As six-week Florida abortion ban law takes hold, advocates look to ballot

Florida’s new law banning most abortions after six weeks of pregnancy takes effect Wednesday, dramatically restricting access in a state where more than 84,000 procedures were performed last year, including those for thousands of women from neighboring states. 

Florida now joins most states in the Southeast with strict limits or outright bans, likely forcing many women to travel widely in a complicated race-against-time to end a pregnancy. 

The change from the state’s current 15-week limit was set in motion last year by the Republican-dominated Legislature and signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis shortly before he launched his unsuccessful presidential campaign. 

Abortion rights advocates have been bracing for the new limit, acknowledging its impact will be profound in coming months. 

“We’re estimating that we won’t be able to provide abortions to about half our patients,” said Laura Goodhue, executive director of Florida Planned Parenthood. “They’ll either be forced to carry the pregnancy to term or travel out of state. Fewer than 10% of our patients now are before six weeks.” 

Still, the health news site KFF, relying on 2021 data from 41 states, said that about 45% of abortions across the nation occur before the sixth week of pregnancy. 

Vice President Kamala Harris going to Jacksonville

Although both abortion rights groups and anti-abortion advocates have said they are not planning major events to mark the new law kicking-in, Vice President Kamala Harris plans an appearance Wednesday in Jacksonville to underscore what's being called the need for “reproductive freedom” across the country. 

President Joe Biden was in Tampa last week to condemn Florida’s new law and his Republican rival, former President Donald Trump, who he said has created a “health care crisis for women all over this country.” 

Although Trump has ridiculed Florida’s six-week law, the former president’s appointment of three conservative U.S. Supreme Court justices led the way to the 2022 Dobbs decision, overturning Roe v. Wade and eliminating the constitutional right to abortion. 

How Fla's new abortion law works:In Florida, pregnant people have 6 weeks to make life-changing decision. Why deadline matters

States can now decide abortion laws, an approach Trump said he supports. Over the past two years, 14 states have banned abortion and six states have gestational limits in effect of between six and 15 weeks. 

Florida quickly shifted to its 15-week law just before the Dobbs ruling was released, turning that into the six-week ban that goes into effect this week. The six-week law was set to go on the books after the Florida Supreme Court ruled April 1 that the state constitutional right to privacy doesn’t protect abortion access.  

Five of the current seven justices were appointed by DeSantis. 

Ballot measure holds some hope for abortion rights advocates

The justices, though, also ruled on April 1 that a ballot measure could go before Florida voters in November that would erase the six-week standard.

If approved by no less than 60% of voters statewide, the abortion access measure would allow most abortions to occur up to fetal viability, usually considered 24 weeks of pregnancy. That was Florida’s law before the 2022 Dobbs decision. 

“We’ve been navigating this landscape for two years now,” said Jessica Hatem, executive director of Emergency Medical Assistance of West Palm Beach, among 100 organizations across the country that operate under the National Network of Abortion Funds, which help women seeking to travel from their home state to obtain an abortion. 

Hatem said, however, that almost equally critical is that Florida has now been removed from the shrinking map of states where abortion was available until 15 weeks of pregnancy.  

The state’s huge population – it had the nation’s fourth largest number of abortions performed last year – will be impossible to absorb, Hatem said.  

Virginia and North Carolina, where later-week abortions can be performed, or even New York, Illinois and Washington, D.C., where abortions until fetal viability can be obtained, will be hard-pressed to serve Floridians fleeing the state, she said. 

“All of these clinics have seen an influx of patients,” Hatem said. “But the need continues to grow as these restrictions become worse and worse.” 

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Many patients are low-income, have never flown in plane

Directing patients to other states is difficult. Hatem said that most of her clients are low-income. Many have never traveled by plane.  

North Carolina, a state that allows abortions up to 12-weeks of pregnancy, is not a common destination for many because it has a 72-hour waiting period, which makes it difficult for women with dependent children or family members to travel. 

Florida has a 24-hour waiting period before an abortion. 

Andrew Shirvell, founder and executive director of Florida Voice for the Unborn, said his organization will be holding its monthly online prayer gathering on the eve of the new law taking effect. 

Abortion rights advocates have said they don’t envision any legal path to blocking implementation of the new law. But Shirvell said he is wary. 

“We’re going to continue to pray it goes forward as planned,” he said. “It’s long overdue.” 

Shirvell said he is confident the abortion access ballot proposal will fail to reach its needed level of support in November. But he acknowledged that the potential disruption that could emerge in coming weeks as Floridians face the strict new abortion law could hurt his side. 

“The Supreme Court has really given the ‘pro’ side time to rally for their amendment,” Shirvell said. 

State Rep. Anna Eskamani, D-Orlando, said many Floridians are going to be shocked by the new law they face.

Clinics have been engaged in patient education and stand by to help them travel to other states, but the six-week standard has not really set in for many, she said. 

“There is always an information gap,” said Eskamani, a former Planned Parenthood leader in Florida. “The reality is, most people don’t know what the status of abortion is in their state until they need an abortion.” 

John Kennedy is a reporter in the USA TODAY Network’s Florida Capital Bureau. He can be reached at jkennedy2@gannett.com, or on X at @JKennedyReport