Kate Anderson
Florida may potentially see a record-high number of abortions this year, despite the state Legislature passing a fetal heartbeat law in April, according to Florida’s Voice.
In 2021, the Sunshine State reported 79,817 abortions, which jumped up to 82,581 by 2022 and this year the state has recorded 72,087 as of Dec. 1, according to data from the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration. Florida’s number of abortions has continued to climb despite Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis signing a six-week ban into law in May and may eclipse previous years’ numbers, according to Florida’s Voice.
This year’s numbers are roughly 10,000 shy of 2022, but past reports showed that for the last two years the agency has not finished updating the data until as late as June of the next year.
Florida’s law provides limited exceptions for rape, incest or human trafficking which is allowed up until 15 weeks gestation, according to the text. The legislation also made exceptions if the life of the mother is threatened and in cases of fatal fetal abnormalities until the third trimester of pregnancy.
The law is currently on hold until the state Supreme Court rules on an earlier law that banned the procedure after 15 weeks, according to WGCU, a local media outlet. As a result, Planned Parenthood reported that their clinics have continued to see high levels of women coming from both in and out of state to get abortions.
“We are seeing a lot of in-state and out-of-state individuals who are having to travel farther to receive care,” Miranda Colavito, with Planned Parenthood communications, said in a statement to WGCU.
DeSantis has touted the heartbeat bill during his presidential campaign and taken heat from former President Donald Trump, who called the legislation “too harsh” in May. Since the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade in June 2022, almost half of the states in the United States have enacted some limit on abortion access, according to CNN.
Abortion advocates in Florida are working to get an amendment on the ballot for 2024 that would enshrine abortion rights into the state Constitution. Republican state Attorney General Ashley Moody recently submitted language for the proposal to the Florida Supreme Court for review, noting that she felt the language did not “satisfy the legal requirements” to be placed on the ballot.
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