Opinion: Florida’s 15-Week abortion ban proves ineffective as lives hang in the balance
As Florida remains at a 15-week abortion ban, hundreds of thousands of lives hang in the balance. Although the ban is intended to decrease the state’s number of abortions, Florida saw a 35% increase between July 2022 and November 2023.
The 15-week ban took effect July 1, 2022, a month after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, shifting decisions on abortion to the states. A month before the ban went into effect, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a lawsuit against Florida on behalf of Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers. The ACLU challenged the constitutionality of the ban. The Florida Supreme Court is still deciding on its legality, prolonging a process that has already spanned more than a year and a half.
Florida’s conservative administration should consider upholding the 15-week ban to allow for more restrictive bans that will protect local women’s health care and unborn lives. Our current legislative stagnation is impeding a six-week ban from going into effect, which is meant to protect fetuses after a heartbeat is detectable. Florida’s lenient abortion laws are also attracting women from neighboring states with more restrictive bans, overwhelming Florida clinic resources and shifting focus to a quick, rather than thorough, abortion process. This can be dangerous to the mother’s physical and mental health.
Florida becoming a “destination state” is also putting pressure on our government and representatives to make abortion completely accessible. Floridians Protecting Freedom, a pro-abortion organization, began a petition (after seeing the influx) to get abortion on the 2024 ballot.
If passed, Florida won’t be able to ban abortion before viability, which is at about 24 weeks. This is despite CDC statistics from 2020 revealing that only 1% of abortions occur after 21 weeks. Near complete abortion access like this isn’t for health care, but convenience. In cases of rape, incest or mother and baby fatality, exceptions to abortion bans are considered necessary medical care. But when abortion is unrestricted, it becomes a method of extreme birth control.
Viability refers to the ability of the fetus to survive outside of the womb. They can hear their mother’s heartbeat and even recognize it as soothing during chest contact outside the womb. Fetuses before 24 weeks are also shown in ultrasounds to fight their termination, which is a usual survival response. A termination method beyond 20 weeks is the “dilation and evacuation method,” which forces the birth of an intact premature child capable of survival if not for potassium chloride injections, cutting the umbilical cord for a slow death or brain stabbing.
“The truth is voters know what viability means, and they will see right through this effort to silence their voice,” Hélène Barthélemy, an attorney representing the 2024 abortion campaign, said.
I don’t believe this for one moment, and if it is true, I am horrified by the 910,000 petitioners who are aware of late-term pregnancies and procedures.
There needs to be more education on the alternatives to abortion and pregnancy prevention and awareness rather than termination tactics. Pregnancy health clinics like A Woman’s Choice in Lakeland offer abortion education, baby and maternity supplies, STI, STD and pregnancy testing and support programs for both parents.
I volunteer at a foster home in Golden Gate because I believe that every child has the right to live, and I want to be a part of helping children whose families couldn’t help them.
I am encouraged that as soon as the 15-week ban is deemed constitutional, abortions in Florida will be what former president Bill Clinton said, “safe, legal and rare.”
Cristina Pop is a junior at Florida Gulf University. She is majoring in Journalism and planning on going to law school. She also works as an assistant opinion editor for Eagle News at FGCU.
This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Closer look at Florida 15 week abortion ban shows its ineffectiveness
