Florida’s 6-week abortion ban to go into effect this week | CNN

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A stricter abortion law takes effect Wednesday in Florida that cuts the states’ 15-week ban to a six-week ban and will likely affect thousands of people seeking abortion care in the first month alone.

Florida has become a key abortion access point amid widespread restrictions that have taken hold in the region in the two years since the US Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision overturned Roe v. Wade. It is also one of the most populous states in the country.

Last year, 1 in 3 abortions in the South and about 1 in 12 nationally occurred in Florida, according to data from the Guttmacher Institute, a research and policy organization focused on sexual and reproductive health that gives support for abortion rights. In 2023, there were about 7,000 abortions in Florida each month, and more than 9,000 people traveled from other states to get abortions in Florida throughout the year, the data show.

Many women don’t know they’re pregnant until six weeks after their last menstrual period, and other states that have enacted laws with this early gestation limit saw significant cuts in abortion care. In Texas, the number of abortions performed within the formal health care system was roughly halved after a six-week abortion ban that took effect in 2021, and there were thousands of births more than expected the following year. In South Carolina, there was a 70% drop in abortions just one month after the state imposed a six-week limit.

But tighter restrictions in Florida could have an even more significant effect than historical trends suggest because Florida has been absorbing patients from other states that already have stricter limits. So far this year, more than 1,300 people from other states have traveled to Florida for an abortion, nearly one-tenth of all abortions in the state through 2024, according to state health agency data.

Of the 16 southern states, nine have banned abortion. Florida will join Georgia and South Carolina with a six-week ban. That leaves just three states in this US census region, Delaware, Maryland and Virginia, where abortion remains legal after the first trimester and North Carolina with a 12-week limit.

In terms of the number of people affected, this certainly has the potential to be one of the most impactful policy changes to occur in recent months and that is not to minimize these other policy changes, which have also caused huge amounts of damages and actual barriers to access, Isaac Maddow-Zimet, a data scientist at the Guttmacher Institute who is a lead researcher on an ongoing project tracking abortions in the US, told CNN. Everything is so interconnected. As there are more barriers to access, and especially in the Southeast, and as care options become more and more limited, it really exacerbates those obstacles even more than we would have otherwise thought.

A 2022 study found that the average travel time to an abortion facility more than tripled in the first months after the Dobbs decision. The effects were significantly severe in some southern states such as Texas and Louisiana, where average travel times to the nearest abortion facility were seven hours longer, adding nearly a full workday to travel time. to abort

For this study, the researchers considered abortion facilities in states with full bans and those with six-week limits to be inactive. The recently implemented bans reduced the number of active providers by about a tenth. In the year and a half since, the abortion landscape in the US has only fractured further, and Florida’s new six-week ban would affect a significant number of facilities that remain in the South.

Providers and patients have had 30 days to prepare since the Florida Supreme Court first issued the decision that paved the way for the new restrictions.

Amber Gavin, vice president of advocacy and operations for A Womans Choice, an independent abortion clinic with locations in Florida, North Carolina and Virginia, said questions from patients began to emerge right after the judge’s ruling. April 1 Whenever abortion is in the news, chaos and confusion follow, he said.

The Florida clinic is committed to staying open and providing care whenever it can and making sure it communicates well, Gavin said. It is also preparing for the possibility of another change in November.

Florida is one of three states, along with Maryland and New York, that have secured abortion measures on the 2024 election ballot. In Florida, the amendment to limit government interference with abortion would protect the right to abortion to the point of viability or to protect patients’ health as determined by their healthcare provider. Ten more states are considering adding abortion-related measures, some to protect access and others that could restrict access.

(The Florida Supreme Court decision) was really the worst case scenario a landmark decision for us because it overturned 40 years of precedent, Gavin said. But I think it’s also hopefully going to motivate people and get people out in November to make sure that the government doesn’t interfere in these really personal decisions.

Meanwhile, abortion funds in the United States are bracing for an increase in the need for patients who may be displaced by Florida’s more restrictive law.

The Tampa Bay Abortion Fund predicts that at least 90 percent of callers to its hotline will be affected by a six-week abortion ban and will have to seek abortion care outside of Florida. The Chicago Abortion Fund has strengthened programs and capacity in direct anticipation of this Florida high court decision, and staff estimates they will need an additional $100,000 each month to absorb the increase in Floridians and other Southerners seeking support for an abortion.

Every TBAFund caller already faces one or more barriers to care, such as a lack of funding, transportation, child care, or an abortion clinic close to their community. The six-week ban will only exacerbate these barriers in the cruelest way, Kris Lawler, president of the Tampa Bay Abortion Fund Board, said in a statement.