Florida’s six-week abortion ban has officially taken effect, marking a significant shift in abortion access in the US South.

Advocates of the ban hail it as a landmark achievement, replacing the previous 15-week law and setting a new standard for abortion policy. They view it as a pivotal win in the ongoing battle over abortion rights in the United States.

However, pro-choice activists express deep concerns about the ban’s impact on women’s reproductive health. They fear that the law will strain an already overburdened healthcare system and severely limit access to abortion services.

With Florida being the final state in the region without a near-total ban on abortion, pro-choice advocates worry that millions of women across nearly a dozen states will face significant obstacles in accessing abortion care.

“This essentially creates an abortion desert in the south-east part of our country,” remarked Michelle Quesada, a spokesperson for Planned Parenthood of South, East, and North Florida. “This will be devastating.”

However, this change may face reversal as soon as November, with Floridians set to vote on a ballot measure known as Amendment 4. If passed, this amendment could safeguard abortion access up to around 24 weeks of pregnancy.

Both the new ban and the upcoming vote have set the stage for perhaps the most consequential abortion battle since the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade two years ago, effectively rescinding the nationwide right to abortion.

Following that landmark ruling in June 2022, most Republican-controlled states swiftly moved to enact stringent abortion restrictions, either outright or at six weeks gestation—a stage at which many women are unaware of their pregnancy.

Florida stood out as an exception.

With abortion legal up to 15 weeks, it served as a sanctuary of sorts for women seeking the procedure in the region.

Following the overturn of Roe v. Wade, Florida emerged as “one of the primary access points for abortion care within the formal healthcare system in the south,” noted Isaac Maddow-Zimet, a data scientist at the pro-choice research group, the Guttmacher Institute.

Last year, over 84,000 abortions were performed in Florida—a 12% increase from 2020.

More than half of this uptick is attributed to patients from out-of-state, with an estimated 9,000 individuals seeking care in Florida in 2023 alone, as per Mr. Maddow-Zimmet.