Blow To Reproductive Rights As Florida Set To Ban Abortion After Six Weeks

Florida, the last bastion of abortion access in the south-eastern United States, will ban abortion past six weeks of pregnancy starting next month, leaving abortion providers and their supporters in the state and across the country scrambling to deal with the fallout for patients.

- Carter Sherman

On Monday, the Florida state supreme court upheld a 15-week abortion ban, a move that removed the barriers to a separate, six-week ban that takes effect on 1 May.

In a separate ruling, the court also agreed to let Florida residents weigh in on the issue through a November ballot measure to enshrine abortion rights into the state constitution - a decision that opened a new front in an election already sure to be dominated by abortion politics.

"We're all holding out hope for November but realising that from May to November we are going to be turning patients away at unprecedented rates," said Dr Chelsea Daniels, a family medicine physician and abortion provider in Miami. "It feels like a punch to the gut."

Georgia is the closest state in the region to still permit the procedure but it also bans abortion after six weeks, before many women know they are pregnant. After that ban took effect, the number of abortions performed in the state fell by almost half, according to a recent analysis.