Washington —
In the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in June to end the constitutional right to abortion, many Americans are wondering: Is abortion legal in my state?
In many parts of the country, the answer is often not clear-cut. In overturning Roe v. Wade, a 1973 ruling that established a constitutional right to abortion, the Supreme Court left it to each of the 50 states to decide whether to allow the procedure.
The result has been an ever-shifting patchwork of state laws and policies.
While Democratic-led states have rushed to enhance protections for abortion access, many conservative-leaning states have moved in the opposite direction, seeking to ban or severely restrict the procedure.
With more states considering new bans even as abortion providers challenge the restrictions, so muddied has the terrain for abortion access become that even in places where the procedure is legal, many opt to seek out-of-state care.
"What it's plunged our country into is a state of uncertainty and chaos," said Alaap Shah, a health care attorney at the Epstein Becker Green law firm. "We have yet to see how things will really play out with respect to enforcement of the laws and how it will really affect the various states and the citizens of those states. It's a work in progress."
Before the Supreme Court ruling known as Dobbs, 13 Republican-controlled states had enacted so-called trigger laws — abortion bans that would go into effect once the decision was announced.
Three months out, eight of the trigger laws are in effect while most of the rest are facing court challenges, according to Elizabeth Nash, principal policy associate at the Guttmacher Institute, a reproductive health research group.
"It wasn't like a light switch going on or off," Nash said. "It has been that some of them went into effect immediately, like in Missouri, for example. But others, like the trigger ban in Tennessee, Idaho and Texas, went into effect at the end of August."
In all, a dozen states — in the South and Midwest — have banned abortions, another two states have implemented six-week bans, while two other states — Florida and North Carolina — have 16-week and 20-week bans, respectively, according to the Guttmacher Institute.
With more states considering bans, "it does look like we will get closer to half the country living under an abortion ban in the next several months," Nash said.
The bans have had far-reaching effects, forcing pregnant women seeking abortions to travel to states where the procedure is legal or opt to bring unwanted pregnancies to term, advocates say.
"We're looking at 17.2 million women of reproductive age that now live in a state without abortion access," Nash said.
But abortion providers and rights advocates have been pressing for greater access, filing at least 15 major lawsuits to block the bans, many in states with a constitutional right to privacy or equality, according to Nash.
The state courts have responded in a variety of ways. In about half the cases, the courts have blocked laws banning abortion while in several others, judges have allowed the bans to remain in effect while legal challenges continue. All that has made for a deeply fragmented abortion access landscape.
Shah said, "We have to look state by state to see: What does the law say? Is someone enforcing that law? Is that enforcement up for debate because there's another case challenging that enforcement?"
Take South Carolina. The Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe came down on a Friday and by Monday a 2021 state law banning abortion after about six weeks of pregnancy went into effect.
The law, known as the Fetal Heartbeat and Protection from Abortion Act, remained in force for a full seven weeks before the state Supreme Court, responding to a lawsuit filed by abortion providers, issued an injunction against its enforcement pending the outcome of the case.
As a result, a preexisting law allowing abortion before week 20 of pregnancy went back into effect.
But that wasn't the end of the abortion debate in South Carolina. To muddy the waters further, Republican state lawmakers then launched a bid to enact a total ban on abortion. The effort failed after several GOP lawmakers refused to support the measure.
"I think it's safe to say that the average South Carolinian is thoroughly confused about what is going on with abortion access in South Carolina now," said Ann Warner, chief executive officer of Women's Rights and Empowerment Network.
But lingering uncertainty over the legality of abortion is likely driving others to seek out-of-state care, Warner said.