Health
Florida’s Abortion Ban Will Reach Well Beyond Florida
August 2021
Miles to nearest clinic offering abortions after 6 weeks
Source: Caitlin Myers, Middlebury College
As of Wednesday, Florida has banned abortion after six weeks of pregnancy. It will have far-reaching effects.
In 2021, abortion was legal in every state, and the average American woman lived less than 25 miles from a clinic.
But after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, some states banned all or most abortions, including many in the South.
Florida, North Carolina and Virginia were the only states in the South offering abortion after six weeks of pregnancy. For 6.4 million women, the nearest clinic was in Florida.
Now, that option is gone. Women in several states will need to travel hundreds of miles farther to reach a clinic.
It is the biggest change to abortion access since the period immediately after the reversal of Roe v. Wade in 2022.
“This is a seismic event for everyone in the ecosystem,” said Jenny Black, the chief executive of Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, which operates in North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia. “It is impossible to overstate the impact of this ban on abortion access in the whole Southeast, probably all up the Eastern Seaboard.”
Florida, unlike much of the South, has long had many abortion clinics — more than 50, spread throughout the state. The average Florida woman lives less than 20 miles from one. Last year, clinics in Florida provided around 86,000 abortions, behind only California, New York and Illinois, according to estimates from the Guttmacher Institute.
Of those, more than 9,000 were for patients who came from other states, part of an influx after many Southern states banned or severely restricted abortion following the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.
With few exceptions, women across the South who are beyond six weeks of pregnancy — before many women know they’re pregnant — will now have to travel much farther to a clinic for an abortion. Also, for around a decade, Florida has required two appointments 24 hours apart to get an abortion, making it harder to receive one before the six-week mark. In other states, six-week bans have decreased abortions by about half.
“We’re hopeful that not only will the numbers in Florida for abortions take a deep nosedive, but also it does have national implications,” said Andrew Shirvell, the founder and executive director of Florida Voice for the Unborn, a group that lobbied the Legislature for the ban. Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, has said he does not want the state to remain an “abortion tourism destination.”
Despite bans in 14 states, and restrictions in several others, the number of legal abortions nationwide is about the same as before Roe was overturned. Florida’s new ban could change that, researchers said — an illustration of how regional abortion access has become. Shutting down abortion access in one linchpin state, Florida, could reduce the number of abortions across the entire region, while in swaths of the rest of the country, abortion has remained accessible, and in some places has even become more so.
The maps above show how the distances to the nearest clinic have increased for women in the South who are more than six weeks pregnant, based on data from Caitlin Myers, a professor of economics at Middlebury College, who has been measuring the effects of abortion bans for years.
Women in Miami who are beyond six weeks will now need to travel more than 700 miles to reach the nearest clinics — in Charlotte, N.C., where state law requires two visits spread over three days. The current wait time there is a week or more to get an appointment, according to a recent survey of clinics led by Professor Myers. Otherwise, women would need to travel farther, to clinics in Virginia or Washington, D.C.
Driving distances would also increase by more than 100 miles for women in parts of Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Mississippi.
Percent of women in the South living less than 100 miles from a clinic offering abortions after 6 weeks Percent of women in the South living more than 300 miles from a clinic offering abortions after 6 weeks
Includes Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia. Measurements are for women of reproductive age. Source: Caitlin Myers, Middlebury College
“This is going to be the biggest change to abortion access since Dobbs, and the impact is clear: More people are going to have to travel further distances if they have the financial resources to do so, and many people will be forced to remain pregnant,” said Stephanie Loraine Piñeiro, executive director of Florida Access Network, which helps women in Florida pay for abortions and travel to clinics.
Clinic operators in North Carolina and Virginia say they are trying to expand capacity, but are already struggling to meet demand. Several clinics in those states are already reporting waits of two weeks for appointments, according to Professor Myers’s survey and interviews with clinic staffers.
