The Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade — which passed one year ago Saturday — immediately overturned nearly 50 years of federal abortion rights.
Just as quickly, it created a deluge of legal and political consequences by giving state governments and courts the power to decide how reproductive care should be regulated for residents in their jurisdictions.
The result has been a tapestry of laws that differ, often dramatically. This, in turn, has led to a wave of lawsuits, rulings, ballot measures and proposed constitutional amendments seeking to regulate abortion care.
And the subsequent effect of all this on national politics has been monumental.
Here are five of the biggest trends in state government to emerge across the United States in the year since the Women’s Health Organization’s Dobbs v. Jackson decision.
Bans, bans, bans
Several abortion bans quickly went into effect in the days, and sometimes seconds, after Roe was overturned.
In at least 13 states, so-called trigger bans went into effect immediately or shortly after the 2022 ruling, though some have remained temporarily blocked in court. In new, the bans that preceded the 1973 Supreme Court ruling guaranteeing the constitutional right to abortion went into effect immediately. (And in some, both took effect.)
One such ban that predates Roe is a Wisconsin law — enacted in 1849 (months after Wisconsin was admitted to the union) — banning abortions in almost all cases.
Other states, in the months since the Dobbs decision, have enacted strict new abortion bans. Florida, for example, banned abortion at six weeks into pregnancy, before most women know they are pregnant, although a judge temporarily blocked it.
In all (when you take into account states where such bans remain blocked for now), more than a dozen have almost completely banned abortion care or no longer have facilities where women can obtain abortions, as of June 16, according to a review by NBC News. of state laws.
Big boost for Democrats
Almost immediately, Democrats seized on the Dobbs ruling as a way to mobilize, attract and drive voters, especially independents, as well as women and suburban voters, who support abortion rights.
It was a prominent focus for Democrats in the Senate, House and gubernatorial races in swing states across the country last fall. Many political observers said the strategy was largely the reason the party held the Senate, outperformed in House races and won every governorship state, except one.
In many states, the issue forced anti-abortion Republican candidates to defend strict abortion bans after the Dobbs decision, and the issue remains a conundrum for the GOP.
Earlier this year, liberals won a Wisconsin Supreme Court race by 11 percentage points, largely because of their candidate’s emphasis on his desire to overturn the state’s 1849 law and his conservative rival’s unwillingness to engage on the abortion issue.
Ballot initiatives that improve protection against abortion
Similarly, abortion rights advocates also fought their political battles by putting referendums on the ballot last year that would enshrine reproductive rights in state constitutions.
Those advocates enjoyed a string of victories, winning all six states that had them, even in conservative states like Kentucky and Kansas.
Subsequently, reproductive rights groups, energized by that perfect record last year, set their sights on planning citizen-led ballot initiatives that would enshrine abortion rights in the constitutions of 10 states this year and next. .
While some efforts have stalled, many have not. For example, in Ohio, an effort called Protect Choice Ohio has so far cleared all roadblocks to putting a citizen-initiated constitutional amendment on the November ballot that would enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution.
The proposed amendment is designed to counter Ohio’s “heartbeat bill,” which he went back to his place immediately after Roe was overturned last summer. This law, which effectively prohibits most abortions, stays temporarily locked by a state judge.
Ballot initiatives that would limit abortion protections
Those efforts, however, have given way to counter-efforts designed to make it more difficult for reproductive rights advocates to amend state constitutions.
Republican-led legislatures in many of the same states have waged fierce battles to curb the ability of citizens and other lawmakers to place ballot measures, a move that progressive groups say is explicitly aimed at making it difficult to give a direct voice to state voters. red and purple states. on important issues such as the right to abortion.
In Ohio, the GOP-controlled legislature passed a series of measures last month that could make it more difficult to amend the state constitution to protect abortion rights. Ohio voters will now head to the polls on August 8 to decide whether to raise it to 60%. threshold of support necessary for the approval of electoral measures that modify the state constitution. Currently, only a majority is required.
Reproductive rights groups say the measure is designed to make it harder for voters to approve the proposed pro-abortion amendment that will be on the ballot in November.
A focus on interstate care
Lawmakers in some blue states have said they have enacted abortion protections in recent months not only to benefit their own residents, but also for residents of other states, particularly those in conservative neighbors where recently implemented bans have entered into force.
This year, for example, the Democrats in the Minnesota legislature moved to enshrine the right to abortion into law: A measure that abortion rights advocates have seen as especially crucial for pregnant women in neighboring states (such as Wisconsin, South Dakota and North Dakota) where abortion became illegal after the Dobbs decision.
For months, North Carolina had remained a haven for women seeking care; it was only one of two states in the wider South where abortions could be legally performed up to the 20th week of pregnancy. But a 12-week ban will take effect July 1, after the state’s GOP-controlled Legislature recently overrode Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto of the measure. Enacting the 12-week ban could, for many women in the region who can only afford to travel so far, make it impossible to travel for abortion care.
As a result, Virginia will soon be the only remaining state in the region that has not reduced access to abortion care in the past year.
The issue of interstate travel for abortion care became increasingly important after a man was arrested last year accused of raping a 10-year-old girl, who became pregnant and reportedly she had traveled from Ohio to Indiana to have an abortion.
However, some states are cracking down on any possibility of this type of travel.
Idaho in April became the first state to pass a law explicitly restricting some of its residents from traveling out of state for such care. The new legislation helping a pregnant minor to have an abortion, either by medication or procedure, in another state is punishable by years in prison. In addition, Oklahoma and Texas laws allow lawsuits to be filed against people, anywhere in the US, who help facilitate an abortion within those states’ borders.
Meanwhile, other states, in response to the possibility of punishing conservative state authorities with abortion bans, have enacted measures designed to protect doctors within their own borders who provide care to out-of-state residents.
That includes a law signed last month by Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo, one of the few Republican governors to codify any abortion rights in recent years, that protects the abortion rights of patients outside the state seeking care in the state, as well as for providers within the state.
