Florida’s 6-week ban will significantly change abortion in the state, but won’t end it

When Florida lawmakers sought to pass a bill barring most abortions after six weeks, opponents decried it as a near-total ban because many women don’t know that they are pregnant by then.

In early May, that six-week ban will take effect following a state Supreme Court decision this week.

State data shows that the majority of Florida abortions happen after that threshold. But in the past six years, roughly two in five abortions have occurred in the first six weeks of pregnancy. The increased use of medication abortion and a push from clinics to get people in the door early are a large reason for that, said Isaac Maddow-Zimet, a data scientist with the abortion research group Guttmacher Institute.

With the new law looming, providers say they are figuring out how to maximize even more the number of patients they can see within that six-week window.

From 2018 to 2023, about 41% of the about 459,000 abortions in Florida were performed at or before six weeks of pregnancy, according to data from the Agency for Health Care Administration.

Over the last decade, clinics have been increasing the number of patients they see by six weeks of pregnancy, Maddow-Zimet said. Medication abortion has allowed providers to see more people and offer abortions earlier in a pregnancy, he said.

In Florida, nearly 60% of abortions performed were done through medication, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data from 2021. The procedure relies on two medicines: mifepristone and misoprostol. A challenge to mifepristone use is pending before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Abortion providers have also worked to expand their timetables of when they could see patients in light of laws across the country limiting abortion access.

Robyn Schickler, the chief medical officer for Planned Parenthood of Southwest and Central Florida, said Planned Parenthood clinics in the region started expanding their hours back in 2022, after Florida passed a law limiting most abortions after 15 weeks.

Schickler said clinics are rearranging their operations further now, including making sure patients don’t have to wait as long between a consultation and their abortion.

But getting patients in for appointments on a truncated six-week timetable could pose issues.

“The more patients that come, the less slots there are,” Schickler said. “There’s just more demand than there is an ability to provide the care, sadly.”

The patients who are seen early, Schickler said, are more likely to have regular periods and be more vigilant about monitoring them, so may know sooner they are pregnant. But she said younger women with less regular periods or women with life stresses like socioeconomic issues may be less likely to be aware of a pregnancy in those first few weeks.

Melissa Grant, the chief operations officer of the abortion provider carafem, said securing an appointment within six weeks is only one issue for someone trying to end their pregnancy in a state with strict bans.

The group has a clinic operating in Atlanta, where there has been a six-week ban since 2022. (Georgia, like Florida, also has a mandatory 24-hour delay before an abortion.) Along with its Atlanta office, carafem has clinics in Chicago and Maryland, and ships abortion medication to select states.

Grant said carafem’s Atlanta clinic tries to offer appointments within five business days of someone calling. It expanded its hours and purchased more ultrasound machines.

But Grant noted that the six-week cutoff is tough for patients, too, who must quickly think through their decision, find money to cover the cost of the abortion, potentially arrange child care or transportation and more.

By the time of a missed period, a pregnant woman would already be considered about four weeks along because of how pregnancy is dated.

Grant said the availability of good, reliable and inexpensive pregnancy tests has helped women discover their pregnancies earlier. But she said it still can take up to 21 days after sex for a negative test to be 100% accurate.

“In Georgia, as many as 40% of people coming to our appointments are already too far along,” Grant said. “It is emotionally devastating for people, they feel like they’ve done everything they could.”

Many of carafem’s Atlanta patients that must be turned away travel to North Carolina, where there is a 12-week ban, Grant said.

“Some previously were going to Florida,” Grant said. “That won’t be an option anymore.”

This story was originally published April 4, 2024 at 6:00 AM.