Liam Conner
Washington – Florida health regulators issued a new rule Thursday clarifying exceptions to the state’s six-week abortion ban, detailing allowable treatments for certain medical conditions that put the health of the pregnant woman and her fetus at risk.
ORule from the state Agency for Health Care Administration came a day after Florida new restrictions on abortion came into force. With the state’s new law, access to abortion is severely limited throughout the Southeast.
The measure specifies that treatments for ectopic pregnancy and trophoblastic tumor, a rare tumor that forms where the placenta attaches to the uterus, are not considered abortions. It also states that if a doctor attempts to induce labor to treat premature rupture of the membranes and the fetus does not survive, it is not considered an abortion.
The conditions can occur as early as six weeks into pregnancy and “may pose an immediate danger to the health, safety and well-being of women and unborn children” in hospitals and abortion clinics if not treated immediately, according to state regulators.
The agency said it initiated the rulemaking to “safeguard against any immediate harm that could come to pregnant women due to misinformation” and accused the media, the Biden administration and advocacy groups of perpetuating a “deeply dishonest fear campaign” to misrepresent the law. abortion status. . The emergency rule is necessary “to ensure the health, safety and well-being of pregnant women and fetuses during medical emergencies,” according to the Agency for Health Care Administration.
Florida’s six-week ban was signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis last year, but it did not take effect immediately as the state supreme court considered challenging a separate measure banning abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. This 15-week restriction was approved by the state legislature in April 2022, months before the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v.
The Florida Supreme Court in early April maintained 15 week banpaving the way for the more restrictive six-week law to take effect.
The ban includes exceptions in cases of rape, incest and human trafficking up to 15 weeks of pregnancy. It also allows doctors to terminate a pregnancy if necessary to save the mother’s life or prevent “a serious risk of substantial and irreversible physical disability.”
Still, abortion rights advocates have warned that the law is effectively an almost total ban on abortion, since many women only know they are pregnant after six weeks of pregnancy.
Since the Supreme Court dismantled the constitutional right to abortion in June 2022, 14 states have banned abortion with limited exceptions. Another seven prohibit abortion in the first 18 weeks of pregnancy, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a pro-abortion research organization.
Many doctors in states with strict abortion restrictions have struggled to navigate narrow exceptions to the bans. The Supreme Court last week considered a case that pit near-total abortion ban in Idaho against a federal law that requires hospitals to provide stabilizing care to patients in medical emergencies. The Biden administration has argued that under this federal law, stabilizing treatment can be abortion care, and in these cases, the federal measure overrides state laws restricting access to abortion.
