Following a historic decision by the Supreme Court, U.S. states can now determine their own laws on abortion. About half of the states retain the right to abortion, and about half of the states do not.
On Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a preliminary ruling called Roe v. Wade, which had secured a national abortion right in the United States for nearly 50 years.
All six judges of the Supreme Court appointed by the Republican presidents voted to have the decision overturned. Three judges appointed by the Democratic presidents voted in favor of upholding the right to abortion, so the result was 6-3.
We gathered answers to key questions about the consequences of a historic decision by the Supreme Court.
Is abortion banned throughout the United States?
In the future, each of the 50 states in the United States will be able to determine their own laws regarding abortion. In the past, the Roe v. Wade preliminary ruling guaranteed abortion across the country.
In about half of the states, abortion will remain legal even after today’s decision. The right to abortion is not under threat, especially in the liberal states on the west and east coasts of the country.
Where in the United States is abortion banned?
In about half of the U.S. states, abortion is banned or the right to abortion is restricted.
Most of the heavily conservative states in the southern United States refuse abortion immediately (switch to another service), and abortion clinics will have to close their doors immediately. A total of thirteen Republican-controlled states had a so-called trigger law pre-enacted that prohibited abortion in the state immediately after the Supreme Court ruling.
In addition, the state of Florida, for example, is expected to significantly reduce the right to abortion, but not completely ban abortion.
More than half of American women of childbearing age live in states where the right to abortion is banned or severely restricted.
Can an incest or rape victim have an abortion?
Depends on the state. Many conservative states (switch to another service), such as Alabama, Mississippi and Texas, have not written any exceptions to their legislation, even for pregnancies resulting from incest or rape. Here, too, the Länder themselves have the power to decide.
Can a resident of a state that prohibits abortion terminate their pregnancy in a state that allows abortion?
Many states that allow abortion are now preparing for the arrival of large numbers of pregnant women from abandoning states to have an abortion. From some places in the southern United States, the nearest abortion clinic can be hundreds of miles away.
Indeed, many pregnant women in non-abortion states may continue to seek medical abortion by ordering an abortion pill by mail from the state that allows abortion.
States that prohibit abortion, in turn, may seek to ban the use of abortion pills within the state, but is unclear (switching to another service)whether the states have the right to prohibit the ordering of abortion pills in the state.
Why is the right to abortion declining, even though pro-abortion Democrats hold power in the White House and Congress?
The president of the United States has very little power over the country’s abortion laws, so the president Joe Biden cannot interfere with state abortion laws.
The U.S. Congress could instead enact a federal-wide abortion law, but the law would require the support of 60 senators in the Senate to move forward. In the Senate, both Democrats and Republicans have 50 senators, and Democrats pursuing the right to abortion do not have a realistic opportunity to turn the heads of enough Republicans.
The U.S. Supreme Court is at the forefront of the abortion issue, as the Supreme Court itself had allowed abortions throughout the United States by its 1973 decision. With the court now overturning its own preliminary ruling, state governors as well as state parliaments have the most power over abortion laws.
The debate on the right to abortion will be at the center of next November’s by-elections, when a pro-abortion Democrat and an opposing Republican are running for governor in many states.