JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – As a state law putting restrictions on abortions after the sixth week of pregnancy is set to go into effect May 1, News4JAX looked into the reasons why people in Florida seek abortions and found the majority were for non-medical reasons.
According to the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration, about 95% of abortions in 2022 and 2023 were classified as elective or for social or economic reasons.
Out of about 84,000 abortions performed in the state last year, nearly 60,000 were elective, and about 19,000 were performed for social or economic reasons.
The emotional or psychological health of the woman was the third most common reason.
Other less common reasons include serious fetal defects, sexual assault, and the physical health of the woman.
Andrew Shirvell, who is the founder and executive director of advocacy organization Florida Voice for the Unborn, said he’s not surprised.
“It bears out what the pro-life side has been saying, basically, for decades...abortions that take place when the mother’s life is truly in danger are very rare,” Shirvell said.
Records show 251 such abortions were performed in Florida last year.
To Amy Weintraub, who is the reproductive rights program director at the non-profit Progress Florida, the reasons people get abortions aren’t anyone else’s business.
“The fact is, abortion is a safe and legal health care procedure or medical protocol, if someone’s using pills, and it should be part of every modern medical system,” Weintraub said. “And there’s no reason to ask a patient. There’s no reason for us to need to know what the reason behind their accessing the healthcare procedure is.”
Weintraub said the reason why abortion providers are required to get that information is due to politics.
“It’s politicians wanting to get in the middle of a provider and a patient and putting more of a burden on the providers,” Weintraub said.
With a six-week abortion rule set to be implemented in May, Weintraub said a public health emergency is brewing, with too few out-of-state providers to take an expected overflow of Florida abortion patients.
To Shirvell, the change is welcome but doesn’t go far enough.
“Florida Voice for the Unborn has been very upfront about the fact that, since Roe vs. Wade, was overturned, Florida should join her sister red states in completely prohibiting abortion,” Shirvell said.
In states such as Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee, abortion is banned with limited exceptions.
Florida’s six-week abortion law includes exceptions for rape, incest, human trafficking, fatal fetal abnormalities, to save the woman’s life, or to avoid a serious risk of permanent harm to the woman’s body — the types of issues that, in recent years, have made up a small percentage of abortions performed in Florida.
MORE | Florida Supreme Court upholds state’s 15-week abortion ban, but voters will soon have a say
Florida voters will also have the chance to decide whether abortion rights should be protected with a new constitutional amendment when they cast ballots this November.