South will feel Florida’s abortion ban
A woman has her vital signs checked prior to an abortion at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Jacksonville, Fla.
The struggle to maintain abortion access in the United States in the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe V. Wade is about to get so much harder. Florida’s draconian ban on terminations after six weeks’ gestation — before many women know they are pregnant — will have a ripple effect on health care access throughout the Southeast after it takes effect May 1.
Florida has been a critical node in America’s ever-dwindling network of abortion providers. In the first 15 months following the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision, as states across the South banned terminations, Florida clinics stepped up — providing nearly 15,200 more abortions compared to the 15 months pre-Dobbs, according to recent data from the Society of Family Planning. Only Illinois, which has become a sanctuary state for abortion care, saw a bigger increase in demand.
In just four short weeks, those women will have to go elsewhere — and will be joined by thousands of Floridians. Taken together, that will mean an estimated 7,000 pregnant women looking to other states for care each month, according to estimates by the Society of Family Planning.
What does that look like? Some might look outside of the conventional health care system. One recent study estimated that the number of self-managed abortions increased by nearly 28,000 during the first six months after Dobbs. These are typically done at home using pills mailed from overseas telehealth providers.
Others will try to travel to North Carolina (which in June imposed a 12-week ban that had an immediate impact on the region) or Virginia (where abortion is legal before the 27th week of pregnancy). People who would have traveled to Florida from neighboring states might soon add to the increase in demand for providers in those states as well as Illinois.
That’s if they can find an appointment. Abortion care providers are worried about the ability of health care providers in those states to meet the anticipated surge in demand.
And, as I’ve written in the past, getting women to haven states requires enormous resources. Patients don’t only need help finding a clinic, getting an appointment and paying for a procedure. They often need help covering the cost of a plane or train ticket, lodging, meals, child care or lost wages. The patient navigation team at one Florida Planned Parenthood affiliate spent more than $15,000 per month on those types of services for patients coming to their eight clinics from neighboring states. That doesn’t account for funds spent by the state’s other Planned Parenthood network or its independent providers.
Still others will carry the pregnancies to term. A recent analysis found that states with abortion bans saw a 2.3% increase in births compared to those with access to abortion care. What does that look like in real terms? One estimate found that Texas saw nearly 10,000 more births in the six months after that state’s ban took effect.
Even without the new six-week ban,
Florida’s previous 15-week cutoff already forced women to endure the harrowing experience of carrying to term an infant that cannot survive. The six-week ban will add to the trauma for women and families.
The exceptions provided in the new law do nothing but feign compassion. While the law would allow an abortion up until 15 weeks’ gestation for a pregnancy resulting from rape or incest, the victim is required to provide a police report or restraining order. Yet studies show time and again that most women do not report their assault. To give a sense of the number of women this could affect, in just the last two years, an estimated 65,000 women have become pregnant due to rape in the states that have banned abortion.
The polls make clear that most Floridians do not want a six-week ban. But even if they decide in November to codify the right to abortion access, pregnant women in Florida — and throughout the Southeast — will face daunting hurdles to health care in the coming months.