WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (WPEC) — The Florida Supreme Court will soon decide if new laws restricting abortion will go into effect, and if Florida voters will see a referendum question about abortion access on the November ballot.
Ahead of those decisions, some doctors are speaking out about what’s at stake.
“We are not just talking about elective abortions here,” said Dr. Cherise Felix, an OBGYN who practices at Planned Parenthood in West Palm Beach.
She said abortion bans can have wide-ranging effects. She has seen it firsthand, working in Tennessee, a state which banned most abortions in 2022.
“When this happened in Tennessee, we had to turn so many people away,” Felix said. “It was so tearful being able to provide a service that you know would be beneficial to somebody, and then having people that are not even in the medical field say you can’t do it.”
She said patients seeking abortions had to travel out of state. And some providers did too.
Felix moved her practice to Florida -- where the legislature later passed a six-week abortion ban that is currently tied up in the courts.
When asked if she could foresee doctors leaving Florida due to abortion restrictions, she said “absolutely,” adding that doctors don’t want to practice where providing medical care can be criminalized.
According to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, abortion restrictions can have a ripple effect on access to care. ACOG points to research that suggests abortion restrictions impact medical students and resident’s choices about where to study and practice.
Even the March of Dimes, which keeps track of overall maternity care access around the country and often remains neutral on abortion issues, has raised concerns about the connection between restrictive abortion policy and access to care – although the March of Dimes did cite Florida as showing the most improvement in access to general maternity care of any state, according to its 2022 report on “maternity care deserts."
Supporters of Florida’s abortion restrictions say women in our state should not be concerned about having enough doctors to go around if more restrictive laws are passed.
That’s a really silly argument,” said Lynda Bell, president of Florida Right to Life. “It would not come to fruition in Florida. There will always be doctors in Florida. If there are very few doctors that leave, I’m sure we will have more pro-life doctors to replace them. Not all doctors think it’s okay to kill an unborn child.”Both sides will be waiting for the Florida Supreme Court's decision about a proposed ballot question that would prohibit laws restricting abortion before viability, or when necessary to protect the patient’s health, as determined by a healthcare provider.
The court heard oral arguments on the ballot question language Wednesday morning.
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