FLORIDA, USA — Kelly Flynn, CEO of A Woman's Choice, said her call center has seen a dramatic increase since the Supreme Court's decision on Roe vs. Wade.
"We have seen a significant increase," she said. "Since the decision was made, it seems, especially over the last couple of weeks, we're seeing more and more, I mean, at least five to 10 percent more, calls a day from surrounding states, Tennessee and Mississippi and Texas. So, we're definitely noticing an increase in our volume right now."
Thursday evening, a decision was handed down from Florida's First District Court of Appeals which leaves in place, for now, Florida's ban on abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy.
Florida's abortion law isn't as restrictive as most bordering states.
Flynn said their call center, which takes calls for the Jacksonville and North Carolina locations, received about 600 calls Thursday alone. She said most of the calls were from people in Georgia.
Wednesday, a federal appeals court allowed Georgia's new abortion ban to take effect. The law makes abortion illegal in Georgia from the moment a heartbeat can be detected. That is usually around six weeks and at a time when many women don't know they are pregnant.
"I think a lot of people were scrambling. Our phones were really busy today," Flynn said.
"We are working a lot of hours to help patients with transportation and lodging and trying to just get patients seen and treated. It is health care. So, they deserve to be able to be seen, and they shouldn't have to drive 1,000 miles round trip," Flynn said.
Flynn said they sent one patient who was just beyond Florida's 15 week limit to Georgia Wednesday, only to learn the procedure was no longer legal. They ultimately flew that patient to New Jersey.
"It's sad. We feel terrible. It's unfair. Their rights to health care have been taken away from this decision, from Roe v. Wade. It's unbelievable. It's unjust. And knowing that a person has to go and travel so many miles to have safe accessible care is, it's still hard for us to believe. But we are doing our best to try to answer all the calls and accommodate as many patients as we can safely," Flynn said.
Flynn said her staff prepped for this surge in May when the draft opinion of overturning Roe was leaked.
"We are anticipating more patients crossing borders. We're not really sure what laws are going to change right now. Of course, we're worried about who and what states may start to talk about state line crossing and how would that affect our patients. Would it criminalize patients and doctors," Flynn said.
"Women are traveling from all over the country now to come to Florida, and Florida has really become, unfortunately, an abortion destination state, and it's terribly tragic," Andrew Shirvell, founder of Florida Voice for the Unborn, said.
Shirvell is calling for a special legislative session and asking Governor Ron DeSantis and state lawmakers to ban abortion altogether in Florida.
“It's really a tragedy because this is something I believe that the legislature and the governor could have avoided had they actually acted a few legislative sessions ago to get the ball rolling on state litigation challenging the Florida Supreme Court's interpretation of the state constitution," he said.
"The 15-week abortion ban continues to be in effect since July 1, but you know, any net, any gains we would have made in terms of reducing the abortion levels here in Florida because that ban is in effect have been offset because of all the women traveling to get abortions prior to 15 weeks. And so, in Florida, is really in a lose lose situation," he said.
First Coast News reached out to the Florida Agency for Health Care Administrators to see how many out-of-state abortions there have been so far this year compared to last year. First Coast News is waiting to hear back.