The subject continues to divide Americans a year later. On June 24, 2022, the Supreme Court of the United States repealed the constitutional right to abortion, overturning the 1973 Roe vs Wade decision. The highest American court then explained its action by stating that the Constitution did not contain not, either explicitly or implicitly, any right to abortion.
From then on, the States were able to legislate as they wished on the subject. Only hours after the repeal, some Republican-majority states announced measures suspending or restricting access to abortion, primarily in the South and Central. Other states, with a Democratic majority, have on the contrary issued decrees to reaffirm women’s free access to abortion. A year after this decision which fractured the country, Le Figaro takes stock of the legislation in force.
Several states have removed the right to abortion entirely, with no exceptions for female victims of rape or incest, reports The New York Times. These are Alabama, Arkansas, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas and even Wisconsin.
Other states have removed it but with some caveats. In Mississippi, abortion is prohibited except in cases of rape. Same thing in West Virginia, which prohibits it except in cases of rape and incest. In North Dakota, abortion is prohibited “from conception” unless the pregnancy poses serious health risks to the mother. Nor is it the first six weeks in the event of rape or incest. In Idaho, abortion is only allowed to save the life of the pregnant woman. In August 2022, a federal judge had indeed blocked part of the anti-abortion law by ruling that doctors could not be prosecuted for performing an abortion in order to protect a woman’s health.
Other states in the union have restricted the right to abortion, without completely abolishing it. In November 2022, the Supreme Court of Georgia, for example, reinstated the ban on abortion beyond six weeks of pregnancy after a trial judge ruled the ban unconstitutional. Since then, an appeal procedure has been in progress.
In Nebraska, abortion is legal until the twelfth week of pregnancy and until the fifteenth week in Arizona. In Utah, abortion is prohibited after the eighteenth week. In North Carolina, a new law prohibiting abortion after twelve weeks will come into force on July 1. Until then, abortion was prohibited beyond the twentieth week.
Laws in Florida will also change. If abortion was previously prohibited beyond the fifteenth week of pregnancy, the Florida parliament limited this period to six weeks (when the heartbeat of the embryo is perceptible), on April 13 last. This measure has not yet entered into force, it is awaiting a review by the Supreme Court of Florida, reports the New York Times.
Some States are for their part in provisional situations. In Indiana, for example, a judge temporarily blocked, on September 22, the almost total ban on abortion. To date, the Supreme Court has not yet ruled and abortion is still permitted up to the twenty-second week of pregnancy. Ditto for Montana where three laws aimed at limiting abortion were adopted in 2023, then blocked by a court. Abortion is still legal there until the viability of the foetus.
In Ohio, a judge also blocked indefinitely the ban on abortion after six weeks of pregnancy. Currently, abortion is legal until the twenty-second week. The situation is similar in South Carolina.
In response to bans and restrictions, some states have instead reaffirmed this right. Alaska, Colorado, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Vermont and Washington D.C. allow abortion at any time, with no time limit. For the other States, the right to abortion extends until the twenty-second or twenty-fourth week.
Some of them reinforced this right the day after the repeal of the Roe v. Wade decision. This is the case of the three states on the West Coast – California, Oregon and Washington State – which created a territorial bloc where this practice was therefore guaranteed from June 24.
New York State went further. In June 2023, it passed a law to protect abortion outside its borders. The latter provides legal protection for doctors who prescribe and send abortion pills in other states that prohibit abortion. This new law has not yet been promulgated by the Governor of New York State but is already likely to stir up serious tensions.
And for good reason. The issue of the abortion pill has been engulfing the United States for the past year, whether in internal battles at the state level or at the federal level. On April 22, the Supreme Court ruled on this drug method, used for more than half of abortions in the country. It was access to mifepristone throughout the territory that was therefore at stake. The highest American court decided to maintain access to this pill for the time being, suspending restrictions decided by lower courts.
The subject of abortion could thus be one of the important issues in the race for the White House in 2024: 20% of Americans place it at the top of their concerns for this election, according to a USA Today / Suffolk University poll, a reported AFP.
