At Clearwater abortion clinic, a dividing line after DeSantis signs 6-week ban

CLEARWATER — The white privacy fence is the dividing line — a practical shield, as well as a symbol of escalating conflict.

On one side, a man in a bright orange shirt that reads “Hell fire is real” stands tall on a ladder, angled toward the clinic door.

On the other, women in pink vests clamber onto wooden benches. They press a nylon screen toward the sky to block his view.

“Repent, sinners!” the man, 61-year-old Victor McCleskey, bellows through a bullhorn. “You’re murderers. You’re going to hell.”

This is the scene of a fairly typical Saturday at Bread and Roses Woman’s Health Center, a Clearwater clinic that offers reproductive health services, including abortions. Nearly 30 women will arrive for appointments today. It’s business as usual, down to the protesters and volunteers squaring off outside. But the stakes have changed.

Less than 48 hours earlier, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill that bans abortion after six weeks, effectively outlawing it in the state. Early signs of pregnancy often appear after that window.

The ban remains in a holding pattern. A state Supreme Court ruling on the constitutionality of the state’s 15-week ban is expected later this year. If that ban goes into effect, the six-week ban will, too.

For now, work at the clinic carries on.

From a distance, the volunteers seem unflappable. While women come in, wearing sweatpants and T-shirts, with parents or partners or sometimes alone, the escorts shield them with umbrellas. They’ve learned to tune out the noise of protesters shouting prayers, each hoping to be heard. But on this day, there’s a quiet heaviness. A lip tremor. A deep breath. A tear that falls from behind tinted sunglasses, before they straighten their posture.

Advocates for the ban have greeted its passage as a victory for unborn lives and a welcome end to Florida’s role as an “abortion destination.” But for many others, the writing is on the wall: Reproductive rights in the Sunshine State are being stripped back, not just for Floridians, but for millions across the South. Experts say consequences for health and freedom — especially for women of color and those living in poverty — will be devastating.

“I’m terrified,” said Stephanie Sembler, a 36-year-old clinic volunteer. “I’m heartbroken and just full of rage.”

Florida has long been a safe haven for women seeking abortions in the South — those who drive from Louisiana and Alabama, who fly in from Texas and Tennessee, where terminating pregnancies is either outlawed or made nearly impossible. Since the overturn of Roe v. Wade last summer, advocates say, that has been doubly true.

A network of abortion funds across the country raise and spend millions annually to pay for travel, housing and child care for people who can’t access services in their own communities. It’s a maze of logistics that just got exponentially harder and more expensive.

“I can’t say we’re surprised,” said McKenna Kelley, a board member of the Tampa Bay Abortion Fund, which uses donations to help women access abortions.

“This state’s Legislature is intent on taking away bodily autonomy and the power of the people of Florida to make their own decisions about their bodies, their lives, their destinies,” Kelley said.

The fund has helped pay for 626 abortions this year, already surpassing their numbers from 2021 — before Roe was overturned and Florida’s 15-week ban was signed.

And in just the first quarter of 2023, Kelley said, they’ve funded more than half of the number of abortions they did last year.

“That is a clear representation of people needing help coming into Florida and people needing help getting out of Florida,” Kelley said.

Now, Kelley said, that need will surge.

For Southerners, Florida’s ban means having to travel farther — to clinics in, say, Illinois, Virginia, South Carolina. And with clinics dwindling nationwide, meeting demand becomes more complicated.

“For a long time, Florida helped manage some of that load,” Kelley said. “But that’s no longer the case.”

While protesters and volunteers buzzed about outside of Bread and Roses, inside, the phone was ringing off the hook. People were calling, stressed about their appointments, desperate to get in before laws change.

“There’s a lot of confusion,” said Jean Johnston, a volunteer escort of several years. “People don’t understand that the ban isn’t in effect, and they’re worried.”

Johnston, 66, is among the ranks of dozens of older women who volunteer at the clinic regularly. They’re women like 80-year-old Judy Harris, who remembers helping a friend who almost died while having an illegal abortion in the 1960s before the passage of Roe. They’re women like Niki Amarantides, 70, who started volunteering last month as the latest ban advanced.

“We’re here to protect younger women. I’ve lived long enough to remember before Roe when women had to have back-street abortions,” said Amarantides. “Then Roe happened, and we had a choice and opportunity. To see it rolled back in my lifetime is astonishing and unacceptable, but we’re fighting.”

Amarantides tightened her lips and pulled her shoulders up in dismay before letting them fall. Sometimes it’s hard to find the words, she said.

Despite the smiling faces surrounding the governor in a photo taken at this week’s late-night bill signing, on the other side of the fence, those who had gathered to preach weren’t entirely happy.

Dick Maxwell, 68, has spent a decade of Saturdays outside of clinics. He said the six-week ban provides little cause to celebrate.

“Not in my heart,” Maxwell said. “It’s not ending it, it’s regulating it. Regulating abortion is regulating murder, plain and simple.”

He said he’s written his pleas to DeSantis.

“We won’t celebrate unless abortion is abolished in the state of Florida,” Maxwell said.

That strength of conviction is shared by those working to help women access abortion.

“We don’t know what the future holds,” said Johnston, fighting back tears. “But we will keep doing this work. We will be here for women, to help them care for their own bodies and make their own decisions. That is not going to change.”