prohibited from performing abortions in cases of infertile pregnancies that they know are likely to prove fatal – for instance when the fetus organs are missing or it’s implanted outside the uterus – until it actually becomes fatal.

“We were told we had to wait until the mother had sepsis to intervene,” Roberts said.

In addition to the physical danger, there’s also the psychological trauma of getting to carry a fetus that the mother knows will never be a healthy baby, Roberts said.

“They feel the kick for months after being told they will never be born live,” Roberts said. “And it’s just terrifying when you can take care of it at 20 weeks and they can move on, and with the next pregnancy they can get pregnant and be able to hold their babies much earlier.”

Biden’s campaign was quick to blame the “extreme” six-week ban imposed on former President Donald Trump.

“Trump worries that voters will hold him accountable for the cruelty and chaos he has created. He is true. Trump has taken away the rights and freedoms of women in America. This November, voters will teach him a worthwhile lesson: Don’t mess with America’s women,” President Joe Biden said in an announcement on the brand new abortion ban.

Vice President Kamala Harris will also criticize the six-week abortion ban at an event in Jacksonville on Wednesday.

She said an enormous problem with the ban is that doctors who perform emergency abortions must learn the procedures while performing therapeutic abortions. So if most abortions are banned, the subsequent generation of doctors will not find a way to develop the talents needed to perform emergency abortions.

Roberts expressed concern that the restrictions would also cause veteran doctors to leave Florida, as has happened in other states which have enacted abortion bans.

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“We’re going to have less access to care for the entire population, even if it’s just basic maternity care and regular maternity care, because people are leaving,” Roberts said.

Additionally, women will have to travel removed from home to have an abortion. Florida Access Network Executive Director Stephanie Pineiro said the organization, which helps finance abortions, expects costs to increase dramatically. He estimates it will cost about $3,000 for a lady to travel to one other state for an abortion. The closest place after week 12 will be Virginia or Illinois, but before week 12 it will be North Carolina.

“Dealing with these types of barriers and having to leave your home is very emotionally draining and challenging,” Pineiro said.

The Florida Supreme Court, made up of 5 of seven members appointed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, issued a 6-1 ruling last month upholding the state’s ban on most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, clearing the best way for a six-week ban. The 15-week ban, signed by DeSantis in 2022, was enforced after it was challenged in court. The six-week ban, passed by the Legislature a 12 months later, was written to take effect just one month after the 2022 law went into effect.

Republican Sen. Erin Grall, who sponsored the six-week ban, previously said bodily autonomy mustn’t include abortion.

“We live in a time where the consequences of our actions are marginalized and convenience replaces responsibility,” Grall said, “which is unacceptable when it comes to protecting the most vulnerable.”

Voters can have the chance to write abortion rights into Florida’s structure after a separate ruling by the state Supreme Court allowed a proposed constitutional amendment to be placed on the November ballot. The proposal states: “No law shall prohibit, penalize, delay, or restrict abortion before it is feasible or when necessary to protect the patient’s health, as determined by the patient’s health care provider.” It provides one exception that’s already included within the state structure: Parents have to be notified before their minor children can have an abortion.

Florida Democrats hope young voters will vote to strengthen abortion rights as a way to combat the 900,000 voter registration advantage Republicans have over Democrats within the state. They hope that moderate views on the ballot initiative will cause younger voters to vote for a Democrat when faced with a binary alternative between a six-week abortion ban or protecting abortion until it is possible.

Jayden D’Onofrio, chairman of the Florida Future Leaders political motion committee, said young Florida voters have a “real opportunity to shape the electoral landscape.” With abortion rights winning elections across the country, he thinks Florida could encourage young voters to register and vote for Democrats.

Nathan Mitchell, president of the Florida Atlantic University College Republicans, said he would support a complete abortion ban and hoped the amendment wouldn’t be adopted. Mitchell said he has seen most individuals want restrictions on abortion, normally bans inside 10 to 15 weeks of pregnancy.

Most Republican-controlled states have passed abortion bans or restrictions for the reason that U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022. A survey of abortion providers for the Family Planning Association, which advocates for access to abortion, found that Florida had the second-largest increase in the overall variety of abortions performed for the reason that decision was made. State data shows that in 2023, greater than 7,700 women from other states had abortions in Florida.

Democratic leaders in Florida are encouraging women to seek help from abortion funds and resources. On Tuesday, Senate Minority Leader Lauren Book encouraged women to use the funds for abortion travel and urged them to avoid “taking matters into their own hands.”