A leading pro-abortion research group predicted that nearly two dozen states would protect unborn babies through laws that they already have in place if the U.S. Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade.
According to the Guttmacher Institute, these states would either widely restrict or prohibit abortions immediately through old abortion bans that predate Roe or newer “trigger laws” that would ban abortions once the ruling is overturned, The Washington Post reports.
The states are Idaho, Utah, Arizona, Texas, Oklahoma, North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan, Missouri, Ohio, West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama and Georgia, according to the report.
The report also includes New Mexico as the 22nd state. However, state lawmakers voted earlier this year to repeal its pre-Roe ban on abortions, so the real number appears to be 21.
In contrast, 14 states and Washington, D.C. have laws that would allow abortion on demand to continue if Roe is overturned, the report found.
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Abortion activists are worried that half the country may ban abortions in the near future. The Supreme Court recently agreed to hear a Mississippi law that protects unborn babies from abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy.
At issue in the case Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization is the question of “whether all pre-viability prohibitions on elective abortion are unconstitutional.” The Supreme Court plans to hear arguments in October and likely will issue a ruling in the summer of 2022.
Elizabeth Nash, the principal policy associate for state issues at the Guttmacher Institute, told the Post that states increasingly are divided on the issue, with many in the southern and mid-western parts of the U.S. voting to outlaw abortions.
“What we are seeing is the result of nearly 50 years of coordinated efforts to undermine abortion access,” Nash said. “Abortion is health care, plain and simple.”
In the past two decades, states have enacted hundreds of pro-life laws to protect unborn babies and mothers from abortion, according to the Guttmacher research. In contrast, states have passed only 43 laws to expand abortions, the pro-abortion research group found.
Nash lamented the strong pro-life actions by state legislatures, claiming, “Abortion is health care, plain and simple.”
But most Americans disagree. They know the truth than an abortion unnecessarily kills an unborn baby and often harms mothers. Polls consistently show that a majority of Americans either want abortions to be banned or heavily limited – something Roe v. Wade does not allow.
Because of Roe, more than 62 million unborn babies have been aborted in the U.S. The ruling forces states to legalize the killing of unborn babies in abortions without restriction all the way up to viability, though some states allow abortions up to birth. The U.S. is one of only seven countries in the world that allows elective abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy.
Recently, another report by the Center for Reproductive Rights predicted that 24 states and three territories likely would take swift action to ban abortions if the Supreme Court overturns Roe, The Hill reports.
In recent years, other analyses have predicted anywhere from eight to 31 states would end abortions if the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade. In 2018, the pro-abortion group NARAL predicted 13 states would immediately ban abortions if Roe is overturned.
A previous estimate by the Center for Reproductive Rights put the number at 31 states. Another analysis by attorney Paul Linton in the journal “Issues in Law and Medicine” in 2012 estimated between eight and 11 states would ban abortions, according to research by Dr. Michael New.
