Florida’s 6-week abortion ban takes effect as doctors worry women will lose access to health care

BOCA RATON, Fla. — Florida’s ban on most abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, before many women even know they are pregnant, went into effect Wednesday, and some doctors are concerned that women in the state will no longer have access to needed health care.

Dr. Leah Roberts, a reproductive endocrinologist and fertility specialist at Boca Fertility in Boca Raton, said the anti-abortion laws being passed by Florida and other red states are vaguely written by people who don’t understand medical science. The rules affect not only women seeking therapeutic abortions, that is, procedures to end viable pregnancies based on personal choice, but also non-viable pregnancies of women who want to have children.

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

The new ban has an exception for saving a woman’s life, as well as in cases of rape and incest, but Roberts said health professionals would still not be allowed to perform an abortion on a non-viable pregnancy that they know could be fatal – such as when the fetus is missing organs or is implanted outside the uterus – until it actually becomes fatal.

“We are being told to wait until the mother is septic before we can intervene,” Roberts said.

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

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

She said a major problem with the ban is that doctors who perform emergency abortions must learn the procedures by performing therapeutic abortions. So if most abortions are banned, the next generation of doctors will not be able to develop the skills needed to perform an emergency abortion.

Roberts said she worries the restrictions will also cause experienced doctors to leave Florida, just as they have in other states that have passed abortion bans.

“We’re going to have less access to care for our general population, even if it’s just basic maternity care and normal obstetric care, because people are moving away,” Roberts said.

In addition, women will have to travel far from home to have abortions. Stephanie Pineiro, executive director of Florida Access Network, said the organization, which helps fund abortions, expects costs to rise dramatically. She estimates it will cost a woman about $3,000 to travel to another state for an abortion. The closest place after twelve weeks would be Virginia or Illinois, but before twelve weeks would be North Carolina.

“It’s very emotionally draining and challenging to deal with these types of barriers and having to leave your home,” Pineiro said.

The Florida Supreme Court, with five of the seven members appointed by Republican Governor Ron DeSantis, ruled 6-1 last month to uphold the state’s ban on most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, paving the way for a six-week ban . The 15-week ban, signed by DeSantis in 2022, was upheld while being challenged in court. The six-week ban, which was passed by the Legislature a year later, was written so that it would not go into effect until a month after the 2022 law was signed into law.

Republican Senator Erin Grall, who sponsored the six-week ban, previously said bodily autonomy should not include abortions.

“We live in a time when the consequences of our actions are an afterthought and convenience has replaced responsibility,” Grall said, “and this is unacceptable when it comes to protecting the most vulnerable.”

Voters may be able to enshrine abortion rights in the Florida Constitution after a separate state Supreme Court ruling allowed a proposed constitutional amendment to be approved in November. The proposal says, “no law shall prohibit, penalize, delay, or restrict abortion before viability or when necessary to protect the health of the patient, as determined by the patient’s health care provider.” It provides one exception already in the state constitution: Parents must be notified before their minor children can get an abortion.

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

Jayden D’Onofrio, chairman of the Florida Future Leaders political action committee, said young voters in Florida have a “real opportunity to shape the electoral landscape.” As abortion rights have gained the upper hand in elections across the country, he thinks Florida can get young voters involved in registering and voting for Democrats.

Nathan Mitchell, president of the Florida Atlantic University College Republicans, said he would support a total ban on abortion, and he hopes the amendment does not pass. Mitchell said he has seen most people want restrictions on abortion, usually for a ban within 10 to 15 weeks of pregnancy.

Most Republican-controlled states have passed bans or restrictions on abortion since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022. A survey of abortion providers commissioned by the Society of Family Planning, which advocates for abortion access, found that Florida had the second-largest increase in total abortions since the decision. State data shows that more than 7,700 women from other states had an abortion in Florida in 2023.

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 access abortion travel funds and urged them not to “take matters into their own hands.”

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Matat reported from West Palm Beach, Florida.