Florida Supreme Court decision could trigger a 6-week abortion ban in Florida. What will change?

On Friday, the Florida Supreme Court will hear arguments that will determine abortion access in the state. Their ultimate decision may trigger even harsher abortion restrictions.

A federal judge blocked the state's current law banning most abortions after 15 weeks until the court could review it for constitutionality, but in the meantime, the Florida legislature rushed through and passed an even stricter bill to ban nearly all abortions after six weeks, which Gov. Ron DeSantis quickly signed into law in a private late-night ceremony.

If the Florida Supreme Court allows the 15-week law to stand, the 6-week law will immediately go into effect.

In the race to enact state laws restricting abortion after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against Roe v. Wade in 2022, this move follows similar bans in other Republican-controlled states, particularly in the South where Florida was, briefly, an abortion haven state. Abortion is now functionally illegal in 16 states with very limited exceptions, according to the nonprofit Guttmacher Institute, and restricted to specific gestational time limits in several others, although many states such as Georgia and South Carolina have seen these laws blocked, struck down or challenged in court.

How will this law change abortion in Florida? Here's what you need to know.

What does a 6-week abortion ban mean for Floridians?

In the new law, all abortions (with a few exceptions) would be illegal in the state of Florida after a "physician determines the gestational age of the fetus is more than 6 weeks," a time when many pregnant people don't yet know they're pregnant. People may have as little as two weeks after missing a period to find out.

As Florida law also requires a person to have two appointments at least 24 hours apart to get an abortion. This leaves an extremely narrow window for a pregnant person in a potentially traumatic situation to take action.

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When do most people find out they're pregnant?

According to a 2021 study from ANSIRH (Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health) at the University of California San Francisco, about one in three people confirm their pregnancies after six weeks, and one in five after seven weeks.

"Later confirmation of pregnancy is even higher among young people, people of color, and those living with food insecurity," the study's summary said, "suggesting that gestational bans on abortion in the first trimester will disproportionally hurt these populations."

When does Florida's 6-week abortion ban go into effect?

That depends on how the Florida Supreme Court rules in a lawsuit against the state's previous 15-week abortion ban.

In 1980 Florida voters overwhelmingly voted for a right-to-privacy constitutional amendment that provided every person “to be let alone and free from governmental intrusion into the person’s private life.” That standard was cited by Florida Supreme Court justices more than three decades ago to overturn a state law requiring parental consent for abortion.

But now the state argues it was wrongfully decided, and the current state Supreme Court leans heavily to the conservative side with five of the seven members named by DeSantis.

Is a 6-week abortion ban the same as a 'heartbeat bill?'

Similar 6-week abortion bans have been called "heartbeat bills," with supporters saying an embryo should not be aborted once a heartbeat can be detected. The Senate version of this bill was changed to the "Heartbeat Protection Act" in a last-minute amendment added before it went up for a vote by Sen. Erin Grall, R-Vero Beach, sponsor of the measure (SB 300). 

“Once there is a heartbeat, we do not believe that an abortion should occur,” Grall told the Senate.

According to medical experts, at six weeks, the embryo has no heart. The sounds heard on an ultrasound are from electrical pulses that come from the area that will become the heart.

Democrats' efforts to block the name change, like every other effort to block or at least clearly define the conditions of the bill, were defeated by the Republican supermajority.

Do the 6-week abortion bills in Florida include exemptions for danger to the mother?

Yes, but only for extreme cases. Two physicians must certify, in writing, that in their judgment, "the termination of the pregnancy is necessary to save the pregnant woman’s life or avert a serious risk of substantial and irreversible physical impairment of a major bodily function of the pregnant woman other than a psychological condition." One physician may certify it if another is unavailable at the time.

This requires physicians who are willing to risk possible fines, loss of license and even imprisonment to go on record against oversight committees and the state.

The current 15-week ban does not allow exceptions for rape and incest, something that drew criticism even from some supporters.

Multiple efforts by Democrats to clarify the conditions under which a physician may make that call without risking their medical license were struck down.

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Do the 6-week abortion bills in Florida include exemptions for a fetus that has died or is going to die?

Yes. If two physicians have certified in writing that in reasonable medical judgment, the fetus has a fatal fetal abnormality, the pregnancy may be terminated. However, both bills include new language requiring that the pregnancy must not have "progressed to the third trimester," suggesting that abortions for fatal fetal abnormalities are banned after 27 weeks.