Decades of research show that, as driving distances to abortion clinics increase, fewer women obtain abortions. The typical seeker of an abortion is poor, and often struggles to arrange transportation, time off from work, housing and child care to travel long distances.
Driving Distances Now
Miles to nearest clinic offering abortions after 6 weeks
Source: Caitlin Myers, Middlebury College
Yet there is uncertainty about the precise long-term effects of the ban. The same day the Florida Supreme Court allowed the six-week limit to go into effect, it also allowed a constitutional amendment on abortion to appear on the November ballot. If the amendment earns the support of 60 percent of voters, it will reverse the ban and protect abortion rights until about 24 weeks.
And in recent months, more women have been ordering abortion pills through telemedicine. This includes women in states with bans, who order from clinicians in states with laws that shield them from out-of-state prosecution.
Such abortions could become more common in the South. But some women are unaware of the option or uncomfortable managing an abortion without a nearby medical provider. Others are too far along in their pregnancies for the option — abortion pills are recommended by the Food and Drug Administration only during the first 10 weeks of pregnancy.
As a result, telemedicine is unlikely to replace all the abortions currently occurring in Florida. “I don’t think it means that everybody just perfectly substitutes it for traveling to a brick and mortar facility and seeing a provider in person,” Professor Myers said.
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A deadly, drug-resistant fungus already spreading rapidly through U.S. hospitals is becoming even more threatening worldwide, though there may be hope for new treatments, according to a new scientific review.
Candida auris (C. auris), often described as a “superbug fungus,” is spreading globally and increasingly resisting human immune systems, Hackensack Meridian Center for Discovery and Innovation (CDI) researchers said in a review published in early December.
The findings reinforce prior CDC warnings that have labeled C. auris an “urgent antimicrobial threat” — the first fungal pathogen to receive that designation — as U.S. cases have surged, particularly in hospitals and long-term care centers.
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Approximately 7,000 cases were identified across dozens of U.S. states in 2025, according to the CDC, and it has reportedly been identified in at least 60 countries.
Candida auris is a drug-resistant fungus spreading in hospitals worldwide. (Nicolas Armer/Picture Alliance via Getty Images)
The review, published in Microbiology and Molecular Biology Reviews, helps explain why the pathogen is so difficult to contain and warns that outdated diagnostics and limited treatments lag behind. It was conducted by Dr. Neeraj Chauhan of the Hackensack Meridian CDI in New Jersey, Dr. Anuradha Chowdhary of the University of Delhi’s Medical Mycology Unit and Dr. Michail Lionakis, chief of the clinical mycology program at the National Institutes of Health.
Their findings stress the need to develop “novel antifungal agents with broad-spectrum activity against human fungal pathogens, to improve diagnostic tests and to develop immune- and vaccine-based adjunct modalities for the treatment of high-risk patients,” the researchers said in a statement.
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“In addition, future efforts should focus on raising awareness about fungal disease through developing better surveillance mechanisms, especially in resource-poor countries,” they added. “All these developments should help improve the outcomes and prognosis of patients afflicted by opportunistic fungal infections.”
Candida auris can survive on skin and hospital surfaces, allowing it to spread easily. (iStock)
First identified in 2009 from a patient’s ear sample in Japan, C. auris has since spread to dozens of countries, including the U.S., where outbreaks have forced some hospital intensive care units to shut down, according to the researchers.
The fungus poses the greatest risk to people who are already critically ill, particularly those on ventilators or with weakened immune systems. Once infected, about half of patients may die, according to some estimates.
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Unlike many other fungi, C. auris can survive on human skin and cling to hospital surfaces and medical equipment, allowing it to spread easily in healthcare settings.
“It is resistant to multiple antifungal drugs, and it tends to spread in hospital settings, including on equipment being used on immunocompromised and semi-immunocompromised patients, such as ventilators and catheters,” Dr. Marc Siegel, Fox News senior medical analyst and clinical professor of medicine at NYU Langone, previously told Fox News Digital.
