“I am terrified by the idea that someone has to make such an important decision in such a short time.”
Jonathan Harrison, a law enforcement expert, discusses Florida’s ban on abortion after six weeks of pregnancy.
This law in force since last May, coupled with a previous tragic experience, pushed him to getting a vasectomy at age 33.
It all began in May 2022, when the conservative-majority US Supreme Court overturned the landmark ruling known as “Roe vs Wade”, which since 1973 has guaranteed the right to abortion in the country.
This removed constitutional protection for the termination of pregnancy and allowed Each state can dictate its own legislation in this ambit.
Several Republican-governed states have since imposed more restrictive measures, one of the most recent being Florida, governed by ultra-conservative Ron DeSantis.
Under the new law, It is illegal to have an abortion after six weeks. of pregnancy except in cases of risk to the mother’s life, rape, incest or human trafficking.
This has affected tens of thousands of people in one way or another, such as Jonathan and his fiancée Bayleighresidents of Palm Beach, about 100 kilometers north of Miami.
From there they shared their story with BBC Mundo.
The pregnancy that ended badly
Having a child was not in the plans of Jonathan and Bayleigh, who began their relationship in February 2022.
At the end of that year, just as he was preparing to propose to her, they discovered that she was pregnant.
“I don’t know how it could happen. I was taking the pill and did all the things you’re supposed to do,” says the 25-year-old.
The couple then considered how to proceed, and even considered going ahead with the pregnancy, but complications soon arose.
Bayleigh’s gynecologist told her she had suffered a miscarriage, “but it turned out that it was a mistake, that it was actually It hadn’t happened, and we discovered it a month later.“, she recalls.
Since she believed she was no longer pregnant, the young woman had taken a medication that month whose contraindications include possible deformities in the fetus.
Uncertainty and stress, plus constant and unusual pain, led Bayleigh to abort after 12 weeks of gestation.
“Because it was so advanced, the pill was not an option, so I had to undergo surgery,” she explains.
The decision to be sterilized
When Bayleigh had her abortion, Florida allowed the procedure up to 15 weeks gestation.
This changed on May 1, 2024, when the new six-week law came into effect.
Many doctors consider such a short period of time to be unreasonable.
“Six weeks is too soon. Many women still don’t know they are pregnant at that point.”,” Dr. Chelsea Daniels, from the Planned Parenthood organization in Miami, who treated the couple, told BBC Mundo.
Jonathan and Bayleigh were determined not to go through the trauma of an unwanted pregnancy again and knew that with the new law in place, repeating that experience would lead to even more complications and pain.
They did not trust traditional contraceptive methods because the pill had failed them (its effectiveness is between 90 and 99%, depending on use) and, despite his youth, he began to consider sterilization as a feasible solution.
“After going through that first pregnancy, that first miscarriage, the emotions and the pain of dealing with it, it seemed like one of the most viable options,” she recalls.
And she adds: “When I heard about the six-week abortion ban here in Florida, I made the final decision to have a vasectomy as soon as possible”.
Jonathan kept some samples in a sperm bank in case he decides to have children in the future, and In June he underwent the procedure which, he explains, was quick and painless.
He says he now feels “definitely much more relaxed and relieved about the future.”
Dr Chelsea Daniels performed the procedure under local anesthesia in just 20 minutes.
Vasectomy is more than 99% effective and is usually reversible, although not in all cases, so patients are advised to consider it a permanent decision.
Daniels assures that The demand for sterilization has grown at her clinic since Florida’s latest abortion restrictions went into effect.
“Many patients have told me that getting a vasectomy was something they had been considering for a long time. And after the overturn of Roe vs Wade a couple of years ago, and then the ban on abortion after six weeks in Florida, they felt more motivated to take this up as a real option.”
In fact, doctors across the United States have noted that the rise in demand for sterilizations is a widespread trend since the overturn of Roe v. Wade.
The Vasectomies in men between 18 and 30 years old tripled between June 2022 and September 2023 compared to the same period of the previous year, while Tubal ligations in women of the same age range doubledaccording to a study by three researchers at the University of Pittsburgh based on medical databases from across the country.
Experts attribute this data to growing fears among many Americans about current and future restrictions on abortion, as well as access to drugs for early pregnancy termination, such as mifepristone and misoprostol.
Of the 50 states that make up the US, 41 impose prohibitions or restrictions to abortionaccording to the Guttmacher Institute, a private reproductive rights advocacy organization.
Abortion in another state
In Florida, the six-week law is forcing many women with unwanted pregnancies to travel to other states to obtain an abortion.
“If they are pregnant for more than six weeks, we cannot legally offer them an abortion. We redirect them to other states”says the Planned Parenthood doctor.
The organization is responsible for advising these women and, to the extent possible, facilitating their journey and stay in a place where they can undergo an abortion safely.
She explains that the closest state to which patients travel is North Carolina, where abortion is legal up to 12 weeks, although they are also sent to Virginia, Maryland and other states.
The big problem is that, as Many take more than six weeks to realize they are pregnant.the number of women requiring this service has skyrocketed since the ban.
“In 2023, the following were carried out 84,000 abortions in Florida And there is no single state that can absorb that volume,” warns Dr. Daniels.
And Planned Parenthood, she explains, also does not have sufficient staff or resources to respond to the avalanche of requests for abortions at more than a month and a half of gestation.
BBC Mundo requested an interview with a representative of the Florida state government by email, but received no response.
In the presidential elections on November 5, Florida residents will be able to vote additionally an amendment to reverse the six-week ban and protect by law the right to abortion.
If the amendment wins, it would serve “to keep the government out of hospitals and respect private medical decisions between doctors and patients,” she says.
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