Florida’s six-week abortion ban, known as the Heartbeat Protection Act, has led to a dramatic one-third decline in abortions through September, a drop pro-life advocates hail as proof the law is safeguarding thousands of unborn children from death and destruction in abortions.
Newly released data from the state Agency for Health Care Administration shows 33,339 abortions reported in Florida as of October 1, compared with 50,224 during the same period the previous year. The decrease coincides directly with the law’s enforcement starting in May 2024, which prohibits most abortions after six weeks of pregnancy — the point when a fetal heartbeat can often be detected (though it begins beating at early as 16-22 days after conception.)
Of this year’s abortions, 33,120 occurred in the first trimester, 218 in the second trimester and one in the third trimester. The third-trimester abortion, along with 138 second-trimester abortions, was attributed to a fatal fetal abnormality, highlighting the law’s narrow exceptions for life-threatening cases. Still, pro-life advocates argue prenatal testing is often wrong and some of those abortions may very well have been done on healthy babies.
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Pro-life groups point to the numbers as a clear victory for the vulnerable, estimating the policy has prevented nearly 300 abortions each month.
The decline marks the largest absolute change in abortions observed in any state during the first half of the year, according to a report from the Guttmacher Institute, a pro-abortion group previously-affiliated with Planned Parenthood.
“We found 27% fewer abortions provided by clinicians in Florida comparing the first halves of 2024 and 2025,” said Isabel Docampo, a senior research associate at the institute. She described the 12,000 fewer abortions as “quite large.”
Pro-life advocates interpret the data as evidence that affirming the humanity of preborn children at the heartbeat stage resonates deeply. Nationwide, abortions in states without total bans fell by about 5% in the first half of 2025 compared to the prior year, with Florida’s protections credited as a key factor. Even out-of-state travel for abortions dropped 8% to 74,490 people during the period, as fewer women from neighboring Southern states sought abortions in Florida.
Enacted after the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision returned abortion laws to the states, the Heartbeat Protection Act replaced a previous 15-week limit and has endured multiple legal challenges from pro-abortion groups.
County-level data underscores the widespread impact: Miami-Dade residents accounted for 7,139 abortions, followed by Broward with 4,761 and Hillsborough with 3,156, while 1,083 abortions involved out-of-state residents.
