The need for abortion ‘intensifies’ in Washington, D.C.
For three years, Mary has been supporting women who decide to end their pregnancies.
But on May 1, the day Florida’s 15week abortion ban turned into a sixweek abortion ban, they stopped asking for help.
Mary, not her real name, is a North Florida-based doula, a trained professional who supports someone through birth. Her expertise also includes miscarriage and abortion. (She didn’t want to use her real name for fear of harassment.)
When Florida became the only state in the Southeast without a total or neartotal abortion ban, Mary would get calls from women in neighboring states who needed help with transportation, child care, or sometimes they just needed a hand to hold.
It’s easier to ask a stranger. “Obviously there’s still a major stigma attached to abortion, so a lot of women, whenever they do it, they do it solo,” said Mary. “They do it without really asking or reaching out for much help, which is very sad.”
Last year, abortion fund organizations were helping women who needed medication or a procedure travel into Florida.
After May 1, they’re helping get Florida women out.
Four out of the five organizations that provide monetary assistance for those seeking abortions in Florida say they have seen drastic increases in the number of callers and costs since May 1. While the average gestational age of the fetus at the time of the abortion is going down, the abortion costs are going up. Because of Florida’s near-total abortion ban, more people are having to travel to Baltimore, Maryland; Washington D.C., and New York for care.
“This new update from Florida only intensifies something that’s already been happening,” said Jade Hurley with the DC Abortion Fund. “People have already been spending every dollar they have in order to get their abortion, spending every dollar they have just to get here, which means costs have been driven up for abortions.”
‘Held together by spit and tape’
As previously reported, the Heartbeat Protection Act took effect May 1, a month after the state’s 15-week ban went into effect in April. The 15-week ban, passed in 2022, stalled in the Supreme Court until this April, when the court overruled a 34-year-old decision that said a privacy provision in the state’s constitution protected a woman’s right to terminate a pregnancy.
Once the 15-week-ban took effect, it triggered the six-week ban, which was passed in 2023. Mary said these changes have made people confused and scared. “You probably haven’t been paying attention for two years because the world has been absolutely crazy, bonkers. So the fact that it’s gone from 24, to 15, to six (weeks) so quickly, is just very frightening,” Mary said.
It’s easier for people to fly from Florida directly into Washington, D.C., or Baltimore. The travel is more expensive, but the logistics are less complicated.
While North Carolina is the closest state without a six-week or total abortion ban (the state allows abortion up to 12 weeks), the 72-hour in-person waiting period makes it difficult for many to make the somewhat drivable distance for an appointment.
The next closest is Virginia, where abortion is banned in the third trimester. But it’s hard to find direct flights, the nearest abortion provider can be an hour from the airport and those clinics are already at capacity.
“It’s almost this game in this little (abortion fund) network that’s held together by spit and tape,” Hurley said. “We have to work together all the time in order to make abortion access happen.”
Four out of the five organizations that provide abortion funds in Florida spent approximately $165,000 for procedures, travel and lodging for the month of May.
The Women’s Emergency Network, Access Reproductive Care Southeast, the Emergency Medical Assistance Abortion Fund and the Florida Access Network all provided their May numbers to the USA TODAY Florida - Network. The Tampa Bay Abortion Fund