The two years since the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade have seen total or near-total abortion bans in Texas, Oklahoma, and Georgia, and the latest state to potentially join that list is Florida, where the state Supreme Court recently issued a ruling that clears the way for a six-week abortion ban to take effect in May. Find everything you need to know about this issue below, including the impact that the Florida Supreme Court’s ruling could have on people seeking abortions in Florida and throughout the South, how President Joe Biden has responded, and the November ballot measure that could potentially protect abortion in Florida (if, that is, enough voters approve it):
What did the Florida Supreme Court ruling say?
The Florida Supreme Court ruled that a bill signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis that would ban abortion at six weeks of pregnancy (or, in practical terms, before the majority of people even know they’re pregnant) is constitutional under state law.
How does this affect Floridians seeking abortions?
It’s hard to overstate how severely this ruling will affect people seeking abortions in Florida. The state already requires patients seeking abortions to complete two in-person doctor visits with a 24-hour waiting period in between, something that was already a challenge to abortion-seeking patients under Florida’s previous 15-week abortion ban.
What about abortion-seekers traveling from states with even more restrictive bans?
Florida has functioned as a haven of sorts for abortion-seeking patients coming from other states that have even less access to reproductive care (which is hard to imagine, given that some 73% of Florida counties had no clinics that provided abortions and the numbers have only gone down since then.) The six-week ban that goes into effect this May, then, is likely to have an outsized impact not only on Florida residents but on pregnant people around the country (and the South in particular).
Is there any hope for the future of abortion in Florida?
Technically, yes; while the conservative-leaning Florida Supreme Court did rule to uphold the six-week abortion ban on Monday, it also paved the way for Floridians to weigh in on a November ballot measure that has the potential to protect abortion in the state (that is, if 60% or more of voters approve it). The initiative, which is known as Amendment 4, would allow abortion up to the point of fetal viability, which is generally around 24 weeks into a pregnancy.
Has the Biden administration responded to Florida’s potential abortion ban?
Biden called the Florida Supreme Court’s decision “outrageous” and “extreme” on Wednesday, with campaign manager Julie Chávez Rodríguez telling reporters: “Donald Trump is directly to blame for the fact that abortion has now been effectively banned across the entire Southeastern United States. Make no mistake, Donald Trump will do everything in his power to try and enact a national abortion ban if he’s re-elected.”
