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Florida
Flordia’s 6-week abortion ban means Louisiana women will have to travel farther, wait longer
The state of Florida, a recent haven for women in the Deep South seeking to terminate their pregnancies in the post-Dobbs era, will ban abortions after 6 weeks of pregnancy starting May 1, further narrowing access to the procedure for Louisiana residents.
Nearly 1,200 Louisiana women traveled to Florida for abortions in 2023, roughly three times the number who sought the procedure there two years earlier, according to Florida’s Agency for Health Care Administration. Louisiana residents made up about 15% of Florida’s 7,736 out-of-state abortions last year.
The ban may be temporary. While upholding the 6-week abortion threshold earlier this month, Florida’s Supreme Court also ruled that a proposed constitutional amendment that would guarantee the right to abortion “before viability,” which is typically around 24 weeks, would be on the November ballot.
Meanwhile, hundreds of Louisiana residents will have to travel farther and wait longer to get appointments in states other than Florida. The closest states are North Carolina, which offers abortions up to 12 weeks; Virginia, which allows the procedure until the third trimester; Illinois, which offers abortion until viability; and Kansas, where abortion is legal until 22 weeks.
“That inundates them,” said Kendra Smith-Parks, communications manager at Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast in New Orleans. “Right now, we’re one of the most restricted regions, and patients are left with fewer and further options.”
Louisiana residents seeking Florida abortions skyrocketed
Even as Florida tightened the window in which women could get abortions, Louisiana residents continuing seeking them there in increasing numbers.
In 2021, 380 Louisiana residents traveled to Florida to terminate their pregnancies, according to the Agency for Health Care Administration. In 2022, when the abortion ban in Louisiana came down mid-year, the number rose to 910. Then in 2023, the first full year after the near-total ban was enacted, 1,191 Louisiana residents received abortions in Florida, which provided the procedure up to 15 weeks.
Although Florida requires two visits 24 hours apart before an abortion will be performed, the distance and familiarity made it an easier option than flying to a state with less cumbersome requirements for some Gulf South residents.
“A lot of people we’ve spoken to coming out of Texas and Louisiana, some of them have never flown,” said Smith-Parks. “Some are undocumented and are afraid of being detained.”
From June 2022 to January of this year, Planned Parenthood Gulf South has spent about $870,000 assisting around 2,000 women with abortions. With Florida no longer an option for most, Parks said costs the organization paid for, such as gas, flights and childcare, will be more expensive.
The distance also will likely influence whether some choose to continue an unwanted pregnancy, said Michelle Erenberg, executive director of Lift Louisiana, an abortion rights advocacy group.
“Louisiana is honestly the worst-positioned state in the entire country when it comes to abortion access now,” said Erenberg. “The number of states to traverse in order to find a state in which they can access legal abortion is just monumental and will be insurmountable.”
To get an abortion in Florida after May 1, patients would need to find out they were pregnant in the fifth week of pregnancy, which might be one week after a missed period.
Increased funding for crisis centers
Alongside the six-week ban, Florida is giving $25 million to the Florida Pregnancy Care Network, a group of crisis pregnancy centers that counsel women not to have abortions and may offer supplies like diapers and strollers, though some such centers have been found to provide inaccurate or misleading information about abortions. Unlike Louisiana’s law, Florida’s law allows for exceptions for rape and incest up to 15 weeks, but requires an accompanying police or medical report.
Louisiana lawmakers voted to increase funding for similar centers from $1 million to $3 million starting July 1.
Anti-abortion groups pointed to the crisis centers as a resource for the potential additional pregnancies and births that may occur in the state as a result of Florida’s ban.
“Our hope would be that the 1,200 women would look to Louisiana’s local services,” said Sarah Zagorski, director of communications for Louisiana Right to Life, adding that findhelp.org, a site can help families during and after pregnancy.
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Florida
Jury selection continues in fatal boat crash trial of South Florida real estate mogul George Pino
MIAMI — A new group of prospective jurors was questioned Tuesday in the trial of South Florida real estate mogul George Pino, who is charged in connection with a 2022 boat crash that killed a teenager in Miami-Dade County.
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During jury selection in a Miami-Dade courtroom, Judge Marisa Tinkler Mendez asked potential jurors what they already knew about the case and whether they had recently seen or heard anything about it.
Several prospective jurors said they knew only basic details, including that a fatal boating crash occurred and that a teenage girl died. Others said they recalled media reports that alcohol may have been involved.
As questioning continued, some prospective jurors disclosed connections to schools and communities tied to the case.
Passengers aboard Pino’s boat included his wife, his teenage daughter and 11 of her friends, many of whom attended private schools in Miami-Dade County.
One prospective juror said they graduated from a local private school around the time of the crash and were familiar with some of the students involved.
Another said references to schools and witnesses brought back memories of seeing posts and articles about the incident shared on social media.
A third said their child participates in youth sports with students from schools connected to the case.
Investigators said the boat struck a channel marker while returning from an outing on Biscayne Bay. Seventeen-year-old Lourdes Academy student Lucy Fernandez drowned after the crash.
Tinkler Mendez also addressed concerns that a prospective juror had been viewing a news report about the case on a cellphone while waiting outside the courtroom.
Another prospective juror reported hearing the report but said it was not loud enough for everyone in the area to hear.
Tinkler Mendez reminded prospective jurors to avoid news coverage and social media discussions related to the case as jury selection continues.
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STARKE, Fla. — A Florida man who confessed to killing his girlfriend’s infant daughter and throwing her body in a pond three decades ago is set to be executed Tuesday evening.
Andrew Richard Lukehart, 53, is scheduled to receive a three-drug injection starting at 6 p.m. at Florida State Prison near Starke. He was sentenced to death after being convicted of first-degree murder and aggravated child abuse in 1997 for the death a year earlier of 5-month-old Gabrielle Hanshaw.
This would be Florida’s eighth execution so far this year, following a record 19 executions in 2025. Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis oversaw more executions in a single year in 2025 than any other Florida governor since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. The previous record was set in 2014 with eight executions.
According to court records, Lukehart was watching his girlfriend’s baby in February 1996 while his girlfriend was caring for her older daughter, who had been ill. At some point, the girlfriend said Lukehart drove away from their Jacksonville home, and she couldn’t find baby Gabrielle. Lukehart called his girlfriend about 30 minutes later and told her to call police because the baby had been kidnapped and he was chasing the kidnapper.
Later that evening, Lukehart was found in a neighboring county after driving his car off the road. During questioning the next day, Lukehart told investigators that Gabrielle died after he dropped the baby on her head and then shook her. He told police that he panicked and threw the baby in a pond. Law enforcement officers searched the pond and found the child’s body.
The Florida Supreme Court denied Lukehart’s appeals last week. His attorneys had claimed that medication he was taking for kidney disease could have a negative reaction with the lethal injection drugs. They also argued that having only a month between the signing of Lukehart’s death warrant and the execution deprived him of his due process.
The U.S. Supreme Court denied Lukehart’s final appeal on Monday.
A total of 47 people were executed in the U.S. in 2025. Florida led the way with a flurry of death warrants signed by DeSantis. Alabama, South Carolina and Texas tied for second with five executions each.
Another execution is planned in Florida later this month. Dusty Ray Spencer, 74, was convicted of fatally stabbing his wife in 1992.
All Florida executions are carried out via lethal injection of a sedative, a paralytic and a drug that stops the heart, according to the Department of Corrections.
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