Far fewer people got abortions in Florida after the state's six-week ban went into effect, according to data released this month by the Guttmacher Institute. a national nonprofit that supports abortion rights.
There were approximately 8,050 clinician-provided abortions per month in Florida during the first three months of this year, according to the group’s Monthly Abortion Provision Study. That dropped about 30% to 5,630 in May, when the six-week ban took effect, and 35% in June at 5,200.
The decline also followed a large increase in abortions in April, as patients rushed to seek care before the ban took effect.
There were 9,730 abortions in Florida that month.
“These are real impacts, people who are unable to get abortions in Florida within six weeks [of pregnancy] are likely having to travel extremely far distances if they want to access clinic-based care,” said Isaac Maddow-Zimet, a data scientist with the Guttmacher Institute.
The closest abortion clinic that provides care after six weeks, he added, is in North Carolina, about 590 miles away from the average Florida resident. That state requires patients wait at least 72 hours after an in-person consultation with a doctor before obtaining an abortion.
Residents in other nearby states with similar or more restrictive abortion bans are also feeling the effects of the change in Florida, said Maddow-Zimet. The institute estimates 9,000 people traveled to Florida for an abortion in 2023 from states like Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia.
While Guttmacher doesn’t have updated travel estimates for this year, Maddow-Zimet said Planned Parenthood clinics in Florida report they saw an 80% decline in the number of out-of-state residents obtaining abortion care in May 2024 compared with May 2023.
“That’s exactly what we’d expect, because the obstacles to travel only multiply when you’re trying to access care before six weeks,” said Maddow-Zimet. Time and cost are key factors, he said, especially since Florida also requires patients make two in-person visits to a clinic to obtain an abortion, the first involving a consult and ultrasound.
Why Florida's decline wasn't as large as other states with six-week bans
Despite the significant drop in abortions in Florida, the declines weren’t as steep as some other states that had previously implemented six-week bans.
“For example, Texas, with the passage of SB8, saw about a 50% decline, Georgia, when its six-week ban went into effect saw about a 50% decline, and South Carolina saw an even greater decline,” said Maddow-Zimmett. “Why it’s different in Florida I think really tells a story about organizations and individuals going to really great lengths to fill in gaps created by these types of harmful policies.”
For one thing, he said support groups in Florida had more time to ramp-up resources to help patients access care in-state before six weeks.
Florida was already grappling with a 15-week ban since July 2022, and the state had roughly a year between when lawmakers first passed the six-week ban in 2023 and when it actually went into effect this year. This gave groups like abortion funds and local abortion clinics time to raise money, hire more staff and strengthen partnerships to help more people.
Florida’s ban also went into effect as more people started getting abortion pills through the mail from doctors in states without bans. The pills are approved for use in the first 10 weeks of pregnancy.
While Florida bars doctors from providing telehealth abortions or shipping the medication in the mail, some other states have passed shield laws to protect their clinicians from legal trouble if they treat patients in states with bans. Guttmacher’s monthly estimates factor in medication abortions provided via telehealth, counting them as having been provided in the state where the pills were dispensed.
“[Telehealth abortion] often won’t be an option for people needing care later in pregnancy or who prefer to get care at a clinic,” said Maddow-Zimet. “It also depends on people knowing about it as a possibility, which depends on people’s access to information about how they can get care. But it certainly is something that could potentially blunt the impact.”
Costs to help with abortion care continue to rise
WUSF previously reported that a KFF study released this summer that found just 18% of women of child-bearing age in Florida are aware medication abortion is still legal and 9% know they can access the pills online.
While support from health professionals and advocacy groups around the country is helping some Floridians continue to access abortion care despite the six-week ban, Maddow-Zimet worries it’s not sustainable.
In addition to helping patients obtain legal abortions in Florida, groups like abortion funds are also investing a great deal of resources into helping people beyond the six-week deadline travel to places like Virginia, Illinois and Puerto Rico for care.
“The costs for that just keep going up, both for people themselves and for folks like abortion funds, who are often going to really great lengths to get people to the care that they need,” he said.
If abortion funds, which typically rely on donations and grants, run out of money, that may leave thousands more Floridians unable to get abortions. Those with financial problems or who lack support networks would be most affected, said Maddow-Zimet.
Florida officials defend the six-week ban, saying it “protects life” and contains exceptions for rape and incest survivors and to protect the life of the mother.
A website that the state Agency for Health Care Administration launched this month also says "We must keep Florida from becoming an abortion tourism destination state."
Voters will weigh in on the matter this November, when Amendment 4 will appear on the ballot and ask Floridians to choose whether to allow abortions until fetal viability, usually around 24 weeks.
