Where Abortion Is Illegal Now: Abortion Law By State
On June 24, 2022 the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade , changing our national landscape and leaving many to wonder: Where is abortion illegal now? The answer is complicated.
In the weeks and months following the decision, trigger laws, which anti-abortion lawmakers had prepped for just that moment, went into effect in some states as soon as the court ruling came down, while other states had laws that took weeks to implement. As a result of the 2022 midterms , we saw three states enshrine abortion in their constitutions, and in the years since, many other states have been entangled in legal battles as they attempt to either restrict, or protect, abortion. To say the least, the Supreme Court decision that overturned 50 years of precedent has left many confused as to where their state's abortion law stands.
"Decades of research consistently show that abortion bans and restrictions don't reduce unintended pregnancy or demand for abortion, and they certainly do not help people improve their health. Rather, they impose significant hurdles to obtaining care, causing stress for people in need of abortion and leading some to experience forced pregnancy and all its troubling consequences," Herminia Palacio, MD, former Guttmacher Institute president and CEO, said in a statement emailed to Teen Vogue shortly after Roe was overturned.
Further complicating the legal landscape is medication abortion . In June 2024, nearly two years after it overturned Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court unanimously agreed that a group of anti-abortion doctors did not have legal standing to bring a lawsuit that called into question the FDA's approval of mifepristone, one of the drugs that make up what's known as the abortion pill. However, three states are reviving the suit . While a number of states place restrictions on the abortion pill, and state-level abortion bans generally extend to medication abortions as well, online providers (including some based in other countries ) will still mail you the medication. Informational websites like Plan C can help you figure out how to access the abortion pill for a self-managed medication abortion — which research has found can be a safe and effective option.
As the legal landscape surrounding abortion access continues to shift, here's a guide to where abortion is illegal, where it's a protected right, and what that means.
Where Is Abortion Illegal
Currently , abortion is almost completely illegal in 12 states: Alabama, Arkansas, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South DakotaTexas,West Virginia, according to the Center for Reproductive Rights.
Florida, Georgia, Iowa, and South Carolina enforce bans after fetal cardiac activity can be detected, which is typically around six weeks. These so-called six week bans make abortion largely inaccessible , since many people don't know they are pregnant at that time. If you are fewer than six weeks pregnant, you can still get an abortion in these four states.
How to Get an Abortion Now That Roe v. Wade Has Been Overturned
According to the Kaiser Family Foundation , all states with near-total abortion bans have exceptions to prevent the death of the pregnant person. Some states have exceptions for potential risk to the health of the pregnant person, in cases of rape or incest, and for lethal fetal anomaly. Still, confusion remains over interpretation of these various exceptions.
At least two women have died in Georgia alone as a result of abortion bans, according to a report from ProPublica.
Substantial restrictions are also in place in other states , which have bans starting at 12, 15, or 18, weeks gestation.
States with 12 week bans are Nebraska and North Carolina bans abortion after 18 weeks.
What States Could Change Their Laws
The near-complete and partial bans currently in effect are far from the only efforts by US states to severely restrict access to abortion in the years since Roe was overturned. Those efforts have repeatedly ended up in courts across the country, leading to some of the bans being blocked. While many of these blocks were ultimately lifted, allowing the bans to take effect, others remain in place. That's the case in Montana and Wyoming, the New York Times reports, which both have blocked bans that could be revived. Montana's abortion landscape was subject to a ballot question in November, which voters passed to enshrine the right to abortion in the state constitution. Wyoming's restrictions have been temporarily blocked, pending ongoing litigation
As part of the November 2024 elections, voters in 10 states considered ballot measures that would expand or protect access to abortion, and seven of those states passed their amendments. voters overturned the state's abortion ban, enshrining reproductive care into the state's constitution. Teen Vogue compiled a list of all 10 ballot measures and their outcomes here.
Where Is Abortion Legal
According to CNN, as of October 2024 , abortion is allowed in 29 states and the District of Columbia. These states are: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Kansas, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. In these states, laws protect abortion either up to viability or throughout pregnancy.
Eleven states — Arizona, California, Colorado, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New York, Ohio, and Vermont — have amended their state constitutions to protect the right to abortion following the decision to overturn Roe. And in two states, Kentucky and Kansas, measures seeking to curtail the right to abortion failed.
How to Get an Abortion If You're Transgender
Currently, nearly half of states across the US almost completely ban or restrict abortion access to earlier in a pregnancy than Roe allowed. In this context, states where the procedure is legal have experienced an influx of patients from states that have banned abortion. Access continues to vary widely based on where people live and what financial and social resources they have.
Yet, according to the Guttmacher Institute's Monthly Abortion Provision Study from March 2024 , "an estimated 1,037,000 abortions occurred in the formal health care system in 2023"—an 11% increase in abortions nationwide since 2020.
This increase may be the result of a number of factors , including wider access to medication abortion care through telehealth (which accounted for 63% of abortions in 2023, according to the Guttmacher Institute), increased abortion fund support, and " shield laws " in various states that protect healthcare providers from facing legal repercussions for providing abortion care for out-of-state patients.
This was originally published on June 28, 2022 and is being updated regularly to track the most current information. The most recent update was on November 6, 2024.
Let us slide into your DMs.
Originally Appeared on Teen Vogue
Want to read moreTeen Vogueabortion coverage?
