(BOCA RATON, Fla.) — Florida’s ban on most abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, before many women even know they are pregnant, took effect Wednesday, and some doctors are concerned that women in the state no longer have access to necessary services. health care.
Leah Roberts, a reproductive endocrinologist and fertility specialist at Boca Fertility in Boca Raton, said the anti-abortion laws enacted by Florida and other red states are being vaguely written by people who don’t understand medical science. The rules are affecting not only women who want therapeutic abortions, i.e. procedures to terminate viable pregnancies due to personal choice, but also non-viable pregnancies for women who want to have children.
“We are standing between them and their doctors and preventing them from receiving 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 involving rape and incest, but Roberts said health care providers are still prevented from performing an abortion on a non-viable pregnancy that they know could become deadly – as when the fetus is missing organs or implanted outside the uterus – until it actually becomes deadly.
“We were told we have 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 having to carry a fetus that the mother knows will never be a healthy baby, Roberts said.
“They have been feeling kicks for months after being told they will never have a live birth,” Roberts said. “And it’s just horrible when you can take care of it at 20 weeks, and they can move on, and they’ll be able to get pregnant in the next pregnancy and be able to hold their babies much sooner.”
Biden’s campaign quickly blamed former President Donald Trump for the “extreme” six-week ban.
“Trump is worried that voters will hold him accountable for the cruelty and chaos he has created. He’s right. Trump took away the rights and freedoms of women in America. This November, voters will teach you a valuable lesson: Don’t mess with the women of America,” President Joe Biden said in a statement about the new abortion ban.
Vice President Kamala Harris will also criticize the six-week abortion ban during an event Wednesday in Jacksonville.
She said a big problem with the ban is that doctors who perform emergency abortions have to learn the procedures by performing therapeutic abortions. Therefore, 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 is concerned that the restrictions will also lead veteran doctors to leave Florida, as they have done in other states that have banned abortions.
“We’re going to have less access to care for our general population, even if it’s just basic maternity care and normal obstetrical and gynecological care, because people are leaving,” Roberts said.
Additionally, women will have to travel far from home to have an abortion. Florida Access Network Executive Director Stephanie Pineiro said the organization, which helps provide funding for abortions, expects costs to rise dramatically. She estimates it will cost about $3,000 for a woman to travel to another state for an abortion. The closest location after 12 weeks would be Virginia or Illinois, but before 12 weeks would be North Carolina.
“It is very exhausting and emotionally challenging to deal with these types of barriers and having to leave the house,” said Pineiro.
The Florida Supreme Court, with five of its seven members appointed by Republican Gov. 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 ban on six weeks. The 15-week ban, signed by DeSantis in 2022, was enforced while being challenged in court. The six-week ban, approved by the Legislature a year later, was written so that it would not take effect until a month after the 2022 law was passed.
Republican state Sen. Erin Grall, who sponsored the six-week ban, previously said bodily autonomy should not include abortion.
“We live in a time where the consequences of our actions are an afterthought and convenience has replaced responsibility,” said Grall, “and that is unacceptable when it comes to protecting the most vulnerable.”
Voters will be able to enshrine the right to abortion in Florida’s constitution after a separate ruling by the state Supreme Court allowed a proposed constitutional amendment to be voted on in November. The proposal says, “no law shall prohibit, penalize, delay, or restrict abortion prior to viability or when necessary to protect the health of the patient, as determined by the patient’s health care provider.” It provides for an exception that is already in the state constitution: parents must be notified before their minor children can have an abortion.
Florida Democrats hope young voters will vote to enshrine the right to abortion as a way to combat the 900,000 voter registration advantage that Republicans have over Democrats in the state. They hope that moderate views on the ballot initiative will cause younger voters to vote Democratic when faced with the binary choice between banning abortion for six weeks or protecting abortion until viability.
Jayden D’Onofrio, president of Florida’s Future Leaders political action committee, said Florida’s young voters have a “real opportunity to shape the electoral landscape.” Given that abortion rights have prevailed in elections across the country, he thinks Florida can engage young voters to register and vote Democratic.
Nathan Mitchell, president of the Florida Atlantic University College Republicans, said he would support a complete abortion ban and hopes the amendment does not pass. Mitchell said he has seen most people want restrictions on abortion, generally bans within 10 to 15 weeks of pregnancy.
Most Republican-controlled states have adopted abortion bans or restrictions since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Wade in June 2022. A survey of abortion providers conducted for the Family Planning Society, which advocates for abortion access, found that Florida had the second largest increase in the total number of abortions performed since the ruling. State data shows that more than 7,700 women from other states have had abortions in Florida in 2023.
Florida Democratic leaders are encouraging women to seek help from abortion funds and resources. On Tuesday, Senate Minority Leader Lauren Book encouraged women to access funds for abortion travel and urged them to avoid “taking matters into their own hands.”
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Matat reported from West Palm Beach, Florida. Nancy Benac contributed to this report from Washington.
This story originally appeared on Time.com read the full story
