Dr. Cherise Felix says a recent patient yelled and swore at her before eventually hugging her, grateful she would no longer have to carry the planned-for baby that had died inside her.
Felix provides abortions at Planned Parenthood clinics in Florida, which on May 1 banned abortion at six weeks’ gestation. She was able to see this patient, who was about 17 weeks pregnant, because of the abortion law’s limited health exceptions. But before coming to the clinic, the miscarrying patient was turned away by another OB-GYN, something Felix said happens regularly since the ban.
“They’re having to walk around with these deceased pregnancies, and they were wanted pregnancies, but their physicians aren’t comfortable treating them because the laws are so precarious and they’re always changing,” Felix told States Newsroom.
She is among many doctors in Florida who say the six-week ban has disrupted reproductive health care and among more than 850 doctors who this week endorsed a citizen-led ballot initiative to restore abortion rights. If it receives 60% of the vote, Amendment 4 would legalize abortion until fetal viability, and after for fetal and maternal health problems.
But if it fails, advocates predict reproductive health access will further decline throughout the Southeast, which depended on Florida for access after Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022. The solid wall of abortion bans in the South includes near-total bans in Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas; six-week bans in Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina; and a 12-week ban in North Carolina.
“I’m hopeful that it passes — 60% is a lot to hope for, but I think the alternative is scarier,” Felix said. “If you allow government interference into your exam room, it’s not just going to stop with this one thing. … It starts creeping into those people who never thought they’d be at Planned Parenthood … but it starts to spread into other areas of health care.”
OB-GYNs and hospitals remain confused and scared about Florida’s abortion ban, despite guidelines from the health department saying it does not preclude miscarriage management or the treatment of specific conditions.
On a recent press call organized by Floridians Protecting Freedom, which is leading the Yes on 4 campaign, Miami-based OB-GYN Dr. Chelsea Daniels said she recently saw a patient who was eight weeks pregnant and had four ultrasounds from four different doctors all showing her pregnancy was not growing, but they still wouldn’t perform the abortion.
“She needed an abortion because each passing day put her at increased risk of infection and bleeding,” said Daniels, who works for Planned Parenthood of South, East, and North Florida.
“I understand why these four other doctors turned her away. They were afraid. The exception criteria are so narrow that they can’t possibly address every single case. So, if a doctor gets audited and the state challenges their judgment, they could be fined, lose their license, and sent to jail. This case was medically very clear, but legally murky.”
Felix came to work for the same affiliate as Daniels........