Scientists say the unique cell wall structure of C. auris makes it harder to kill. (iStock)
It is also frequently misdiagnosed, delaying treatment and infection control measures.
“Unfortunately, symptoms such as fever, chills and aches may be ubiquitous, and it can be mistaken for other infections,” Siegel said.
In September, he said intense research was ongoing to develop new treatments.
Only four major classes of antifungal drugs are currently available, and C. auris has already shown resistance to many of them. While three new antifungal drugs have been approved or are in late-stage trials, researchers warn that drug development has struggled to keep pace with the fungus’s evolution.
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Despite the sobering findings, there is still room for cautious optimism.
The fungus can cling to skin and hospital surfaces, aiding its spread. (iStock)
In separate research published in December, scientists at the University of Exeter in England discovered a potential weakness in C. auris while studying the fungus in a living-host model.
The team found that, during infection, the fungus activates specific genes to scavenge iron, a nutrient it needs to survive, according to their paper, published in the Nature portfolio journal Communications Biology in December.
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Because iron is essential for the pathogen, researchers believe drugs that block this process could eventually stop infections or even allow existing medications to be repurposed.
“We think our research may have revealed an Achilles’ heel in this lethal pathogen during active infection,” Dr. Hugh Gifford, a clinical lecturer at the University of Exeter and co-author of the study, said in a statement.
New research is underway to develop better treatments and diagnostics for C. auris. (iStock)
As researchers race to better understand the fungus, officials warn that strict infection control, rapid detection and continued investment in new treatments remain critical.
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Health experts emphasize that C. auris is not a threat to healthy people.
Fox News Digital has reached out to the CDI researchers and additional experts for comment.
Fox News Digital’s Angelica Stabile contributed reporting.
New flu strain emerging as a severe health threat
Fox News senior medical analyst Dr. Marc Siegel joins ‘America’s Newsroom’ to warn of a new strain of the flu that is spiking hospitalizations across the country and newfound risks of medical marijuana’s link to psychosis.
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The New York State Department of Health reported a record surge in influenza activity, with 71,123 positive flu cases recorded statewide during the week ending December 20.
Health officials said the figure represents the highest number of flu cases ever reported in a single week since influenza became a reportable disease in New York in 2004.
State health data show the weekly total reflects a 38% increase from the previous reporting period, signaling a rapidly intensifying flu season.
There have been 189,312 reported positive flu cases so far this season, while influenza-related hospitalizations rose 63% in the most recent week.
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New York reported the highest weekly total of cases ever recorded since influenza became reportable in 2004. (iStock)
“We are seeing the highest number of flu cases ever recorded in a single week in New York state,” Health Commissioner Dr. James McDonald said in a press release.
There have been 189,312 reported flu cases so far this season, with influenza-related hospitalizations increasing 63% in the most recent week. (iStock)
Earlier this month, the department declared influenza prevalent statewide, a designation that requires unvaccinated health care workers to wear masks in patient care settings.
SURGE IN WHOOPING COUGH CASES IN SOUTHERN STATE PROMPTS HEALTH ALERTS
Health officials continue to emphasize that vaccination remains the most effective way to prevent severe illness and hospitalization from influenza.
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New Yorkers who have not yet received a seasonal flu shot are still encouraged to do so, with experts saying vaccination can offer protection even later in the season.
Health officials continue to urge New Yorkers to take preventive steps, including vaccination and staying home when sick, to limit further spread. (iStock)
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To help limit further spread, the department advises individuals experiencing flu-like symptoms — including fever, cough, sore throat, or body aches — to stay home. State health officials also recommend frequent handwashing, using hand sanitizer, and avoiding close contact with sick individuals.
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For those who become ill, officials say antiviral medications are available and are most effective when started within 48 hours of symptom onset.
Health officials also added that people at higher risk for complications should contact a health care provider promptly for evaluation and possible treatment.
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The department noted that flu activity typically peaks in January, meaning case counts could continue to climb in the weeks ahead.
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