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Do the 6-week abortion bills in Florida include exemptions for rape or incest?

Yes, but. Abortions are permitted in the case of rape or incest but only if:

• You haven't been pregnant for more than 15 weeks

• You have copies of "a restraining order, police report, medical record, or other court order or documentation" to provide evidence you're a victim of rape or incest.

If you are a minor, the physician must report the incident of rape or incest to the central abuse hotline.

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Do the 6-week abortion bills in Florida ban abortion pills?

For anyone except licensed doctors who are administering them to you in person, yes.

So-called "abortion pills" (actually two pills, mifepristone and misoprostol, taken up to 48 hours apart) — which cause a person’s cervix to dilate and their uterus to contract, emptying the embryo from the person’s uterus — have dramatically risen in popularity in the last few years both for the relative convenience compared to surgical abortions and to get around abortion bans.

"Medication abortion has become incredibly important for abortion access as abortion bans that have decimated abortion care across numerous states,” said Jenny Ma, senior counsel at the Center for Reproductive Rights.

The new Florida law clearly states that abortions may only be performed by a physician and that physician must be in the room with you. Telehealth sessions, such as what many pregnant people have been using to get abortion pills prescribed in states with strict abortion laws, are specifically banned.

In January the FDA ruled that abortion pills could be prescribed by physicians and picked up by patients at pharmacies, but Florida's law blocks that and also specifically prevents anyone from ordering them online.

Abortion pills are under attack elsewhere in the country, after a federal judge in Texas ordered a pause on the Food and Drug Administration's approval of mifepristone and lower courts countered with rulings to allow it to be available in the US but with some new restrictions. A federal appeals court ruled the FDA have overstepped its authority and it limited access to mifepristone, but an earlier Supreme Court decision had paused any changes to the status quo. The Justice Department has said it will appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court, setting up another abortion showdown. If the ruling stands, healthcare providers could be barred from prescribing mifepristone in many cases, even in states where abortion is legal.

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Can I go to jail for getting an abortion after 6 weeks in Florida?

Willfully performing or actively participating in an abortion outside of the restrictions is a third-degree felony, punishable by fines and imprisonment of five years. Some state laws apply this to anyone performing or assisting the procedure; it is unclear here if the pregnant person is also liable.

What else is in the 6-week abortion ban law?

The law also blocks any individuals, state employees or organizations, or educational institutions from using state funds to help someone travel to another state for abortion services unless they are required by federal law to do so or there is a need for emergency medical procedures to save the pregnant person's life.

Eligibility for help from the nonprofit Florida Pregnancy Care Network would be expanded from pregnant people and their families to people who have had their children or adopted children under 3 in the previous 12 months, and their families.

The law also includes $25 million for state-contracted pregnancy crisis centers and $5 million family-planning services such as contraception and counseling.

Democrats in both chambers tried unsuccessfully to reallocate that money toward expanding childcare services, rape and domestic violence centers, and a program created by the Legislature to address racial disparities in maternal care. They noted that the crisis centers aren't required to have medical practitioners on staff or to abide by health privacy laws, concerns that were confirmed in a report by the Miami Herald and Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting.

More: With new abortion limits, will faith-based groups step up to help pregnant women and the babies they fought to save?

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Did DeSantis sign a 6-week abortion ban into law?

Yes. Just hours after the Florida Legislature approved the bill, DeSantis flew back into the state from Ohio to sign the bill in a private ceremony in his office, surrounded by the House and Senate sponsors and House Speaker Paul Renner.

Are there any other abortion laws coming?

Abortion rights advocates are working on a ballot initiative for next year that would guarantee abortion access up until fetal viability, which has been put at about 24 weeks.

The proposal aimed at voters has collected enough signatures – close to 300,000 – to trigger a review of its ballot language by the Florida Supreme Court. Almost 900,000 valid petition signatures are needed for the measure to get on the November 2024 ballot.

A recent poll by the University of North Florida showed that about 75% of registered voters in Florida either somewhat or strongly opposed the six-week ban.

Contributor: Kathryn Varn, John Kenney, USA TODAY Florida Network; Christine Fernando, USA TODAY

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Florida abortion ban: Court decision may trigger 6-week ban