Tallahassee’s medical providers deserve thanks as Florida abortion laws add extra burden
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Thirty years ago today - on the morning of March 10, 1993 - Dr. David Gunn pulled into the parking lot of Pensacola Women’s Medical Services, the abortion clinic where he was working that day. As Dr. Gunn was getting out of his car, Michael Griffin shot him three times in the back. Dr. Gunn died that day in a Pensacola hospital. He was 47 years old. Griffin was convicted of the murder and is still serving a life sentence.
To honor the life and work of Dr. Gunn and all the people who provide abortion care, March 10 has become known as Abortion Providers Appreciation Day. This is the day we celebrate the physicians, clinic administrators, staff, security personnel and volunteers who provide the safe, judgment-free abortion care patients need and deserve.
Being an abortion provider has never been an easy job. But abortion providers in Tallahassee now face more challenges--serving more than double the number of patients, and in a more demanding manner, than just a year ago.
What’s behind this huge increase in need for services and obstacles to providing them? Three major legal upheavals tell the tale:
First, ever since Florida’s mandatory delay law went into effect last April, Florida providers have had to schedule twice as many appointments as before to accommodate a single procedure. A patient seeking an abortion must see the same provider twice--first to get counseling; and then, at least 24 hours later, to have the abortion done. This two-appointment process strains provider calendars and exhausts patients.
Second, after the United States Supreme Court issued its Dobbs decision last June, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Tennessee, and Arkansas fully banned abortion with no exception for rape or incest. Georgia’s so-called “heartbeat” ban prohibits abortions about six weeks into a pregnancy - before many of us even know that we are pregnant. As a result of these stricter abortion bans in nearby states, abortion providers in Florida, and especially in Tallahassee, have been inundated with out-of-state patients.
And third, Florida’s 15-week ban, which went into effect July 1, prohibits abortions after 15 weeks, with a very narrow exemption for a fatal fetal abnormality or maternal loss of life if two physicians confirm the diagnosis in writing. The law does not allow exemptions for rape, incest, or human trafficking. For Florida patients whose pregnancies are beyond the 15-week window, Tallahassee providers offer the assistance they can to refer patients to jurisdictions where they can receive care, placing additional burdens on staff, both logistical and emotional.
To make matters even worse, a near-total abortion ban was filed this week in the Florida Legislature.
Tallahassee abortion providers are now the sole providers of abortions for the entire Northwest Florida region, since services in Pensacola - where Dr. Gunn was murdered 30 years ago today - recently ceased operations.
And so, on this Abortion Provider Appreciation Day, we say thank you to Tallahassee’s abortion care providers. Thank you for continuing your work, even in the face of the most challenging year you have faced to date. Thank you for the compassionate abortion care you provide to local community members, even when your own safety may be at risk. And thank you for ensuring that those in other states can find the safe and legal healthcare they need in our community.
Meg Baldwin is convenor of Women for Abortion and Reproductive Rights, a community-based group promoting access and resources for reproductive health care.
Jodi Wilkof is President of the Rapid Benefits Group (RBG) Fund, a Tallahassee based nonprofit providing financial and other assistance to persons facing barriers to accessing adequate health care, including reproductive health services.
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