The Quickie: Florida Abortion Ban Decision Sends Shockwaves Across the South

Welcome to “The Quickie” — Planned Parenthood Action Fund’s daily tipsheet on the top health care & reproductive rights stories of the day. You can read “The Quickie'' online here.

In today’s Quickie: Florida abortion ban sends shockwaves across the region and new polling from KFF.

FLORIDA ABORTION BAN DECISION SENDS SHOCKWAVES ACROSS THE SOUTH: Florida’s Supreme Court’s decision upholding the state’s 15-week abortion ban, paving the way for a 6-week ban has already sent shockwaves across the region. NBC reports that abortion providers in North Carolina and Virginia have already begun preparing for an influx of patients. Jenny Black, president of Planned Parenthood of South Atlantic, told NBC, “Planned Parenthood health center staff in North Carolina are doing their level best to quickly expand capacity and increase appointment availability ahead of the near total ban in Florida taking effect, but it will not be enough to stem the tide of patients from across the South who have few options left."

In Florida, health centers are mobilizing quickly to see as many patients as possible before the 6-week ban takes effect in May. Michelle Quesada, vice president of communications and marketing for Planned Parenthood of South, East and North Florida sheds light on how devastating the ban is: “You’d have to find out you’re pregnant in your fifth week of pregnancy, which is one week after a missed period…I can only imagine in 30 days the sheer volume of patients that are going to be confused, scared, feel like they have no other option when they learn that they’re beyond six weeks.

Read more from NBC.

NEW POLL SHOWS DIFFICULTY ACCESSING ABORTION CARE SINCE DOBBS: Today, new KFF polling shows 1 in 5 women of reproductive age living in states with abortion bans say they or someone they know has had difficulty accessing an abortion since the Dobbs decision. Among all women, 8% report that they or someone they know has had difficulty obtaining an abortion since the Supreme Court decision. As the experts at KFF write, “two-thirds of women living in these states think abortion should be legal in all or most cases, suggesting a disconnect between what women in these states support and the policies their state lawmakers have enacted”. Research also found that majorities of women across all states believe abortion should be legal in all or most cases and support policies that protect abortion access.

Read the poll here.