Doctors race against Florida's six-week abortion ban

The law offers exceptions for rape, human trafficking and incest up to 15 weeks of pregnancy but requires documentation like a police report or a restraining order.

It also has exceptions for the mother’s health and for fetuses with a “fatal fetal abnormality,” a nonclinical term defined as a condition where the baby will die at birth or immediately after.

“I’ve asked three attorneys: What does immediately mean? And one told me one day, one told me one week, and one told me a month. How am I supposed to interpret this?” said a Central Florida abortion provider who asked to remain anonymous because she was not authorized to speak to the press.

Anyone who helps someone terminate their pregnancy in violation of the law could lose their medical license and be charged with a third degree felony, punishable by a maximum of five years in prison.

“These exceptions are incredibly difficult to decipher and define and to follow,” Daniels said. “Physicians and the lawyers advising us, we are afraid to make medical decisions that could put us in legal jeopardy, even if we understand that our medical decisions are based in the science.”

But providers and hospitals that are overly conservative in granting exemptions can face consequences too.

In 2023, Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood refused to provide an abortion for a woman whose water broke because she was past Florida’s 15-week limit, even though she was at risk of infection. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid services concluded the hospital violated a federal law that required it to provide emergency care, threatening in a letter obtained by The Washington Post to take away hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding if the system didn’t take corrective action.

AdventHealth Central Florida and Orlando Health, Central Florida’s two main hospital systems, did not immediately respond when asked how they will determine what conditions qualify for exceptions under the six-week ban.

The fallout

Zdravecky is optimistic that, in November, Floridians will vote to reverse the six-week ban and protect abortion up to the age a baby can survive outside the womb.

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