What to know about the latest court rulings, data and legislation on abortion in the US
Mar 1, 2024, 9:00 AM
A judge in Montana rejected abortion restrictions, the attorney general in Missouri is accusing Planned Parenthood of illegally transporting minors for abortions and new data shows how the way abortions they’re provided continues to shift in a nation where some states have bans and others are protecting access.
More than a year and a half since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled overturned Roe v. Wade and the nationwide right to abortion, the details of what that means are still in flux. With lawsuits still pending and ballot questions on the horizon, that’s the one thing that’s not likely to change quickly.
Here are things to know about developments across the country this week.
A Montana judge on Thursday rejected restrictions on abortion that were adopted in 2021, possibly setting up a chance for the Montana Supreme Court to revisit its 1999 ruling that protected a woman’s right to abortion until the fetus is viable.
The 2021 laws were put on hold and never took effect.
They would have banned abortion after 20 weeks’ gestation, banned telehealth prescription of abortion pills, required a 24-hour waiting period after giving consent and required providers to show women an ultrasound or hear a fetal heart tone before providing an abortion.
The state government plans to appeal the ruling, possibly putting it on a path for another showdown at the state’s top court.
A judge last year also put on hold enforcement of more restrictions the state adopted last year, including a ban on dilation and evacuation abortions — the most common procedure after 15 weeks’ gestation.
Abortion rights groups are pushing for a ballot question to amend the state constitution to protect reproductive freedom, including the right to abortion.
There have been legal and legislative battles over abortion access in the U.S. for generations, but everything changed when the U.S. Supreme Court in 2022 overturned Roe v. Wade, the 1973 ruling that had protected access nationwide.
Since then, bans have taken effect in most Republican-controlled states, including 14 where abortion is banned at all stages of pregnancy, with varying limited exceptions. Most Democrat-controlled states have sought to protect access.
Those changes are reflected in data released this week by #WeCount for the Society of Family Planning. The group finds that the number of abortions per month nationally is similar to what it was before the court’s ruling.
Although the number of monthly abortions has dropped to nearly zero in states with bans, they have risen in states that allow abortion — and a larger portion of them use pills prescribed by telehealth.
West Virginia’s state Senate this week approved a measure to require eighth and 10th graders to see a video on fetal development.
The “Baby Olivia” video is being used in classrooms in North Dakota and there’s legislation that aims to require it in Iowa, Kentucky and Missouri.
Though it was approved in West Virginia’s Senate, Republican Senate Majority Leader Tom Takubo, a pulmonologist, objected, saying the video has “grossly inaccurate information” contradictory to science. The bill now heads to the House of Delegates.
Meanwhile, South Dakota is looking to produce another video to guide medical providers on when to apply the one exception to the state’s abortion ban. Under state law, abortion is allowed only to save the life of the woman.
This week, the state Senate approved the plan, which had already passed the House, this week. It now heads to Republican Gov. Kristi Noem for her signature.
Missouri’s attorney general is suing Planned Parenthood, asserting that the organization is illegally transporting minors from Missouri — where most abortions are banned — to obtain them in Kansas.
The claim is based on a conservative group’s hidden-camera video of someone seeking an abortion for a fictitious 13-year-old.
Planned Parenthood denies the claim.
The office of Attorney General Andrew Bailey, a Republican running for election this year, has not said whether criminal charges could be filed, too.
The abortion bans across the U.S. seek to criminalize doctors and others who provide abortions and in many cases those who help women seeking abortions — but they stop short of allowing charges against those women themselves.
Still, a 26-year-old who self-managed an abortion in 2022 in Texas was charged there with murder and spent two nights in jail before being released and having the charges dropped.
It was revealed this week that the prosecutor who oversaw the case has been disciplined for his role in it. Starr County District Attorney Gocha Ramirez must pay a $1,250 fine and have his license held in a probated suspension for 12 months under a settlement agreement with the State Bar of Texas.
Ramirez says he made a mistake and agreed to the deal because it will keep his office running.
Alabama lawmakers this week advanced bills to protect fertility clinics after the state’s Supreme Court issued a ruling last month that could be devastating for them.
The court ruled that frozen embryos are the legal equivalent of children. Three large clinics quickly halted offering in vitro fertilization, a devastating outcome for people trying to expand their families.
Abortion rights advocates — including U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra on a visit to Alabama this week — have framed the court’s ruling as a consequence of overturning Roe v. Wade and part of a conservative effort to ban abortion by declaring that embryos and fetuses have the rights of people.
