Millions of Latinx Floridians and Arizonans started off the month of May with new and looming restrictions on their reproductive health decisions.
Florida, home to the third-largest Latinx population in the country, on Wednesday became the latest state to ban abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, before many people know they are pregnant. In Arizona, a key battleground state and home to the sixth-largest Latinx population in the country, a Civil War-era total abortion ban will go into effect for at least several months until a repeal approved by state lawmakers takes effect.
The changing landscape of abortion restrictions in Florida and Arizona underscores the outsize impact of abortion bans on Latinas, the largest group of women of color impacted by current and likely bans on the procedure, according to multiple analyses. In both states, the sizable Latinx population could play a decisive role in the passage of proposed amendments to enshrine the right to abortion in their state constitutions.