Abortion by the numbers in Florida: As nation trends downward, Florida sees an uptick

James Call
Tallahassee Democrat

A recently released report on abortions indicates Florida may be bucking a national downward trend.

While the Centers for Disease Control reports the number of abortions performed in the U.S. dropped nearly 4% in a three-year period, in Florida they mostly held steady, falling less than 1% between 2013 and 2015. But in the past three years, Florida has seen a small uptick in the number of abortions, according to a state agency that tracks the highly controversial procedure.

And while a half dozen states in 2019 have moved to effectively ban abortions after six to eight weeks in the first trimester with so-called heartbeat bills, Florida will reduce the amount of paperwork for abortion clinics with a move to electronic filing of incident reports related to second-trimester abortions.

Florida law prohibits abortions after viability as well as during the third trimester, unless a medical exception exists. There are 71 clinics in the state that provide abortion services, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a reproductive health research and policy organization.

Birth and abortion statistics are not compiled together, and the CDC relies on voluntary reports from state health departments, but a scan of state and federal data reveals a general picture about abortion in Florida.

Nationwide, CDC said there were 638,169 abortions in 2015, the most recent year for which the agency has released data. That's 2% fewer than the 652,639 recorded in 2014, which was also almost a drop of another 2% from the 2013 number of 664,435 abortions.

The drop in the number of procedures performed follows the success of abortion opponents to get state legislatures to increase regulations.  In 2005 the country had 381 abortion clinics, the number dwindled to 272 in 2014 as more restrictions on access were approved.

A 2018 requirement that doctors have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals has reduced the number of abortion clinics in Missouri to one.  Six states have no abortion clinics. 

And this year, Georgia, North Dakota and Ohio, passed fetal heartbeat bills that effectively outlaw an abortion midway through the first trimester.

"There's been a 63% increase in abortion bans across the country this year alone," said Laura Goodhue, executive director of Planned Parenthood of Florida Alliance.

More than 250 bills to restrict access or outright ban abortion were introduced in 41 state legislatures so far this year. 

But in Florida, abortion opponents struck out in the 2019 legislative session. A heartbeat bill failed to get a hearing. A privacy clause in the Florida Constitution is a big hurdle for those seeking to increase regulations. It has been used by by courts to block abortion restrictions. 

So, while there has been a drop nationwide, the number of abortions performed in Florida is holding steady. The CDC reports an almost 1% decrease from 2013 (72,727) to 2015 (72,023). 

In the next three-year period, according to the Agency for Health Care Administration, between 2016 and 2018, the number of procedures increased nearly a half percent. 

AHCA's annual abortion report shows in 2018 the procedure was performed 70,083 times in the state — an increase of 1,019 from the previous year and 313 more than in 2016 when there were 69,770 abortions performed. 

At the same time, the CDC reported 639 fewer newborns being delivered in Florida. The CDC recorded 223,630 live births in 2017. 

While Planned Parenthood's Goodhue declined to address the numbers directly, Rep. Mike Hill, R-Escambia, said the uptick in the number of Florida abortions was a short-term "statistical quirk."

"If you look long-term you will see it is trending down in Florida, even if it is not too much. We're seeing somewhere near 70,000 babies aborted a year – that fills up Florida State's football stadium," said Hill, the sponsor of a fetal heartbeat bill in 2019. He vowed to introduce the bill again and said it would lead to a "dramatic drop."

AHCA compiles  medial incidents at abortion clinics in an annual report.

More than 52,000 of the abortions performed in Florida last year, or 74%, were elective — no reason given.

Women said they sought an abortion because of social and economic reasons 14,000, or 20% of the time. The mother's emotional or psychological health was the reason for another 1,100, or 1.5%, while the mother's physical health was cited 2,100 times.

A pregnancy was terminated because of a rape 101 times in Florida in 2018. Another eight abortions involved a case of incest. 

Last month, when AHCA proposed making reporting requirements digital for health-related incidents during a second trimester abortion, no one challenged the rule. The agency will file the new rule with the Department of State and it will become effective in 20 days.

Clinics have 10 days to inform AHCA of any complications that occur during an abortion performed during weeks 13 to 24 of a pregnancy.  Among the incidents tracked by the state are cervical injuries, infections and complications related to anesthesia.

The electronic incident report compiles the same information as the paper form in use since 2016. The form can be downloaded at AHCA’s website. 

Writer James Call can be contacted at jcall@tallahassee.com. Follow on Twitter @CallTallahassee