By Ashlee Banks
Special to the AFRO
Florida residents are flocking to other states to seek abortion care after Gov. Ron DeSantis enacted one of the strictest abortion bans in the nation earlier this month.
Abortion clinics in Maryland, Washington, D.C., North Carolina and Virginia are seeing an influx of Floridians seeking care after DeSantis signed into law a near-total abortion ban that prohibits abortions after six weeks, a time when many women are unaware that they are pregnant.
According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), although some women become aware of their pregnancy a little after five weeks of gestation, other factors can delay the detection of a pregnancy for weeks, including income status, lack of education, mistimed pregnancies, etc.
The abortion ban comes with a few exceptions. If a woman is experiencing life-threatening complications, then a physician can legally terminate her pregnancy. The statute also allows doctors to conduct abortions up to 15 weeks if a woman becomes pregnant as a result of human trafficking, rape or incest.
“The abortion ban is despicable and a violation of both the civil and human rights of people in Florida,” U.S. Rep. Maxwell Frost, D-Fla., told the AFRO.
On the contrary, U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., said he backs the abortion ban.
“I’m for life and I think that we can do a whole lot more in Florida to create a culture of life,” Gaetz told the AFRO. “If I was governor I would’ve signed that bill.”
While conservative politicians like Gaetz and DeSantis support the ban, many Florida residents are experiencing a financial and mental toll and hope to roll back the abortion law.
Frost told the AFRO that a referendum has been added to the ballot in November where “voters will decide whether or not they want to codify abortion rights.”
“We believe it’s going to pass. We focused a lot on our campaign of getting signatures,” the Florida lawmaker added. “So now it’s getting out there and persuading people to get out there to vote.”
This ban comes two years after the U.S. Supreme Court handed down a controversial decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, granting states sole authority to create their own abortion laws. Since then Republican-led states like Georgia, Idaho, Texas, Alabama and Mississippi have enacted some of the harshest abortion bans in the nation.
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