The number of abortions reported in Florida during the first eight months of this year was nearly 13 percent lower than during the same period in 2022 and 2023, as a law preventing abortions after six weeks of pregnancy has led to fewer procedures.
Newly released state data showed that 44,771 abortions had been reported in 2024 as of Monday. That was down from 51,318 abortions reported in early September 2022 and 51,253 abortions reported at the beginning of September 2023, according to numbers compiled in the past by The News Service of Florida.
The six-week abortion limit began May 1, after a Florida Supreme Court opinion cleared the way for it to take effect.
During the first four months of this year, before the limit took effect, the number of abortions reported — 22,409 — was little changed from the number reported during the same period in 2023 — 22,516.
But monthly reports posted this summer by the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration showed the number of abortions dipping after the six-week limit took effect.
Abortion clinics are required to submit reports to the Agency for Health Care Administration within 30 days after the end of each month. Lags in reporting made it somewhat unclear when the six-week abortion limit initially started affecting the totals.
The effects can be seen, however, in year-to-year comparisons.
This year, the 44,771 abortions reported as of Sept. 2 represented a 4,272-abortion increase over the 40,499 procedures reported by the state as of Aug. 1.
In 2022, reports from a comparable period showed a 7,617-abortion increase; in 2023, reports showed a 6,778-abortion increase.
The new Agency for Health Care Administration data showed Florida has seen a significant drop in the number of out-of-state residents getting abortions in the state.
During the first eight months of 2023, a reported 4,656 out-of-state residents obtained abortions in Florida; this year, the number was 3,247.
Of the 44,771 abortions reported so far this year, 41,803 were in the first trimester of pregnancy, 2,965 were in the second trimester, and three were in the third trimester, according to Agency for Health Care Administration. Two of the third-trimester abortions were performed because of “fatal fetal abnormality,” while one was performed because of what an agency report described as “serious fetal genetic defect, deformity or abnormality.”
Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Republican-controlled Legislature approved the six-week abortion limit in 2023 after passing a 15-week limit in 2022. The state Supreme Court on April 1 rejected a constitutional challenge by abortion-rights supporters to the 15-week limit.
That ruling also had the effect of allowing the six-week limit to take effect May 1.
Voters in November will decide whether to pass a ballot measure that would enshrine abortion rights in the Florida Constitution. That proposal says, in part, that no “law shall prohibit, penalize, delay, or restrict abortion before viability or when necessary to protect the patient's health, as determined by the patient's healthcare provider.”
Abortion rights supporters have turned to ballot initiatives in Florida and other states after the U.S. Supreme Court in 2022 struck down the landmark Roe v. Wade decision and left abortion issues to be decided in states.
Copyright 2024 Health News Florida
