Florida Six-Week Abortion Ban Goes Into Effect

Supreme Court of Florida. Credit Wiki Commons

TALLAHASSE, Florida - Florida's ban on abortions after a six-week gestational age went into effect today, shortening the already existing fifteen-week limit.

In a 6-1 decision last month, the Florida Supreme Court ruled that a privacy clause in the state Constitution does not protect abortion rights. 

That overturned legal precedents dating to 1989 and effectively gave the go-ahead to a six-week abortion limit that the Republican-controlled Legislature and Gov. Ron DeSantis approved last year.

Amendment 4, an initiative to legalize abortions, is on the Florida ballot in November. However, a recent USA TODAY/Ipsos poll found that Amendment 4 has only garnered fifty percent support from voters, ten percent below the sixty percent required to pass the Amendment.

Exceptions To Florida Abortion Ban

The law allows for exceptions in cases where the pregnancy is the result of rape, incest, or human trafficking and the gestational age of the fetus is not more than 15 weeks.

The law also allows abortions up to the third trimester in cases to save the pregnant woman’s life or avert a serious risk of imminent substantial and irreversible physical impairment of a major bodily function of the pregnant woman,  or when the fetus has a fatal fetal abnormality.

"I just woke up with less freedoms and rights than when I went to sleep," Florida Democrat State Chairwoman Nikki Fried tweeted today. "The political power of women will be tested in November here in Florida and across the country."