June 24, 2024 marks the second anniversary of the Dobbs choice that was annulled Roe v. Wade, the case that protected the constitutional proper to abortion in the US for practically fifty years. States can now set their very own insurance policies to guard or ban abortion with none federal commonplace defending abortion entry, and this has led to drastic adjustments within the panorama of abortion entry within the US. This coverage watch presents 10 vital info it’s essential learn about abortion entry two years after the Dobbs choice.

1. Since June 24, 2022 Fourteen states have banned abortion in the US, largely concentrated within the South. One other six states have early being pregnant limits between 6 and 15 weeks LMP (final menstrual interval). To entry abortion companies, folks residing in states the place abortion is banned or severely restricted should both go away the state—usually incurring extra prices associated to journey and misplaced wages—or acquire abortion medicines from firms that ship the drugs with out this requires an abortion. visits to a health care provider or from well being care suppliers in states with defend legal guidelines.
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2. Whereas all twenty states with abortion bans or early being pregnant limits do exceptions as a result of when the pregnant individual's life is in peril, six states haven’t any exceptions. When the well being of the pregnant individual is in danger, ten states haven’t any exceptions for rape/incest, and 13 states haven’t any exceptions for deadly fetal abnormalities. In observe, well being exceptions to bans have usually confirmed unworkable besides in probably the most excessive circumstances, and have generally prevented medical doctors from training evidence-based drugs. The federal authorities has sued the state of Idaho over its abortion ban, which incorporates an exception to avoid wasting the life — however not the well being — of the pregnant individual, saying the ban violates the Emergency Medical Therapy and Lively Labor Act ( Medical Therapy and Lively Labor Act). EMTALA), a legislation that requires hospitals to supply stabilizing therapy, together with abortion, to sufferers who current to the emergency room with an pressing medical situation. The Supreme Court docket will rule on this case in June 2024.
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3. Paradoxically sufficientthe whole variety of abortions within the US seems to have elevated barely as a sequel to Dobbs. This enhance could possibly be attributable to elevated interstate journey to entry abortion, elevated in-person and digital/telehealth capability to see sufferers, elevated measures to guard abortion look after out-of-state residents and sufferers, and and the broader availability of low-cost abortion medicines. Nonetheless, these combination tendencies masks the sharp decline in abortions in states with outright bans or extreme restrictions, in addition to the hardships many pregnant folks expertise in accessing abortion care.
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4. In accordance with the Society for Household Planning report, one in 5 (19%) abortions have been carried out through telehealth in December 2023. #WeCount venture. These telehealth abortions have been supplied by digital medical doctors (48%), brick-and-mortar clinics (5%), and suppliers who prescribe abortion drugs in states with defend legal guidelines to sufferers in different states with bans (36%) or telehealth restrictions. (12%). States with defend legal guidelines goal to guard physicians and reduce the authorized dangers related to offering abortion care in states the place abortion or telehealth abortion is prohibited or restricted. In a unanimous choice, the US Supreme Court docket rejected a authorized problem to the abortion tablet, mifepristone, permitting the tablet to stay out there for remedy abortion in each inpatient and telehealth settings the place state legislation permits.
   
   
5. Six-in-ten Black (60%) and American Indian or Alaska Native girls (59%) ages 18 to 49 stay in states with abortion bans or being pregnant restrictions. Greater than half (53%) of white girls aged 18 to 49 stay in states with bans or restrictions, whereas lower than half of Hispanic (45%) and about three in ten Asian (28% ) and Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander (29%) girls ages 18 to 49 stay in these states. Folks of colour who stay in states the place abortion is banned or severely restricted might face disproportionately higher challenges accessing abortions attributable to long-standing underlying social and financial inequities, which exacerbate present disparities in maternal well being and youngsters might develop into worse.
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6. Because the Dobbs choice, abortion suppliers and advocates in 23 states have made challenged the legality of state abortion bans and restrictionsand their exceptions, and allege that these legal guidelines violate the state structure or state legislation. As of June 2022, the Supreme Courts of 5 states – Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Oklahoma and South Carolina – have dominated that the state structure doesn't shield the correct to abortion, thereby permitting their respective states' abortion bans or restrictions to proceed to use. Challenges to abortion bans and limits, or their exceptions, stay in 15 states.
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7. Nationwide polls have persistently discovered that almost all of the general public didn't wish to see it Roo v. Wading destroyed and that most individuals consider that abortion is a private medical choice. Many of the public now helps entry to abortions for sufferers experiencing pregnancy-related emergencies (86%), a affected person's proper to journey for abortion care (79%), and defending medical doctors who carry out abortions from authorized penalties (67 %). A few third (32%) assist legal guidelines banning using mifepristone, also called remedy abortion.
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8. VOthers in six states have spoken out on constitutional amendments associated to abortion, and in each state since Dobbs It concludes that the celebration that favors entry to abortion has gained the higher hand. As much as eleven states might accomplish that in November abortion measures on their ballots, searching for to affirm both that their state structure protects the correct to abortion or that nothing within the state structure gives that proper. As of June 20, 2024, 4 states – Colorado, Florida, Maryland and South Dakota – have confirmed that measures will probably be on their ballots for the November 2024 election. Greater than half (53%) of Democrats feminine voters Residing in states with confirmed or potential abortion-related poll initiatives say they’re extra motivated to vote on this 12 months's election in comparison with 43% of Democratic girls in states with out abortion-related poll initiatives.
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9. 1 in 7 (14%) Ladies of childbearing age (18 to 49 years) report that they or somebody they know has skilled issue accessing abortion companies since Roo was destroyed in accordance with KFF polls attributable to restrictions of their state. This contains 1 in 5 (21%) girls aged 18 to 49 who stay in states the place abortion is banned, and about one in ten girls of childbearing age who stay in states the place abortion is restricted (9%) or authorized (12%).
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10. The Dobbs The choice elevated consideration on the state and federal degree to guard the authorized proper to contraception, partially due to Justice Thomas's concurring opinion that the Court docket ought to strike down the correct to contraception in future circumstances. Griswold v. Connecticut, the Court docket's landmark 1965 choice recognizing the correct to contraceptives. Shortly afterwards the The Proper to Contraception Act was launched in Congress, and whereas it was rapidly handed within the then-Democratic-led Home of Representatives, it didn’t achieve sufficient assist to finish the filibuster within the Senate. The invoice was reintroduced within the present congressional session, however has but to garner sufficient assist to go in both chamber of Congress. On the state degree, six states and DC have handed legal guidelines or constitutional amendments that have to be secured the correct to contraception for his or her residents since Dobbs, bringing the whole variety of states defending this proper to 14.
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KFF abortion assets: