Delayed care or even the impossibility of intervening in complicated pregnancies: the consequences of restrictions on abortion in Florida, the third most populous state in the United States, were again denounced on Tuesday in a report based on the testimony of practitioners.
This synthesis published by the organization Physicians for Human Rights (Physicians for Human Rights) accuses these restrictions of “putting both patients and practitioners at risk”.
The issue of abortion is weighing heavily on the campaign for the US presidential election in November, and in Florida, Americans will also vote separately on the issue.
The referendum will focus on an amendment to the state constitution that would restore the ability to abort until the fetus is viable.
The publication of this report also comes a few days after the publication of an article by ProPublica on the death of a woman in Georgia who did not receive the necessary care after serious complications.
Suffering
In Florida, abortion has been illegal since May after six weeks of pregnancy, before most women are aware they are pregnant.
Violating this law is considered a crime for the practitioners involved, who risk up to 5 years in prison, a heavy fine and a ban from practicing.
The law includes a few exceptions that may justify a later abortion: in cases of rape or incest, danger to the mother’s life or one of her “major bodily functions,” or “fatal” malformation of the fetus.
But these exceptions are poorly defined, leading to delays in care, or even refusals, according to the report, which is based on interviews with 25 health professionals (gynecologists, obstetricians, midwives, etc.).
To be an exception, the fetal malformation must “lead to death at or immediately after birth,” leading to debate over the definition of “immediately.”
For example, a practitioner tells the story of a patient who had two children in the past with a very rare genetic disease who died at four months.
Pregnant again and given the same diagnosis, this patient wanted to have an abortion so as not to “relive the same suffering.” But “no one felt comfortable saying that it was something fatal immediately after giving birth,” it is explained.
The only solution: go to another state.
However, not all patients have this option. In another example, a woman was forced to continue her pregnancy despite a fetus with Down syndrome and a heart defect, with very little chance of survival after birth.
With two children and a mother with Alzheimer’s, she cannot travel. The fetus ultimately does not survive until delivery.
“You can imagine the pain for her, having to go through eight weeks of pregnancy for no other reason than state laws,” one practitioner is quoted as saying.
“What is right”
The same dilemmas arise regarding the exception for the mother’s life.
An obstetrician explains that he had to defend to several hospital officials the necessity of an abortion for a patient with an estimated risk of death of 10% if she continued her pregnancy.
“I had to listen to them say: ‘Is 10% a lot? Is it enough?'” says the expert, who finally won his case, but only after three weeks.
But this extra time “counts,” he explains. Between 15 weeks and 18 weeks, “the procedure changes a little bit and the risk changes a little bit.”
The delayed treatment of miscarriages, which doctors fear will be considered an abortion, is also highlighted in the report.
Just like hospitals passing the buck, lengthening treatment times and, at the same time, the risk of complications.
“It’s a difficult situation to try to do what is legal, but also what is right,” said one of the professionals interviewed.
The restrictions in Florida were enabled by a US Supreme Court ruling that struck down the federal abortion guarantee in the summer of 2022, after it was extensively overhauled by Donald Trump.
About 20 states have since imposed restrictions or bans.