Women across Florida and the south rushed to find money, transportation, a doctor and an appointment before the law took hold.’ Photograph: Octavio Jones/Reuters
What played out in Florida this past week was part of the anti-choice movement’s new sadistic regime for a post-Roe America: the display of lives being curtailed, of dignity being withdrawn, of health being imperiled. It is a public and deliberately humiliating spectacle for American women: one of freedom being taken away.
The six-week abortion ban that went into effect in Florida on Wednesday is similar to those imposed by other states in the region. (Florida, with its former 15-week ban, had been a place of relatively easy access in the south, and so had become a destination for women from other states; no longer.) Now, all abortions are banned after six weeks’ gestational age, which is two weeks after a missed period. A pre-Dobbs 24-hour waiting period still applies. There is a rape exception that is available only in the first 15 weeks, and only to women who can provide some “proof” of their assault, like a police report. There are exceptions for the life of the mother and for “immediately fatal” fetal abnormalities.
“Immediately fatal” is a phrase the law does not define. “I’ve asked three attorneys: what does immediately fatal mean?” one provider told the Orlando Sentinel. “And one told me one day, one told me one week, and one told me a month. How am I supposed to interpret this?”
But ultimately, even vaguely worded exceptions are a moot point: like all abortion ban exceptions, Florida’s will not be accessible, even to the narrow slice of women who might qualify, because providers will be too afraid to provide even those abortions that are technically legal in a state where performing an abortion that a prosecutor thinks is illegal could earn them a felony conviction. This is already happening in the state: under the previous, 15-week ban, women have almost died after experiencing complications that they have not been able to receive treatment for. Some have been turned away from emergency rooms.
In November, Florida voters will have an opportunity to enshrine abortion rights into their state constitution in Amendment 4, which would restore access in the state to Roe-era levels. But victory for the amendment is far from certain, and at any rate, the vote is a long six months away. In the meantime, under the new, stricter ban, things will only get worse.
Source: Florida’s abortion ban has brought fear and chaos. This is the right’s vision for the US | Moira Donegan | The Guardian
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