Thirteen states are set to enact abortion bans immediately. At least 13 other states could soon follow suit after Roe v. Wade was overturned by the Supreme Court on Friday. This leaves abortion rights up to individual states.
There are at least 13 states that have “trigger laws,” which ban most abortions and will be in effect within weeks or immediately after Roe v. Wade is overturned.
According to the Guttmacher Institute, a pro-abortion rights research group, those states are Arkansas, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and Wyoming, which just passed its trigger law in April.
Five additional states, including Alabama, Arizona, Michigan, West Virginia, and Wisconsin, still have an abortion ban in place before Roe V. Wade. This ban will be put into effect once the landmark 1973 law is repealed.
These laws were resisted by the Democratic governors of Wisconsin and Michigan: Michigan Governor. Gretchen Whitmer, a Wisconsin governor, filed a lawsuit asking the Michigan Supreme Court for an injunction to end the state’s 1931 ban on abortion. Tony Evers called for the repeal and revocation of an 1849 state law making abortion a crime.
Guttmacher’s research shows that the repeal of Roe v. Wade will cause at least 18 states to ban abortion almost immediately.
The laws that ban abortions after six weeks have been added to the list by four additional states: Georgia, Iowa, Ohio, as well as South Carolina. These laws were previously unconstitutional, but they will be reexamined now that Roe has been overturned.
Based on the current legislative efforts, it seems likely that Nebraska, Indiana, Montana, and Florida will move to ban abortions or restrict them severely if Roe is repealed.
In total, the Guttmacher Institute estimates that 26 of 50 states are certain or likely to ban abortion now that Roe is overturned. The Center for Reproductive Rights, an abortion-rights legal group, counts 25 states as likely to ban abortion, including North Carolina and Pennsylvania but not including Florida, Iowa, or Montana.
In blue states like California or Oregon, where abortion rights have been protected in recent weeks, access to abortion is expected to continue, if not expand, in the meantime.
