In a small abortion clinic in San Juan, Puerto Rico, the phone rings continuously, women flood the waiting room, and cruise ship staff come looking for care. Darlington Medical Associates, a 10-minute drive from the island’s airport, is experiencing the impact of Florida’s six-week abortion ban. “We are the only clinic in Puerto Rico and the Caribbean that provides abortion service up to 24 weeks,” says Johana Molina, social worker/office manager for Darlington Medical Associates.
“After Roe v. Wade was overturned, our travel patients increased a lot, but after May 1, when the six-week ban went into effect, we started to receive many more patients from Florida.” Several times a day, Molina fields phone calls from patient navigators and organizations in Florida called abortion funds, scrambling to help women secure appointments.
“A lot of organizations send women here because it’s cheaper, it’s more friendly,” Molina says. Florida was once a safe haven for abortion care, even in the year after the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision that overturned Roe v. Wade.
But nearly half of the country has abortion restrictions in place now, and as of May 1, Florida has one of the most limiting — a six-week ban and a 24-hour waiting period between a consent visit and a procedure. Florida abortion providers say a regular part of their daily routine has become turning away patients too far along in pregnancy to get care in the state and connecting them to resources to tr.