The window of time women have access to abortion care in Florida changed overnight one year ago. A six-week abortion ban replaced the state’s 15-week abortion ban from one day to the next.
OB-GYN doctors are seeing the effects play out in their clinics.
Watch NBC6 free wherever you are
WATCH HERE“A lot of times they’re shocked to find out how far along they are to 6 weeks, so there’s this whole shock and awe of ‘I thought I understood how my body works but right now I didn’t even realize I was this far along,'” said Dr. Cherise Felix with Planned Parenthood.
The Agency for Health Care Administration shows 8,682 abortions have taken place in Florida in the first three months of this year. If the numbers remain consistent through December, abortion cases will decrease nearly 60% compared to recent years: 2021, 2022 and 2023, years when the ban was not in effect.
Get local news you need to know to start your day with NBC 6's News Headlines newsletter.
SIGN UP
Dr. Felix says the deadline is backing some patients into a corner.
“To put this kind of pressure on them to decide within a few days what the rest of their lives is going to be is really unfair,” said Dr. Felix. “I think a lot of our patients would’ve opted to not have an abortion had they had time to gather resources and talk to their support system.”
Local
The law allows for exceptions in instances of rape, incest, human trafficking or to save the life of the mother.
Dr. Felix says in reality, it can be challenging to prove those cases, further burdening the patients.
“Proving these things is very hard, it takes time to gather that proof,” said Dr. Felix. “A lot of times those patients end up traveling out of state anyway because as they’re going through the process of proving they were raped, if it’s taking weeks, that’s a huge emotional burden that they have this pregnancy inside of them from somebody that sexually assaulted them.”
The state says 95% of the time, elective or socio-economic issues are the listed reason women choose to have an abortion. That percentage has remained the same even with the ban in place.
57% of the voting public tried to overturn the six-week abortion ban last November. That’s a healthy majority, but 60% was needed to pass Amendment 4 to enshrine abortion access in the state constitution.
