Abortion Access: A State by State Guide

Though the landscape is rapidly changing, here’s where each state stands (as of June 28) in terms of abortion rights

Tara Haelle
9 min readJun 29, 2022
Photo: Gayatri Malhotra / Unsplash

By the time many Americans were still learning that Roe v. Wade had been overturned, abortion clinics had already halted services in a half dozen states where providers feared prosecution because of those states’ trigger laws. Thirteen states have trigger laws — legally passed abortion bans designed to go into effect if and when Roe was overturned — but not all took effect immediately. Some are expected to take effect within 30 days of the Dobbs’ judgment, but even those can be ambiguous depending on how the law was written.

Then there are the states where no trigger law exists but a law banning abortion from before the Roe decision in 1973 are still on the books, and no one is quite sure whether the law applies or not. So begins the confusing process of figuring out where abortion is legal, where it’s not, and where it’s about to not be.

It will take a while for this shifting landscape of legislation to somewhat settle, though it won’t entirely do so as pro-choice and anti-choice groups continue duking it out in state legislatures and courts. In the meantime, however, healthcare providers, advocates, lawyers, judges, legislators…

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Tara Haelle

Tara Haelle is a science journalist, public speaker, and author of Vaccination Investigation and The Informed Parent. Follow her at @tarahaelle.