Comment Two months after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wadesome 20.9 million women have lost access to nearly all elective abortions in their states, and a series of tough new enabling laws expected to take effect in the coming days will exclude even more. Texas, Tennessee and Idaho have existing restrictions on abortion, but laws set to go into effect Thursday will either ban the procedure entirely or increase penalties for doctors who perform abortions, contributing to a seismic shift in who can has access to abortion in their states. At least 11 other states have outlawed most abortions, banning the procedure with limited exceptions from the time of conception or after fetal heart activity is detected at about six weeks into pregnancy, with legislation known as heartbeat laws. Five more states have similar bans temporarily blocked by the courts. If those mandates are lifted, abortion could soon be out of reach for millions more—in all, 36 percent of U.S. women between the ages of 15 and 44 would be largely they cannot get an elective abortion in the state where they live. The rapid pace of change has shocked even the closest observers. “I just thought there would be a little more time to help providers and patients deal with these changes,” said Elizabeth Nash, who tracks state abortion laws for the Guttmacher Institute, a nonprofit research center that supports abortion rights. “It was very clear that this kind of grace period was not going to be provided.” Abortion-rights advocates and doctors fear the newest enabling laws — which in Texas would carry a potential life sentence for doctors who perform abortions — will have a chilling effect on helping people who either need an abortion because they face life life-threatening complications or try to travel and get it elsewhere. The tougher laws come as patients and providers navigate a confusing tangle of policies amid ongoing legal challenges that have at times made abortions accessible one day and outright illegal the next. Even more changes are on the horizon as lawmakers in South Carolina and West Virginia consider new bills during special legislative sessions. Patients in states like Tennessee have rushed in recent days to try to get last-minute appointments before they lose access to abortion altogether — some only to be prevented from getting an abortion because of the state’s “heartbeat” law . Kaydria, a 28-year-old from Jackson, Miss., began researching the changing abortion laws when she found out she was pregnant in mid-August. With abortion already outlawed in her state, she decided to drive three hours to Memphis. He knew he would have to hurry: On August 25, all elective abortions would be banned there, too. “I had to go ahead and take care of it,” said Kaydria, who spoke on the condition that only her first name be used to protect her privacy. “I knew I didn’t have time.”
“A very confusing landscape” About 14 states have passed bans on most abortions, with varying exceptions and penalties for doctors. In total, nearly 21 million — about 1 in 3 girls and women in the United States between the ages of 15 and 44 — have lost access to the process, according to U.S. Census data. States that ban abortion from conception tend to be in the South and Midwest, including Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Missouri, and Oklahoma. Wisconsin has conflicting laws that leave the legality of abortion uncertain, but clinics stopped providing abortions in the state after Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision, which will effectively end abortion within its borders. Georgia, Idaho, Ohio and Tennessee have bans that begin when fetal heart activity can be detected, which can happen before many people realize they are pregnant. “This was quick and scary,” said Melissa Grant, chief operating officer of Carafem, which operates abortion clinics in several states, including Tennessee, Georgia and Illinois. and the DC region. Anti-abortion advocates were jubilant after the high court’s reversal Roe and now they aim to build on their victory, including measures that would prevent out-of-state travel, eliminate exemptions for sexual assault victims and provide legal rights for fetuses. “When you say, ‘Hey, we want to protect all of our unborn residents,’ you want to make sure that’s effective,” said Peter Breen, the vice president and senior counsel of the Thomas More Society, a conservative legal group that aims to help state GOP lawmakers to enact further restrictions. Millions more live in states where abortion access remains uncertain as legal challenges loom they are going through the courts and lawmakers are considering passing new laws. In some states, abortion access has changed by the day, as courts have repeatedly blocked and unblocked bans. North Dakota has an abortion ban from conception, which has been temporarily blocked by the courts, but could take effect Friday if it is not enforced this week. South Carolina has a six-week ban that was in effect for weeks until the state Supreme Court temporarily blocked its enforcement last Wednesday. That same day, a district court judge reinstated a 1973 law banning abortions after 20 weeks in North Carolina, although the state remains one of the few with access to first- and second-trimester abortions in the South, where most of its neighbors have outlawed the process. Three new laws triggered by Supreme Court strike ruling Roe which are set to go into effect Thursday in Texas, Tennessee and Idaho would tighten penalties on abortion providers or limit access to even fewer potential patients. Immediately after the Supreme Court’s ruling in June, abortion was almost entirely illegal in Texas under a pre-existing law Roe, and clinics closed their doors to patients. In addition to these restrictions, Texas lawmakers passed an enabling law in 2021 that makes providing an abortion a first-degree felony, punishable by life in prison and increases the civil penalty to a $100,000 fine. There are no rape or incest exceptions to the Texas abortion ban. “Criminal penalties will further freeze access to care for women who need it,” said Elisabeth Smith, director of state policy and advocacy for the Center for Reproductive Rights. legal organization that represented the clinic at the center of the Supreme Court case. In Idaho, the state’s abortion ban went into effect this month. A near-total abortion ban is now expected to begin, further restricting access to abortion and imposing criminal penalties of up to five years in prison on providers. The ban set to take effect on Thursday includes exceptions for rape, incest and the life of the pregnant woman — but not when their health is at risk. The Justice Department has filed suit against the ban, arguing that the state law violates a federal requirement to provide medical care when a patient’s life or health is at stake. A federal judge said he would issue his opinion by Wednesday. “It’s a very confusing landscape,” said Caitlin Gustafson, a family physician and abortion provider in rural Idaho who is suing the state over three different abortion laws that took effect at different times after the Supreme Court struck down. Roe. Tennessee will also see a trigger law banning abortions entirely on Thursday — with no exception for victims of rape or incest.
“A generational boost” For some anti-abortion activists, the current restrictions in many states don’t go far enough, and they want to end the limited exemptions for rape and incest victims as soon as politically possible. “I wrote the heartbeat law, and it was hard to swallow when we had to make this compromise to create exceptions for rape and incest,” said Blaine Conzatti, president of the Idaho Family Policy Center. “And that’s something I’d like to fix in the future.” But he acknowledged that doing so will likely be an uphill battle — even in Idaho, where Republicans control both the governor’s office and the Legislature. “I think it’s going to be a generational push,” Conzatti said, adding that it will take time to convince some reluctant lawmakers as well as those who belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a key constituency he supports certain exceptions in cases of rape and incest. Republican state Rep. Brent Crane, chairman of the Idaho House Committee on Oversight of Abortion Legislation, said he does not plan to advance bills further restricting abortion in the upcoming session, believing the state should move “slowly and deliberately ». He said he was comfortable with the law’s current exemptions and predicted that if the rape and incest exemption were to be removed, it would not pass his committee. Even in some Republican strongholds, anti-abortion lawmakers and activists have faced opposition trying to push for blanket bans, finding there is a limit to how far even many conservative voters are willing to go. This month, voters in Kansas overwhelmingly rejected a ballot measure that would have stripped abortion protections from the state constitution. Days later, Nebraska’s governor announced that he would not call a previously expected special session to vote on the abortion ban. Lawmakers in West Virginia and South Carolina are pushing for new bans in legislative sessions that could stretch into late summer. Republicans in those states are fiercely debating whether those bills should include exemptions for rape and incest victims. Meanwhile, a slew of new restrictions in several states are likely coming before the end of the year. Next month, Indiana will join the ranks of states with near-total abortion bans…
