Florida will this week begin enforcement of a six-week abortion ban, the state’s strictest limits on the procedure in more than 50 years. The law penalizes doctors who perform abortions with sanctions that could include revocation of their medical license.

The ban covers abortions through medication, but abortion-by-mail providers say they will continue sending pills to women in Florida — even those beyond six weeks pregnant.

Here are six key questions, and answers, about medication abortions and how this evolving legal situation might play out.

What does the six-week ban mean for abortion pills?

Both surgical and medication abortions are banned after six weeks, a point at which many women don’t know they are pregnant.

There are exceptions for rape, incest and human trafficking through 15 weeks of pregnancy, as long as the mother provides proof such as a medical record or police report.

Doctors are also able to perform an abortion after six weeks if they determine a woman will die or suffer a serious health complication without the procedure, or if the fetus has a fatal abnormality and has not reached the third trimester, which Florida law defines as at 24 weeks of pregnancy.

How many medication abortions occur in Florida?

Roughly 60% of Florida abortions — more than 46,000 — were done through medication in 2021, according to data collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The drug mifepristone, which blocks a hormone that’s needed for a pregnancy to continue, is used with misoprostol, a stomach ulcer medicine, through 10 weeks of gestation.

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