“A patient called me yesterday to tell me she was pregnant and to ask me what I was doing.” Dr. Cecilia Grande has been treating hundreds of women for years at her clinic in Miami, Florida. Since Florida joined the list of states that approved strong restrictions on abortion on May 1, other consultations have been added to the usual ones: women calling to change their contraceptive method in case theirs is not enough , women who want a pregnancy, but who are afraid if the fetus – or they – suffer complications, women who do not know where to turn after discovering an unwanted pregnancy. “Without a doubt, clandestine abortion will increase. “This is an incredible public health crisis,” warns the gynecologist.
Today, nearly half of U.S. states ban or severely restrict abortion. Although the offensive began much earlier, since in June 2022 the Supreme Court of the United States repealed the ruling that endorsed the right to abortion throughout the country, several states have adopted laws that restrict it . This Tuesday, ten of these states (Arizona, Colorado, South Dakota, Florida, Maryland, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada and New York) will not only elect who will occupy the White House, but will also vote on amendments aimed at flipping these states . state laws and again guarantees voluntary termination of pregnancy.
Florida is one of them: to move forward, Amendment 4 needs a “yes” vote from 60% of those who decide to answer this question on the ballot. Florida was also the latest US state to join the crusade against the right to chosen motherhood. In May, the law, promoted by ultra-governor Ron De Santis, took effect, which, as in other states, prohibits abortion once a fetal heartbeat exists, which usually occurs around the sixth week of gestation, when many women do not know it. or they just found out they are pregnant.
Florida had become an oasis in the southern United States to which many women from neighboring states who could not terminate their pregnancies went. Today, the country’s southern belt is a reproductive rights desert that forces women to search hundreds of miles for solutions that not all of them can afford.
“They divide women into groups: those who can travel to other states and those who cannot,” summarizes Dr. Cecilia Grande, Catholic but convinced of the right to abortion. In her office there are paintings with the definition of feminism and stickers with the LGTBI flag. Grande warns that abortion ban seriously affects overall sexual and reproductive health and criticizes that rules are not written by specialists, leaving many ‘gray areas’ that endanger women and professionals.
Lack of definition and obstacles
Even if on paper these laws contain exceptions, the practice is quite different. In Florida, after the sixth week, women can abort in cases of rape, incest, human trafficking or serious risk to the mother. The same thing happens in other American states, although some, like Louisiana or Texas, only allow it if the woman’s life is in danger, that is, those who have suffered rape or incest are excluded.
The activists also assure that it is extremely difficult to access these exceptions: “They are not real, you have to have a police report, and many women either do not believe them, or will not contact the police because of their immigration status, for simple reason. fear,” says the Florida coordinator of the National Institute for Latin American Reproductive Health, Charo Valero. Planned Parenthood (the nation’s largest sexual and reproductive rights organization) claims it had to expel women from their state because, although they filed one of these complaints, they did not obtain the police report necessary.
The lack of a legal definition of “risk for the mother” leaves room for this gray area that professionals and activists talk about. “The regulations do not specify when a pregnancy can be terminated and do not take into account the reality of medical practice. Depending on what you are facing, there are certain possibilities of viability or others, many factors can influence”, explains the gynecologist Cecilia Grande, who assures that there is “fear” among professionals. Restrictive laws provide sanctions for doctors who help women have abortions outside of this narrow window of weeks and circumstances, ranging from loss of their medical license to fines of thousands of dollars and even prison time.
“As it is not defined exactly what the risk to the mother’s life is and the laws are not written by doctors or people with knowledge of the subject, it may happen that a doctor who has performed an abortion in due to an infection in the mother or he was told that with this or that treatment he could have been cured and ended up being punished,” adds Charo Valero. This gray area also endangers the lives and health of women who have suffered miscarriages.
Cases of women who, despite ongoing infections or abortions that were medically advised to stop as soon as possible, were unable to abort because the fetus still had a heartbeat or because staff did not unclear whether this would be covered. by this procedure, are public affairs. There are women who are forced to carry a pregnancy even though they know that their baby will die a few minutes after birth, and even maternal deaths because they were not treated in time.
210 women prosecuted
A recently released investigation by the organization Pregnancy Justice found that in the first year after the Supreme Court’s decision, at least 210 pregnant women were prosecuted for conduct related to “pregnancy, abortion, loss perinatal or childbirth. This is the highest number of open pregnancy-related cases documented in one year. “In the vast majority of cases (191), the charges against the pregnant person did not require any ‘proof’ of harm to the fetus or baby, but simply the perception of a risk of harm,” explains the ‘organization. Alabama, Oklahoma and South Carolina are the states with the highest number of such cases.
The study documents 22 cases of women criminalized after suffering a loss during pregnancy. Five of them mentioned an abortion, an attempted abortion or that the defendant had “investigated” the possibility of terminating her pregnancy. One of the study’s authors, Wendy Bach, a law professor at the University of Tennessee, says the United States is experiencing “a high point” in the criminalization of pregnancy, “due to the increase in suspicion and surveillance of pregnant women. .
I’m looking for money to have an abortion
In this context, organizations that already managed funds to help women access voluntary termination of pregnancy, in a country where this service is not public in practically any state, are overwhelmed. “With the same money, they cover fewer cases because now you have to pay for longer trips and stays of several days,” explains the executive director of the National Institute of Latin American Reproductive Health, Lupe M. Rodríguez. The Guttmacher Institute confirms the increase in requests to access these funds.
Charo Valero emphasizes that the impact “is disproportionate” for women who were already on the margins. In the United States, an abortion can cost between $500 and $3,000, depending on travel, time away from home, and other associated expenses. On the other hand, clinics in states where the laws are more stringent are saturated. “In California, there are waiting lists of several weeks,” adds Lupe M. Rodríguez. And when it comes to pregnancy and abortion, every week counts.
Dozens of activists have been going door to door for several weeks in the neighborhoods of certain cities, such as Miami, to inform the population of the serious implications of the new laws of these states and to ask for a “yes” to the amendment 4. In states with stricter restrictions, abortions have declined significantly, and applications from medical residents seeking to specialize in gynecology and obstetrics have also declined. “If there are already areas of the United States that are veritable deserts of pregnancy and delivery care providers, this will mean less training, less staff and less attention,” warns gynecologist Cecilia Grande, emphasizing that reproductive health in general is at risk in these circumstances. .
Faced with the stigma that the majority of abortions correspond to young and crazy girls, Dr. Grande emphasizes that a good number come from women over 30 who are already mothers: “My mother lived in Cuba when she was 20 years old. and she I could abort. »And today, my daughter, the same age, lives in Florida and can’t. Abortions have decreased, we don’t have an abortion epidemic. “It’s a political battle.”
