Two years after Florida's six-week abortion ban went into effect, an OB/GYN with over 30 years of experience says he thinks the restrictions have taken a toll on women's pregnancy care — regardless of whether they're seeking to terminate.
Dr. Aaron Elkin is an OB/GYN at Memorial Regional Hospital in Broward County. He's also the chair for the South Florida Section of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.
On "The Florida Roundup," he explained how there was an initial lack of clarity in the law for physicians, how it created difficulty for patients to get pregnancy care even if they did not want to terminate, and other topics.
"You gotta understand that as physicians, we really need to try to really have shared decision-making with the patients and evaluate the patients. We should be able to actually prescribe their treatment," Elkin told host Tom Hudson. "In the last two years, there have been an enormous difficulty for physicians to understand the law and then to clarify the law, and then to actually provide medical care for patients."
Gov. Ron DeSantis signed SB 300 in 2023, which banned most abortions after six weeks of pregnancy.
"We are proud to support life and family in the state of Florida," DeSantis said in a 2023 statement. "I applaud the Legislature for passing the Heartbeat Protection Act that expands pro-life protections and provides additional resources for young mothers and families."
ALSO READ: Abortion is down dramatically in Florida since six-week ban went into effect
News Service of Florida reported how supporters like Rep. Kiyan Michael (R-Jacksonville) said: "Life begins at conception."
"Thank God that our mothers, all of us in this room, did not choose to end the life of us when we were in the womb. That is the most vulnerable place for babies, and they deserve to be protected," Michael said in 2023.
The law took effect on May 1, 2024.
There were around 84,000 abortions in Florida in 2023, which was the last full year before the six-week ban. The number has since plummeted.
According to News Service of Florida, 64,854 abortions were reported in 2024. And just slightly over 40,000 were reported in 2025.
'Hesitancy creates delay of care'
On "The Florida Roundup," Elkin said that when the law first came out, "it was not clear at all."
His example was that the exception for abortions was to save the mother's life.
"That exception is so vague — we don't really know what that means," he said. "Does that mean to save the mother's life when the mother is about to die? Does that mean when there's a certain clinical scenario where continuing a pregnancy is completely futile and 100% of the time will end up in the mother dying, for example, an ectopic pregnancy?"
"In the last two years, there have been an enormous difficulty for physicians to understand the law and then to clarify the law, and then to actually provide medical care for patients."Dr. Aaron Elkin, OB/GYN
Elkin said the Agency for Healthcare Administration would later come out with clarifications and that circumstances like how an ectopic pregnancy is not an abortion, and that it is medical care. The state issued guidance to providers in September 2024 about this, including that miscarriages are not considered abortions.
An ectopic pregnancy happens when a fertilized egg implants and grows outside the main cavity of the uterus, like the fallopian tube, according to the Mayo Clinic.
Republican U.S. Rep Kat Cammack told the Wall Street Journal in 2025 that doctors previously delayed ending her life-threatening ectopic pregnancy because of initial confusion over the new law. She was five weeks into her pregnancy, but the doctors were worried about losing their licenses or going to jail. Cammack blamed the confusion on "fearmongering" by pro-abortion activists.
Eklin said the confusion over the law made patients and physicians "stuck in delay of care," and they might have left for different states.
"But most importantly, I think that what it created is difficult for patients to get pregnancy care — even if they do not want to terminate the pregnancy," Elkin said. "What most people don't understand is that because of that delay of care, created issue for patients that are getting sicker for simply trying to get pregnancy care and also miscarriages."
ALSO READ: Why this St. Petersburg mom had to travel out-of-state for abortion care, despite exceptions
He said he's been clear about the law, but others may still be hesitant.
"Everybody else may be still hesitant. And that hesitancy creates delay of care, potential more intervention by legal team, as opposed to the practitioner and the patient," he said. "I think that there needs to be some more clarification. I think there needs to be some more fine-tuning to understand what can we do in certain clinical scenarios?"
A report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed Florida mothers have been increasingly starting prenatal care late or not at all.
WUSF previously reported how the share of Florida mothers getting late or no prenatal care jumped 25% between 2021 and 2024 — for a total of 11.4%. Florida tied with Georgia for the third-highest rate in the country. Hawaii at 12.8% and New Mexico at 11.7% fared worse.
ALSO READ: Prenatal care gaps widen in Florida amid access and policy challenges
Elkin believes this has worsened since then, but that you can't limit it to one factor. He said other factors could include insurance premiums going up and limited availability of OB/GYNs.
"I think there are very few physicians and an ability for patients to get pregnancy care — including termination of pregnancy, including care for miscarriage," he said. "A woman can have a miscarriage, and she's just unable to find a practitioner that's going to help her with it. That partially is because of the law, partially because of the availability and everything that you've been describing before."
Telehealth, out-of-state abortion
Issa Maddow Zimet is a data scientist with the Guttmacher Institute, which researches reproductive rights. Maddow Zimet said that in Florida and other states with these restrictions, people might access care by traveling outside the state, telehealth or ordering pills from websites overseas.
The number of Floridians traveling out of state for abortions almost tripled in the first year of the six-week ban. North Carolina has a 12-week ban along with a 72-hour waiting period. But the most popular states, like Virginia and New York, are further away.
Telehealth abortion is done through remote consultation, where the patient will then be mailed abortion pills. Florida law restricts this. However, some states have "shield laws" that will protect providers who send the pills into states with these restrictions.
"This increase in travel out of state has in some ways shifted where Floridians are accessing care and not necessarily whether they're getting that care," Maddow Zimet said. "Providers in shield law states like New York or Massachusetts have been continuing to offer telehealth abortion services to Floridians."
Florida and Texas filed a lawsuit back in March, challenging the decades of federal government decisions over abortion drugs and the ability for the drugs to be sent through the mail. They say it interferes with state laws to restrict abortions, according to News Service of Florida.
ALSO READ: With legal briefs in, Supreme Court weighs telehealth access for the abortion pill
In a separate case, NPR reported how a federal appeals court ruling on May 1 rolled back telehealth access to the medication mifepristone, which is used for abortion and managing miscarriages.
However, last Monday, the Supreme Court put this ruling on hold for a week after two drug makers appealed the ruling. So, the pill was still able to be prescribed through telemedicine and sent through the mail until at least this Monday.
This stay could be extended temporarily or it could expire. If it expires, telemedicine access to the pull would end again nationally as the legal process continues to unfold, according to NPR.
This story was compiled from interviews conducted by Tom Hudson for "The Florida Roundup."
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