Report: Florida’s 6-week abortion ban has had a catastrophic effect on healthcare for pregnant women

Anti-abortion zealots call themselves ‘pro-life.’ They lie. Their propaganda implies that abortion is used by female flibbertigibbets as birth control up to their due date and beyond. However, the reality is that many terminations of pregnancy are medically necessary procedures, undertaken to save the health, reproductive future, and even life of the mother.A report by Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) reveals how political interference in medicine has caused care for many pregnant women in Florida to deteriorate from below-average to critically bad. These are women who want to be pregnant. Who dream of having a child. But due to medical reasons beyond their control suffer pregnancies that threaten their health and life.The culprit is Florida’s newly enacted ban on most abortions after six weeks. Note: the clock starts on the final day of the pregnant woman’s last period. As conception usually occurs 14 days after that, it is actually a four-week limit. The earliest a woman will typically suspect she is pregnant is when her next period is late — now it’s a two-week window. And that is the best-case scenario. Many women are irregular. On top of that Florida mandates a 24-hour delay between initial consultation and the procedure — so there’s another day gone.None of this will matter to those women who want to go to term. But it should. Because the language in the abortion ban law makes medical care for these women a crap shoot if something goes wrong.The PHR report (the text boxes are direct quotes) explains its data is based on: “in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 25 reproductive health care clinicians and clinicians in training in Florida about their experiences caring for pregnant patients under the six-week ban.”These clinicians described:“how the unworkability of the ban’s narrow exceptions and the severe chilling effect on abortion provision caused by the sweeping criminalization of abortion from a very early stage of pregnancy are endangering patients’ health and survival and impairing clinicians’ ability to comply with their ethical obligations and medical standards of care.”(Bolding mine)The report also rips the laws supposed humanitarian exceptions.“Ultimately, the law’s narrow exceptions do not cover many serious conditions, forcing patients to either travel out of state for medical care or continue pregnancies with severe health risks.”In addition, it is obvious the law was written by fanatics, not doctors “These guidelines lack medical clarity, further confusing clinicians.”Floridians who give a damn should think about who they are voting for. The report outlines just how shitty medical care is in the Sunshine StateFlorida’s health care system ranks among the worst in the U.S. in terms of accessibility and affordability [the state rejected the Medicaid expansion].Florida is currently experiencing extensive shortages of physicians, dentists, and mental health providers compared to the needs of the state’s population.An estimated 13 of Florida’s 67 counties are maternity care “deserts,” or counties without access to hospital or birth centers offering obstetric care or without obstetric care providers.Another 11 counties have low or moderate access to maternity care.Pregnant people in Florida have long faced delays in accessing prenatal care. In 2021, before the Dobbs decision, fewer than two out of every three pregnant people received prenatal care within the first four months of pregnancy (64.7 percent).Florida is rated the second worst in the nation currently for the provision of prenatal care.That is a problem the sadistic bigots should solve instead of hurting people.Doctors in clinics and small hospitals are now passing the buck (sending sick pregnant women) to tertiary care hospitals that have the attornies to deal with criminal law concerns.One OB/GYN at a major hospital reported:“I have seen a surge in patients coming to me that I was not seeing before that were being handled by the community and getting care elsewhere. Patients [are] coming desperate, [saying] ‘They [the small facility] would not sign off on this. I do not know what to do. They just said, go to [tertiary care hospital].’ So, I get a lot of phone calls from my residents about patients in the ER, [telling me], ‘They are 18 weeks, and they have bilateral renal agenesis [lack of both kidneys which is usually fatal] in the fetus ...and they are like, ‘I want an abortion.’” Another maternal-fetal medical specialist (MFM) observed:“We are seeing tons of referrals that would not have been made before [the abortion ban]. I even see doctors that are two blocks away from me going, I am too intimidated by all the state paperwork. I know exactly that this fits the criteria, but I just do not know how to fill it out, how to date it, how to sign it. There are all these rules. We are just sending the patient to you so you can do the paperwork.” Even when the law was 15 weeks doctors had to wait for lawyers to tell them how to treat patients — often requiring sick women to get sicker.“I strongly remember a patient who had severe kidney disease and was admitted to the hospital and was teetering on the edge of that 15 weeks. I think she was 14 weeks or so, and she got admitted, and we were trying to figure out how best to help her. She was getting sicker and sicker.... [We] had to bring it to the head people of the hospital and be like, ‘What are we allowed to do?’ And they were like, ‘She is not sick enough yet.’ And we had to wait for her to get sicker before we were even allowed to offer her termination. And she was past 15 weeks at that point. ...I think it took over two weeks for us to get an answer from the hospital administrators.”Hopefully, the answer was that the doctors could save the woman’s life.Another obstetrician-gynecologist described the impacts on pregnant patients of long delays in securing hospital approval for medically necessary abortions:“There were times where we had to wait weeks before we had answers. And then that is just pushing the pregnancy further and further along for a sick patient or someone who is already struggling with those choices that they were having to make.” Even when the state tried to do the right thing it still left women in danger. When the six-week ban was enacted a state healthcare authority (AHCA), issued a rule stating procedures to treat PPROM (preterm premature rupture of membranes), ectopic pregnancy, and trophoblastic tumors would not be considered abortions for state reporting purposes. However, fear of criminal prosecution still leads to ‘cover your ass’ medical protocols.“We had a patient who had PPROM, she was like 18 weeks and she desired termination. Basically, what we have to do is send a referral to our MFM, who then can refer her to [academic hospital] for care, and in that process [the patient] got infected, got chorioamnionitis and became septic and ended up needing admission and IV antibiotics at the academic hospital. So, yeah, just not being able to just admit that patient that day and proceed with an induction was unfortunate for her.” I don’t think I would have chosen the word “unfortunate.”Another problem when lawyers dictate medical guidelines is vocabulary. Clinicians noted that the Florida law’s exception for fatal fetal anomalies does not cover many serious conditions. The state has defined “fatal fetal abnormalities” as “a terminal condition” that is “incompatible with life outside the womb and will result in death upon birth or imminently thereafter.”As one MFM specialist explained:“So, the actual term is “imminently lethal,” which is not a medical term.... So, a patient comes in or has a condition that is genetic, and let us say 100 percent of the time, the baby is going to die of a debilitating neurologic condition by age three or by three months of age even, they cannot terminate in the state of Florida. And so, that is an interesting conversation to have with people because many people ... have no idea that their rights have been stripped away. And so, I end up having conversations where people get really angry with me because they cannot terminate.” Forced to give birth to a baby that won’t die in hours, but will die in months? There are many other accounts. But this is an essay, not a novel. So I will stop here. However, if the reader is interested, they can find the full report if they click HERE.

