Florida‘s six-week abortion ban has come into force, closing the door – for now – on the last abortion access point in the US South.
Anti-abortion campaigners have celebrated the new legislation – which replaces an existing 15-week law – as the gold standard of abortion policy and a major victory in the country’s battle over abortion access. But pro-choice campaigners say the ban will push an overstretched system to the brink.
They worry the new law in Florida, which had been the last state in the region without a near-total ban, will effectively cut off abortion access for more than 21 million women of reproductive age across nearly a dozen states. This essentially creates an abortion desert in the south-east part of our country,” said Michelle Quesada, a spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood of South, East and North Florida. “This will be devastating.”
But the change may be undone as soon as November, when Floridians will vote on a ballot measure known as Amendment 4, which could protect abortion access until around 24 weeks of pregnancy.
Both the new ban and the looming vote have set up perhaps the highest-stakes abortion fight since the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade two years ago and rescinded the nationwide right to abortion.
After that landmark ruling in June 2022, most Republican-controlled states moved to restrict abortion outright or at six weeks gestation, a point at which many women do not yet know they are pregnant.Abortion there was legal until 15 weeks, making it a relative haven for women seeking the procedure in the region.
After Roe v Wade was overturned, Florida became “one of the main points of access for abortion care within the formal healthcare system in the south”, said Isaac Maddow-Zimet, a data scientist at the pro-choice research group the Guttmacher Institute.
More than 84,000 abortions took place in Florida last year – a 12% jump from 2020. More than half of that increase is attributed to out-of-state patients, Mr Maddow-Zimmet said, an estimated 9,000 people in 2023 alone.
Florida’s new law restricts abortions after six weeks from the date of a woman’s last menstrual period.
Patients must also appear for two in-person appointments spaced at least 24-hours apart – a requirement that providers say will be a challenge in an already restrictive time window.
The new law “makes it virtually impossible for people to be able to access care in time”, said Daniela Martins, a spokeswoman for the Women’s Emergency Network (WEM), an abortion fund in south Florida.
The law includes limited exceptions for victims of rape, incest, or human trafficking up until 15 weeks of pregnancy, with patients required to show documentation such as medical records or a police report. It also includes exceptions for fatal foetal abnormalities and for the life of the pregnant person.
Source: BBC
In other news – Pam Andrews on why she gave up acting
She was introduced to the limelight when was part of the Coca-Cola Pop Stars group, 101, in 2002 and made her acting debut on the soapie, Backstage.
Then she moved on to e-tv’s Rhythm City. Singer and actress Pam Andrews has since relocated to the UK where she lives with her son and has quit acting. She explained how post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) affected her life and made her struggle with going back to acting. Read more
