Florida NOW

From Miami New Times — If you’re pregnant and care about your physical and mental well-being, it’s best to avoid Florida altogether for the foreseeable future, a state reproductive rights group said. It also provided a few recommendations for those unable to flee the Sunshine State.

The Florida National Organization for Women (Florida NOW) has issued an advisory warning “pregnant individuals to avoid travel and relocation to Florida due to the enactment of a near-total ban on abortion.”

The admonition came Wednesday after a year-delayed ban on abortion after six weeks of pregnancy went into effect, renewing concerns among some doctors that women in the state won’t have access to needed health care.

“The ban prohibits abortions from the earliest weeks of pregnancy, when many people don’t even know they are pregnant,” the group said. “Florida’s six-week abortion ban raises significant concerns regarding the availability of essential health care services for pregnant individuals with both wanted and unwanted pregnancies.”

For pregnant women in Florida who can’t leave, Florida NOW recommended four resources:

§ Charley, a confidential abortion chatbot built by a former president of Planned Parenthood that can steer users to help and walk them through their options.

§ INeedAnA, a website through which visitors can find a “legitimate abortion provider” and the closest and soonest appointment.

§ AbortionFunds, a nonprofit dedicated to helping people with abortion-related financial and logistical issues.

§ Plan C, which provides access to abortion pills by mail in all 50 states.

“Florida NOW will not stop fighting for Reproductive Freedom,” the group’s president, Debbie DeLand, said in a statement. “We urge all Floridians to renew their vote-by-mail registration and vote Yes on 4 in November to restore abortion access and get politicians out of our personal medical decisions.”

“Yes on 4” refers to a question on the November ballot that will ask voters to approve an amendment to the Florida Constitution prohibiting any law limiting the ability to obtain an abortion before fetal viability (generally 20-25 weeks into a term).

The Florida Supreme Court approved the ballot language April 1. To pass, Amendment 4 must receive a “yes” vote by at least 60% of voters.

The six-week ban replaces a 15-week restriction that included no exceptions for rape or incest. Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the lengthier ban during a press conference at a Kissimmee, Fla., church in April 2022. He quietly signed the six-week ban, dubbed the “Heartbeat Protection Act,” a year later. It allows for abortion up to the 15th week of pregnancy in cases of human trafficking, incest or rape, including statutory rape.

If a doctor determines a pregnant woman is at risk of death, “substantial and irreversible harm,” or if the fetus has a fatal abnormality, abortion is permitted through the first two trimesters.

The six-week ban was on hold while legal challenges against the 15-week ban lawmakers passed two months before the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade moved through the court system.

Last month, the Florida Supreme Court ruled 6-1 to uphold the 15-week ban. That enabled the six-week ban, written to take effect a month after the 2022 law was upheld, to replace it.

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