Cecile Richards: Florida's Abortion Ban Should Be Our Breaking Point [View all]

Florida’s Abortion Ban Should Be Our Breaking Point
ENOUGH
The Sunshine State’s six-week abortion ban takes effect today, eliminating the final bastion of reproductive rights in the South.
Cecile Richards
Published May 01, 2024 4:45AM EDT

snip//

But it’s more than just math stopping people across the country in their tracks today.

It’s the reports of clinics being inundated with frantic patients at the beginning of this week, now forced to turn people away. It’s the sinking realization that the most personal health decisions are now in the hands of Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Florida Supreme Court. It’s the accounts of doctors like the one I met in Louisiana who described the helplessness of talking to patients who couldn’t afford to travel hundreds of miles, take time off from work, find childcare, and book a hotel room to access basic health care. It’s the knowledge that our daughters have lost a right that goes to the heart of their ability to determine their future.

It’s the panic, the fear, and the cruelty.

What’s happening in Florida right now—and what will continue to happen in the coming weeks and months—is a reminder that this is not some theoretical debate over an abstract issue.