MIAMI, FL – Today, Florida’s six-week abortion ban goes into effect. The ban prohibits abortions from the earliest weeks of pregnancy when many don’t yet know they are pregnant. As of today, patients in Florida and throughout the Southeast will have to travel as far as North Carolina to obtain abortion care after six weeks. For those who are unable to travel out of state, they will be forced to carry their pregnancies to term against their will.
Kara Gross, legislative director and senior policy counsel at the ACLU of Florida, issued the following statement:
“Florida’s near-total abortion ban will have devastating impacts on pregnant patients throughout Florida and the entire Southeast. The reality is that many people do not realize they are pregnant at six weeks. By the time most people know they are pregnant, they will not be able to access the care they need in Florida.
"Additionally, the narrowly tailored exceptions are unworkable in practice and will result in patients being forced to carry doomed pregnancies to term and endure life-threatening complications before receiving necessary healthcare.
“Doctors will have to choose between providing time-sensitive, medically necessary care and risking criminal prosecution. No one should be forced to travel thousands of miles across state lines in search of essential health care.
“We cannot begin to know what someone else is going through. Extreme bans like these do not account for the very real and dire circumstances pregnant people and their families face.
“Abortion is a personal medical decision that patients and doctors should have the freedom to make for themselves and their families– without government interference. It is horrifying that extremist politicians have forced pregnant people and their healthcare providers into this nightmare. But it does not have to be this way.
"This November, we have the opportunity to make sure that personal medical decisions are between Floridians and their healthcare providers, and not politicians.
"Amendment 4, which limits government interference with abortion, will be on the ballot this November and we must all vote yes on 4 to ensure that the freedom to determine whether and when to grow our family remains with the people– not politicians."
