Florida's six-week abortion ban takes effect
TAMPA, Fla. - Florida’s law restricting abortion after six weeks of pregnancy officially goes into effect on Wednesday, replacing the state’s 15-week abortion ban.
Earlier this month, the Florida Supreme Court ruled that a privacy clause in the state Constitution does not protect abortion rights. That overturned legal precedents dating to 1989 and effectively gave the go-ahead to the six-week limit.
Critics of the law maintain that the six-week restriction amounts to a virtual ban on abortions.
The six-week window in which a woman in Florida may seek an abortion begins on the date of a woman’s last period, typically weeks before she can even get pregnant. Many critics argue many women won’t know they’re pregnant by the six-week deadline, as defined in the law.
The ban does have exceptions for documented cases of rape, incest, and human trafficking up to 15 weeks of pregnancy.
READ: Florida Supreme Court approves abortion, marijuana amendments for November ballot
An abortion can also be provided in cases of a 'fatal fetal abnormality,' when a woman’s life is at stake, or if she faces ‘substantial and irreversible" physical impairments.’
According to many critics, the terms used by the law are not consistent with medical terminology and leave decisions in dangerous scenarios up to the interpretation of lawyers, not doctors.
"There is not technically a good definition for fatal fetal anomaly or abnormality, which is what makes the law and this exception very vague," said Planned Parenthood Dr. Robyn Schickler. "It makes it hard to know what qualifies."
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The vagaries of the law are what concern fertility doctors like Dr. Leah Roberts, a reproductive endocrinologist and fertility specialist in Boca Raton.
"Unfortunately, these laws are being written by people who don't really understand medical care, and so they're affecting a larger swath of the population than what they're meant to be affecting. So we're seeing patients who have highly desired pregnancies that are incompatible with life, that are unable to access the care they need," said Roberts.
As Roberts recently explained to the Associated Press, healthcare workers under Florida’s six-week ban are prevented from performing an abortion on a nonviable pregnancy that they know will eventually become deadly, until it actually becomes deadly.
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"We're being told that we have to wait until the mother is septic to be able to intervene, and these procedures just can be taken care of so simply. And if a woman gets septic from an incomplete abortion, it can affect their ability to have children in the future. So, it can make them completely infertile. It can make them need a hysterectomy," said Roberts.
Some supporters of Florida’s new six-week abortion law say they hope to see lawmakers push even further for an outright ban on abortion.
"The ultimate goal should be enshrining personhood for the unborn into constitutions, whether that is state constitutions or whether that's federal constitutions. That should be the ultimate aim," said Scott Mathurin of Florida Preborn Rescue.
Mathurin says exceptions, even in cases of rape and incest, violate the rights of the unborn.
"When you talk about rape and incest, you're talking about crimes, and so we are in favor of punishing those that commit crimes. The person that perpetrates rape or perpetrates incest should be punished, not the child that’s the product of that in that situation," explained Mathurin.
Community Pregnancy Clinics -- a pregnancy resource organization with locations in Sarasota, Naples, Fort Myers, and Gainesville -- also supports abortion restrictions, sharing the following statement with FOX 13:
"Community Pregnancy Clinics continues to remain focused, as we have for the past fifty years, on its mission to provide care, compassion and choices to women experiencing an unintended pregnancy," CEO Scott Baier said. "Our focus is making sure women’s health is protected, and that they have access to all the information they need to make the best choice for themselves and their baby. We are here to provide medical services while making sure she is aware of all her options and that she has the support she needs to make her decision. Abortion is a permanent decision, with lasting consequences and no woman should be coerced, pressured or rushed to obtain an abortion out of fear or because of a lack of knowledge of the resources available to her."
Florida’s new six-week limit means women seeking an abortion now must travel hundreds of miles for the procedure. North Carolina allows abortions up to 12 weeks of pregnancy and Virginia uses the viability standard that Florida lawmakers eschewed after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.
Planned Parenthood of Florida says it’s already begun referring patients who were unable to see their doctors before Florida’s new law took effect to clinics in other states.
Abortion will be one of the biggest issues in this year’s elections, especially in Florida where the restoration of abortion rights will appear on the ballot.
That’s the reason Vice President Kamala Harris will visit Jacksonville on Wednesday, to advocate for abortion rights as the six-week limit begins.