Anti-abortion zealots call themselves ‘pro-life.’ They lie. Their propaganda implies that abortion is used by female flibbertigibbets as birth control up to their due date and beyond.

However, the reality is that many terminations of pregnancy are medically necessary procedures, undertaken to save the health, reproductive future, and even life of the mother. A report by Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) reveals how political interference in medicine has caused care for many pregnant women in Florida to deteriorate from below-average to critically bad. These are women who want to be pregnant.

Who dream of having a child. But due to medical reasons beyond their control suffer pregnancies that threaten their health and life. The culprit is Florida’s newly enacted ban on most abortions after six weeks.

Note: the clock starts on the final day of the pregnant woman’s last period. As conception usually occurs 14 days after that, it is actually a four-week limit. The earliest a woman will typically suspect she is pregnant is when her next period is late — now it’s a two-week window.

And that is the best-case scenario. Many women are irregular. On top of that Florida mandates a 24-hour delay between initial consultation and the procedure — so there’s another day gone.

None of this will matter to those women who want to go to term. But it should. Because the language in the abortion ban law makes medical care for these women a crap shoot if something goes wrong.

The PHR report (the text boxes are direct quotes) explains its data is based on: “in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 25 reproductive health care clinicians and clinicians in training in Florida about their experiences caring for pregnant patients under the six-week ban.” These clinicians described: “how the unworkability of the ban’s narrow exceptions and the severe chilling effect on abortion provision caused by the sweeping criminalization of abortion from a very early stage of pregnancy are endangering patients’ health and survival and impairing clinicians’ ability to comply with their ethical obligations and medical standards of care.” (Bolding mine) The report also rips the laws supposed humanitarian exceptions.

