Clinics in Florida are still offering services, including abortion, under a six-week ban

Dr. Jeffrey Litt has been delivering babies in Palm Beach County for so long that he now finds himself encountering some of them, adults, when they come to him to deliver their own babies.

Over the nearly four decades he has worked here and the generations of lives he has brought into the world, he can hardly remember a time when abortion care was illegal; he was still a child himself at the time.

Litt is one of thousands of providers in the state now preparing for these circumstances as Florida’s six-week abortion ban — essentially, reproductive health advocates say, a ban on all abortions — takes effect today.

He cannot imagine all the consequences that the ban will bring, but he is sure:

“This will cause unnecessary, life-threatening complications,” Litt said Monday.

The law will ban abortions at a stage of pregnancy when most women have not yet learned they are pregnant, providers say, leading to forced and dangerous pregnancies being carried to term. At the same time, Litt says, it will impose conditions that are antithetical to health care, putting providers in positions that call into question their medical judgment and ethics.

It was Litt who called her years ago, Fran Sachs recalls, to tell her that her desired pregnancy was not viable at thirteen weeks. Under the law that takes effect today, she noted, she would have been forced to travel hundreds of miles for abortion care or continue the pregnancy until she miscarried.

With the implementation of the law taking effect today, Virginia is now the closest state where abortion care is available up to 26 weeks.

Sachs served as president of Emergency Medical Assistance Inc. for more than a decade. and is now a board member of the organization, which helps women find, travel to and cover abortion care costs.

“It is critical that people understand that help is still out there,” she said. The organization has been preparing for months for the needs the new ban will bring, she said. In addition, the budget for EMA, which originally helped with medical and car costs for local abortion care, has increased 50-fold in the past year since the state implemented the state’s previous 15-week abortion restriction, she said.

Women’s clinics are not closing

Abortions within six weeks of pregnancy and reproductive health care, including pregnancy tests and ultrasounds that can help determine the duration of pregnancy, as well as contraception remain available locally.

“The clinics remain open. None are closing,” Sachs said.

A message on the website of the Presidential Women’s Center, an abortion provider in West Palm Beach, reminds women that “abortion is legal in Florida,” with a caveat: “It is critical that you call our office at 561-686- 3859 or as soon as you decide to terminate your pregnancy, request an appointment online as soon as possible.”

Mandatory delays of 24 hours also play a role

The mandatory 24-hour delay for women seeking abortions, which went into effect last year, requiring an in-person consultation with a doctor for a full day before regaining access to abortion care, increases the urgency, the site notes.

“There is no other medical procedure that offers that,” said Louis Silber, the center’s attorney for more than 40 years, who represented the center in a case opposing an earlier version of the delay.

“It’s extremely restrictive,” said Michelle Quesada of Planned Parenthood’s South, East and North Florida centers.

“If they come tomorrow, after six weeks, we won’t be able to do an abortion because of the 24-hour delay,” she said.

The center is intended to allow women to request an abortion the next day, she said.

Before Florida joined neighboring Georgia in implementing a six-week ban, the number of out-of-state patients seeking abortions at Planned Parenthood Florida clinics had quadrupled since the 2022 Supreme Court decision striking down the constitutional right to abortion destroyed, she said.

The center has seen record numbers of patients across all services in the past year, she said.

“People are dying:” PBC Democratic Lawmakers Bash Rick Scott, Abortion Ban

The restrictions affect not only women with unwanted pregnancies, but also women with complicated pregnancies, including pregnancies with devastating fetal abnormalities and pregnancies that endanger women’s health.

This past year, Quesada said, a Planned Parenthood Florida center lost a doctor who moved to another state where she could care for patients as she had been trained to do.

“It is devastating for our physicians to know that they have the skills and resources to provide medical care, but the law does not allow them to do so,” she said.

And while the ability to provide abortion care is important for emergency medicine, Florida-based medical schools will have to refer students to out-of-state training programs to learn the procedure, Litt said. This restriction will likely worsen the existing shortage of gynecology doctors in Florida, Litt said.

As teams at Planned Parenthood and Presidential Women’s Center, as well as the EMA, accelerate efforts to quickly serve local patients and connect patients to out-of-state abortion care services, Rep. Lois Frankel said, “They can only do so much.”

“This will affect thousands and thousands of women,” she said.

Frankel is pinning her hopes on the ballot initiative before Florida voters in November that will restore the right to abortion up to 24 weeks of pregnancy.

To pass, the measure must be approved by at least 60% of voters statewide.

“I really believe,” Frankel said, “that if people understand it, it will pass.”

Antigone Barton is a journalist at The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. You can reach her at [email protected].

Women’s clinics are not closing

Mandatory delays of 24 hours also play a role

Related Posts