Laws restricting abortions during the sixth week of pregnancy (often when the fetus’s heartbeat stops) can be detected — Scheduled to go into effect Wednesday in Florida.
The six-week abortion limit comes after Florida’s Supreme Court ruled April 1 to uphold the state’s 15-week abortion limit. The court’s decision to keep the 15-week limit in place clears the way for the state’s six-week abortion limit to take effect. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) signed a six-week heartbeat bill in April 2023 that includes exceptions for rape, incest, and maternal life. The state Supreme Court allowed the six-week limit to remain in place pending a ruling on the 15-week limit.
Florida has become an abortion destination in the South, with nine states in the region passing near-total abortion restrictions, and Georgia and South Carolina passing six-week restrictions since the Supreme Court ruling. . Dobbs overturned decision Roe vs. Wade And it returned the issue of abortion to each state.in front DobbsAbortion is legal in Florida up to 24 weeks of pregnancy.
in 2023, more than 84,000 women had abortions in Florida, more than most states. Of those women, 7,736 reported coming from out of state, up from 6,726. in 2022, according to data from the Health Care Administration Agency (AHCA). AHCA is already recorded So far this year, 14,735 abortions have been performed, 1,316 of which were performed by women from out of state.
Pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute Public data They found that one in three abortions in the South and one in 12 nationwide occurs in Florida. Guttmacher also reported that Florida has an even higher number of women coming from out of state for abortions, more than 9,000.
Florida has also joined the ranks of southern states with stricter abortion laws, making women less likely to travel from surrounding states to get an abortion.
“For someone living in the southernmost part of Florida, the closest abortion clinic would be in Charlotte, a 14-hour drive away. Patients whose pregnancy has progressed past 12 weeks, the threshold at which North Carolina prohibits abortions, I have to drive 17 hours to southern Virginia.” washington post report.
said Kelly Flynn, president and CEO of A Woman’s Choice, a network of abortion clinics. post “People are scrambling to get abortions” before the law takes effect.
“We tell them, ‘Hey, it’s going to be busy.’ We don’t want them coming in blind.” Flynn said.
In upholding the 15-week limit and paving the way for the six-week limit, the Florida Supreme Court also ruled that: amendment It would enshrine the right to abortion in the state constitution, which will appear on the ballot in November.
This amendment is supported by Floridians Defending Freedom. union A group of left-wing organizations such as Planned Parenthood and the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida (ACLU), the state states that before the period of viability (approximately 24 weeks) or “to protect a patient’s health at the discretion of the patient’s health care provider,” prohibits restrictions on abortion in cases of “necessity”. provider. ”
If Florida voters pass the measure with at least 60 percent support in November, the amendment would rescind the six-week limit, which would essentially only be reversed by another ballot measure or a difficult legal battle. It would create a permanent right to abortion within states that allow for abortion.
Abortion activists supporting the bill exceeded the number of signatures needed in January, state officials said, and the measure will be placed on the general election ballot as a “Fourth Amendment.” It is planned to be published as.
President Joe Biden’s re-election campaign deserves special attention released A memo shortly after the Florida Supreme Court’s decision was announced said it believed the state could win because of the state’s continued strategy to energize Democrats on the abortion issue. Biden visited Tampa last week to campaign for abortion, and Vice President Kamala Harris is scheduled to travel to Jacksonville on Wednesday to deliver a pro-abortion speech as six weeks of restrictions take effect. post report.
BREAKING: Ron DeSantis says Joe Biden won’t win Florida with his pro-life campaign.https://t.co/BiCmO6s0QJ pic.twitter.com/5uvcwT1WW4
— LifeNews.com (@LifeNewsHQ) April 30, 2024
DeSantis on Tuesday called the six-week limit a “noble initiative” and said he was not concerned about Democrats using abortion to win back Florida in November. Former President Donald Trump led the state by 370,000 votes in 2020, and as of March 31, Republicans had a nearly 900,000-vote voter registration advantage over Democrats in the state. according to in the Florida constituency.
“We welcome Biden-Harris to put a lot of money into Florida. Light up the airwaves. Do it. Light the fire,” DeSantis said at a news conference in Tampa. “We have no problem with you doing that here. But I can confidently predict that we’re going to see Republican wins not just at the top of the polls, but up and down the polls. ”
Katherine Hamilton is a political reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her at @thekat_Hamilton.
