This kind of thing is nothing new for the forced childbirth crowd. But it’s even more reprehensible in the wake of Dobbs as desperate women from other states are having to travel long distances to obtain an abortion:
Florida regulators over the last year punished more than a dozen abortion providers for violating a nearly decade-old law that requires pregnant patients wait 24 hours before getting the procedure.
Florida legislators approved the law in 2015, but it remained in limbo after the American Civil Liberties Union challenged it. After a judge upheld the law in April, Florida’s abortion regulator, the Agency for Health Care Administration, almost immediately began issuing fines.
Abortion-rights advocates say providers were given little chance to prepare for the law, which requires patients to wait 24 hours between clinic visits. In some instances, clinics were not in compliance with the “24 hour” law because of paperwork issues or computer problems.
Florida has become a hub for abortions since the fall of Roe v. Wade last year, despite a new law limiting abortions after 15 weeks. Thousands of people have come to Florida from across the southeast to get abortions as other states in the region impose even stricter limits on access, and abortion rights groups say the “24 hour” rule will further burden people traveling to Florida who will be forced to stay in the state longer.
“We have a lot of independent clinics in this state that are working hard to provide women with access, so it’s a shame,” Laura Goodhue, executive director of the Florida Alliance of Planned Parenthood Affiliates, said in an interview. “And women are getting hurt in the process, especially the ones coming from out of state.”
So far, the agency has issued almost $500,000 in fines to 14 of Florida’s 52 abortion clinics. While Planned Parenthood has an advocacy arm that helped prepare its 38 Florida clinics for the “24 hour” law, smaller independent clinics couldn’t afford the same luxury, Goodhue said.
The “24 hour” rule is another example of Florida restricting abortion access, though it’s not has high profile as the 2022 law banning abortion at 15 weeks that the Republican-controlled Legislature approved last year. The law doesn’t include exceptions for rape or incest.
Once they pass their 6 week ban, there won’t be any further worries since most women don’t even know they’re pregnant before then. Very few people will be making that trek to Florida.
The idea that DeSantis thinks it’s a good idea to sign a 6 week ban does reinforce the idea that he isn’t ready for prime time. A general election candidate who takes that stance is toast. I’m not even sure all of MAGA is onboard with that. Trump once said that a woman who has an abortion should be punished but he backtracked soon after, so who knows what they really think? But further restricting abortion rights is a huge loser beyond the religious right.
But hey, maybe DeSantis is a true believer on this one. After all, he backed his quack surgeon general refusing to wear a mask when in the presence of a legislator who was undergoing chemo for breast cancer. And that was just shortly after his own wife had undergone treatment for breast cancer. He’s not stupid and he knows the science showed that it was prudent to wear masks around people who are immunosuppressed . He just thought that it was more important to show COVID machismo.
So let’s just say that women’s lives aren’t of paramount importance to him.