Florida's stricter ban on abortions could put more pressure on clinics elsewhere

Members of the Democratic Steering & Policy Committee Field Hearing on Reproductive Freedom meet, Tuesday, April 2, 2024, in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. The drive to Bristol, Virginia, from Jacksonville, Florida, takes more than eight hours. It's over 10 from Orlando and closer to 14 from Miami. Despite that distance, Bristol Women’s Health Center is preparing for an influx of women from Florida seeking abortions when a stricter ban kicks in next month.

On Monday, the Florida Supreme Court upheld the state's ban on abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy. That step allows another, stricter ban to take effect on May 1, making abortion illegal in the state after six weeks' gestation — before many women realize they're pregnant. The ban includes exceptions for pregnancies caused by rape, incest or human trafficking, or that threaten the life or physical health or the woman and for fatal fetal anomalies.

And getting to a provider elsewhere, she said, will drive the average cost of abortion — including transportation, lodging, meals, child care and clinic fees — to around $4,000, about twice what it is now. That will strain organizations like hers, which already often hits its budget limit well before the end of the month, as they shift to helping people get care elsewhere.

And that only gets patients to North Carolina, where two in-person visits are required 72 hours apart to receive an abortion — and only for the first 12 weeks of pregnancy in most cases.Some areas already have long drives to the nearest abortion providers — eight hours from San Antonio, Texas, to Santa Teresa, New Mexico, for instance, and nine from New Orleans to Carbondale, Illinois, or Houston to Wichita, Kansas.

The total number of abortions in the country has been roughly stable since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and ended a nationwide right to abortion in 2022. But the details have changed.

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