Put Abortion on the Ballot!
The overwhelming majority of Floridians think we should all have the freedom to make their own personal health care decisions without interference from politicians.
Despite that, politicians in Florida just signed the most extreme abortion ban in the nation. It bans abortion before most people even realize they are pregnant. Help put these decisions back in the hands of Florida families and their doctors, not extreme politicians.
There are so many reasons why someone may make the deeply personal decision to have an abortion – maybe their birth control failed, or they were a victim of rape or incest, or carrying a pregnancy would endanger their lives. Politicians shouldn’t be allowed to interfere in this personal decision or to prevent nurses and doctors from treating their patients.
Florida’s current 15-week ban has already had serious impacts. These are only a few of the stories.
Anabely Lopez was 15 weeks pregnant with a pregnancy she wanted very much but testing showed Trisomy 18, a genetic condition her doctor explained most babies die from, if not before they’re born, then within 15 days after birth. Lopez had to travel to Washington to get the abortion care she needed.
When Deborah Dorbert and her husband learned that her pregnancy wasn’t viable, due to the diagnosis of Potter’s syndrome. Dorbert asked to terminate the pregnancy but her doctors and their lawyers declined, fearful they would run afoul of the state’s 15-week abortion ban. Without any other feasible options, she and her family spent more than three months waiting for the birth and death of her child.
Two friends, Anya and Shanae experienced a condition that can cause significant complications, including infection and hemorrhaging, and can threaten the health or life of the mother. Anya’s doctor said because of the state’s abortion law, he could not induce labor even though there was no chance her baby would survive. Anya was forced to deliver a dead fetus, alone in a bathroom at a hair salon. She was then rushed to the hospital in critical condition and mechanically ventilated, where she nearly died from blood loss.
The restrictions to abortion access in Florida and across the South are creating a public health crisis, blocking millions of people from access to abortion care. Many are being forced into pregnancies against their will, often with devastating consequences for their health, their lives, their families, and their futures.
Tens of thousands of Floridians will be forced to give birth each year in a state that continues to create barriers to affordable housing, healthcare, and other necessary supportive resources. Black, Hispanic, and Indigenous people, other people of color, LGBTQ+, people with low incomes, young people, and undocumented immigrants are among those who are most impacted by these dangerous laws.
