JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Florida residents with opposing viewpoints on the state's new six-week abortion ban, which took effect Wednesday, say lives are at stake. Whose lives are at stake depends on who you talk to.
“First and foremost, abortion is healthcare,” said Dr. Shelly Tien, a physician with Jacksonville’s Planned Parenthood clinic.
Tien says Florida’s six-week abortion ban puts women’s lives at risk. Doctors say women will be prevented from getting care for a pregnancy that could become deadly.
“As a physician, we are trained to provide compassionate, evidence-based, scientific-based medical care,” Tien said. “It's very, it's devastating that I'm limited in what I can offer patients.”
Outside the clinic Wednesday, a group of protesters gathered fighting for different lives.
Grace Sandusky and Kristen Wayne, also with Students for Life of America, said they came out to protest Wednesday because of Vice President Kamala Harris's visit to Jacksonville on the day the six-week abortion ban took effect.
“We just want to be there to stand for life while they’re standing for death,” said Grace Sandusky with Students for Life of America.
"There are other options for women besides abortion,” Wayne said.
“It would be wrong of me to just protect my own child when there are other children that are being put in harm's way by places like Planned Parenthood,” Sandusky added.
Maria Mora, a Jacksonville pediatrician, stopped by the protest to speak out in support of Planned Parenthood.
“We're losing our rights," Mora said. "The government is telling us what to do and these people want to tell us what to do. No.”
Tien was actually the physician who introduced Harris during Wednesday's event at the Prime F. Osborn III Convention Center, where she called for the restoration of abortion rights.
Tien argues abortion is not political. Amendment 4 will be on Florida's November ballot to enshrine abortion rights into the state's constitution.
“It is about privacy," Tien said. "It is about fundamental medical decision-making and autonomy that should only be between patients, their families and their health care providers. There's nothing political about receiving health care.”
North Carolina is now the only place in the South with a less restrictive abortion ban, at 12 weeks. As for Florida, doctors say many women don’t know they’re pregnant at six weeks.