“Ultimately, the law’s narrow exceptions do not cover many serious conditions, forcing patients to either travel out of state for medical care or continue pregnancies with severe health risks.” In addition, it is obvious the law was written by fanatics, not doctors “These guidelines lack medical clarity, further confusing clinicians.” Floridians who give a damn should think about who they are voting for.

The report outlines just how shitty medical care is in the Sunshine State That is a problem the sadistic bigots should solve instead of hurting people. Doctors in clinics and small hospitals are now passing the buck (sending sick pregnant women) to tertiary care hospitals that have the attornies to deal with criminal law concerns. One OB/GYN at a major hospital reported: “I have seen a surge in patients coming to me that I was not seeing before that were being handled by the community and getting care elsewhere.

Patients [are] coming desperate, [saying] ‘They [the small facility] would not sign off on this. I do not know what to do. They just said, go to [tertiary care hospital].

’ So, I get a lot of phone calls from my residents about patients in the ER, [telling me], ‘They are 18 weeks, and they have bilateral renal agenesis [lack of both kidneys which is usually fatal] in the fetus ...

and they are like, ‘I want an abortion.’” Another maternal-fetal medical specialist (MFM) observed: “We are seeing tons of referrals that would not have been made before [the abortion ban]. I even see doctors that are two blocks away from me going, I am too intimidated by all the state paperwork.

I know exactly that this fits the criteria, but I just do not know how to fill it out, how to date it, how to sign it. There are all these rules. We are just sending the patient to you so you can do the paperwork.

” Even when the law was 15 weeks doctors had to wait for lawyers to tell them how to treat patients — often requiring sick women to get sicker. “I strongly remember a patient who had severe kidney disease and was admitted to the hospital and was teetering on the edge of that 15 weeks. I think she was 14 weeks or so, and she got admitted, and we were trying to figure out how best to help her.

She was getting sicker and sicker...

. [We] had to bring it to the head people of the hospital and be like, ‘What are we allowed to do?’ And they were like, ‘She is not sick enough yet.’ And we had to wait for her to get sicker before we were even allowed to offer her termination.

And she was past 15 weeks at that point. ..

.I think it took over two weeks for us to get an answer from the hospital administrators.” Hopefully, the answer was that the doctors could save the woman’s life.

Another obstetrician-gynecologist described the impacts on pregnant patients of long delays in securing hospital approval for medically necessary abortions: “There were times where we had to wait weeks before we had answers. And then that is just pushing the pregnancy further and further along for a sick patient or someone who is already struggling with those choices that they were having to make.” Even when the state tried to do the right thing it still left women in danger.

When the six-week ban was enacted a state healthcare authority (AHCA), issued a rule stating procedures to treat PPROM (preterm premature rupture of membranes), ectopic pregnancy, and trophoblastic tumors would not be considered abortions for state reporting purposes. However, fear of criminal prosecution still leads to ‘cover your ass’ medical protocols. “We had a patient who had PPROM, she was like 18 weeks and she desired termination.

Basically, what we have to do is send a referral to our MFM, who then can refer her to [academic hospital] for care, and in that process [the patient] got infected, got chorioamnionitis and became septic and ended up needing admission and IV antibiotics at the academic hospital. So, yeah, just not being able to just admit that patient that day and proceed with an induction was unfortunate for her.” I don’t think I would have chosen the word “unfortunate.

” Another problem when lawyers dictate medical guidelines is vocabulary. Clinicians noted that the Florida law’s exception for fatal fetal anomalies does not cover many serious conditions. The state has defined “fatal fetal abnormalities” as “a terminal condition” that is “incompatible with life outside the womb and will result in death upon birth or imminently thereafter.

” As one MFM specialist explained: “So, the actual term is “imminently lethal,” which is not a medical term...

. So, a patient comes in or has a condition that is genetic, and let us say 100 percent of the time, the baby is going to die of a debilitating neurologic condition by age three or by three months of age even, they cannot terminate in the state of Florida. And so, that is an interesting conversation to have with people because many people .

.. have no idea that their rights have been stripped away.

And so, I end up having conversations where people get really angry with me because they cannot terminate.” Forced to give birth to a baby that won’t die in hours, but will die in months? There are many other accounts. But this is an essay, not a novel.

So I will stop here. However, if the reader is interested, they can find the full report if they click HERE ..