As Blavity previously reported, the Supreme Court overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, thus denying a federally guaranteed right to abortion. Despite a draft of the ruling being leaked months earlier, the announcement has nonetheless been met with cheers from conservatives as well as fear and outrage from women and abortion rights advocates throughout the country. The ruling has also created uncertainty and confusion about the status of abortion access, which will now be determined on a state-by-state level. Here’s what you need to know.
Trigger laws have automatically banned abortion in more than a dozen states.
In the years leading up to Friday’s decision, several states have passed so-called trigger laws that would automatically ban most or all abortions if Roe were ever overturned. Such laws exist in 13 states: Arkansas, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and Wyoming. These laws vary slightly in their strictness. Some allow exceptions for those pregnant as a result of rape or incest, while Tennessee’s law bans all abortions unless the pregnant woman’s life is in immediate danger.
The Supreme Court’s latest ruling activated these laws. Abortion is now illegal in many of these states and will be outlawed in the rest 30 days after Friday’s decision. As of Monday, several states faced lawsuits challenging their anti-abortion “trigger” laws. State-level restrictions on abortion access also apply to military personnel in states with abortion bans.
Preexisting bans create legal uncertainty in multiple states.
In addition to states with trigger laws, several states have preexisting laws that ban abortion or restrict the procedure to the first few months or weeks of pregnancy. The laws in these states — which include Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Michigan, South Carolina, West Virginia and Wisconsin — had generally been deemed unconstitutional and unenforceable as long as Roe stood. It is not immediately clear whether these laws will automatically go into effect or if they need to be reaffirmed by new legislative action. Republican-controlled states will likely seek to enforce these laws, while the Democratic governors of Michigan and Wisconsin have announced that they will not enforce these regulations but will instead keep abortion access available.
New bans likely to be passed or proposed in several states.
The Republican-controlled states of Indiana, Kansas, Montana and Nebraska do not currently have abortion bans in place, but are likely to move quickly to implement new laws outlawing or restricting the procedure. For Montana, at least, Republicans would have to repeal or alter the right to privacy protections that currently exist in the state’s constitution. Meanwhile, North Carolina and Pennsylvania have Republican-controlled legislatures but Democratic governors, while Virginia has a Republican governor but a Democratic majority legislature. In such states, abortion bans are unlikely to be implemented now but may be on the table if Republicans take control in the next few years.
Abortion remains protected in many states and Washington, D.C.
The states where abortion rights are protected by state law remain unaffected by Friday’s ruling. These states are Alaska, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington. Abortion also remains available and legally protected in Washington, D.C.
Possibilities for federal action on abortion rights are being discussed.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) has called on President Joe Biden to “open abortion clinics on federal lands in red states right now.” Others have floated the possibility of opening abortion sites on Native American tribal lands and reservations, though such plans are impractical given questions of indigenous sovereignty and the already poor state of health care in many of these locations.
Meanwhile, a federal law ensuring abortion access across the country has already passed the U.S. House of Representatives but is unlikely to overcome a filibuster in the Senate. On the other side of the aisle, some Republicans have already suggested implementing nationwide abortion restrictions if the GOP retakes Congress and the White House in the next few years.
The full impact of Friday’s decision may take some time to solidify as both Republicans and Democrats respond to the new legal reality at the state and national levels. As of now, up-to-date information on the status of abortion rights at the state level can be found here.
