Today’s entry: Are there any current States with an outright ban on abortion and don’t allow exception for rape or incest?
Bottom Line: Friday’s SCOTUS ruling striking down the 1973 decision on Roe was all about one thing. Placing the issue of abortion back in the hands of states. The irony of the decision, as the focus has been squarely on abortion restrictions in certain states, is that access is actually in the process of expanding in states like California, Colorado and New York. That said, the media focus at the state level has been in states with trigger laws, or states where laws limiting or banning abortions existed prior to the SCOTUS decision and which now have begun to take effect. Prior to Friday’s decision, a total of 33 states and the District of Columbia had passed abortion specific policy. Twenty of those states and D.C. had specifically codified Roe into state law. In 13 states, there have been laws banning abortion which are now being phased in.
Nine states had triggers which immediately made almost all abortions illegal. Those states are:
- Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Ohio, South Dakota, Texas & Utah
In answer to your question, all of these states provide an exception for life threatening circumstances for the mother, eight of those nine don’t provide exceptions for rape or incest. An additional five states have trigger laws which included a phase in period of up to 30 days. Those additional states are Idaho, Mississippi, North Dakota, Tennessee and Wyoming. Then there’s an additional five states which will likely soon have similar bans on most abortions in place. These are states where laws passed in prior years had been struck down by courts citing Roe v Wade, which no longer acts as a legitimate legal impediment. Those states include Georgia, Iowa, Indiana, South Dakota and West Virigina. So that’s a total of 18 states which likely will have abortion bans in place, mostly with exceptions only for life endangerment of the mother. Then there’s another class of states. States where state law states abortion is now illegal but in which those in power running the states say they won’t enforce the bans.
Three states - Arizona, Michigan and Wisconsin have trigger laws stating abortion is illegal. However, these laws are not being enforced and state leadership has indicated they won’t enforce the bans. In the case of Arizona, the Republican Governor Ducey – stated that a recently passed 15-week limit on abortions superseded the older ban which had been on the books. In the case of Michigan and Wisconsin – the Democrats in charge of the state are refusing to enforce the law. That could be met with additional legal challenges aimed at forcing the leaders in those states to enforce the laws on the books.
With the issue being back in the hands of states, there’s obviously a lot that’s in play with 50, often similar, but specific policies. There’s also the question about what comes next in states like ours. While Florida’s new abortion law kicks in on Friday, will the state choose to go further than 15 weeks in terms of limits? With science clearly illustrating that a heartbeat is commonly present at six weeks, will that be looked to as a potential standard? With states now firmly in control of abortion policy and with it being a midterm election cycle, this issue will be a focus of many state legislators. In Florida, calls for a special session to further limit abortions has come from multiple prolife interests – just as the legal effort to attempt to stop Florida’s newest abortion law is playing out in the legal system this week. As of now there’s been no indication Governor DeSantis, or the Legislature intend to revisit the issue this year. Regardless, rest assured in Florida and clear across the country, calls for abortion policy to be revisited will continue for the foreseeable.
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