Following the Supreme Court’s June 2022 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which eliminated a constitutional right to abortion nationwide, nearly two dozen US states have banned or limited access to the procedure. States where abortion is most limited report higher rates of maternal and infant mortality, as well as greater economic insecurity.
The fight over abortion is well underway in state legislatures and courts. The Supreme Court will hear arguments in a case against the abortion pill later this month and hear a challenge to Idaho’s near-total ban in April. Last July, a Wyoming judge blocked a first-of-its-kind ban on abortion pills a week before it was intended to take effect in the state.
Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin announced in September that it would resume abortion care services, after a judge ruled that a law from 1849 widely interpreted as an abortion ban did not apply to abortion procedures. And the South Carolina Supreme Court last August upheld a law banning abortion at the time when a fetus’ heartbeat can be detected, usually as early as six weeks into a pregnancy.
CNN is tracking these legal challenges as they make their way through the courts. Here’s where abortion access currently stands in the United States.
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Priya Krishnakumar and Veronica Stracqualursi contributed to this report.
