Where States Are Winning the Abortion Rights Battle

There’s no question abortion rights are in a crisis in the U.S. This year alone, 42 states have introduced at least 536 abortion restrictions, with dozens becoming law. And that’s on top of last year’s devastating record of antiabortion laws passed, including the news-making Texas abortion ban that allows anyone — literally anyone — to sue someone who helps a patient receive an abortion, from the provider to an abortion fund to an Uber driver.

States enacting outlandish abortion restrictions is nothing new. But the willingness of the courts to reconsider 50 years of precedent is. The Supreme Court is poised to deliver a decision on a Mississippi law that not only may uphold a 15-week abortion ban but could also overturn Roe v. Wade entirely. And since they’ve allowed the clearly unconstitutional Texas abortion ban to remain effect since September 2021, we should all be worried.

But we can’t stop at worrying — we must act. Fortunately, scores of state legislators are doing just that.

For years, advocates have asked states to shore up abortion rights and access. Largely spurred by the Trump presidency and the increased recognition of federal backsliding on abortion rights, New York passed its Reproductive Health Act in 2019 to update the state’s pre-Roeabortion law, moving it from the criminal code to the public health code while clarifying the scope of trained medical providers who can give abortion care and ensuring the ability of patients to get care later in pregnancy when their health or life is in danger or if a fetus is not viable. That same year, Illinois declared abortion a “fundamental right” and required abortion to be covered by private health insurance plans, while removing outdated and unenforced statutes. Recognizing that abortion’s legality is not and has never been enough to ensure people get the health care services they need, in 2019 Maine also acted to expand access to abortion care by increasing the pool of abortion providers available (Hawaii passed a similar law in 2021) and required insurance to cover abortion care, an important move that only six states have made to date, including Washington and Oregon. Notably, Oregon’s Reproductive Health Equity Act, passed in 2017, set the standard for insurance coverage of reproductive health care services by including folks otherwise left out of coverage benefits because of their immigration status, a crystal clear encapsulation of the interrelatedness of reproductive health care policies with a host of other issues.

This year, the stakes are higher than ever. Though Roe v. Wade has never been enough to ensure abortion is accessible to all who need it, the post-Roe landscape we’ve feared for years is already here, and it is already causing harm, with Black and brown communities most at risk of paying the outrageous price set when the state is tasked with monitoring our bodies. There is no way to ban abortion without inviting the explicit policing of our reproductive actions and decisions; our country’s racist systems and structures all but guarantee that people of color will be subject to the most harm. The relentless state policy attacks on trans kids also demonstrate how far lawmakers are willing to go to reinforce gender roles and subject anyone seen as violating them to punishment.

With no time to waste, states in 2022 are taking action to protect abortion rights in their states and prepare for the influx of patients they may see if, as expected, more states respond to the Supreme Court’s invitation to restrict abortion even further. State legislators are working to ensure abortion’s legality within their borders; improve service delivery to meet the increase in patients from more hostile states; and make abortion care as available, affordable, and accessible as it can be.

Colorado, whose clinics saw an increase in patients traveling from Texas to access abortion care the aftermath of the Texas abortion ban, enshrined abortion rights into state law by passing the Reproductive Health Equity Act this April. This new law affirmatively states that Coloradans have the right to have an abortion or to continue a pregnancy and the right to use or refuse contraception; and that a fertilized egg, embryo, or fetus does not have “personhood” rights in Colorado, a notable inclusion considering multiple ballot initiative attempts over the years (all soundly defeated by Colorado voters) attempting to create said rights.

New Jersey has long relied on its state Supreme Court to ensure abortion rights, but this year the legislature enacted the Freedom of Reproductive Choice Act, codifying the right to abortion into state statute, underscoring a critical lesson of the Trump administration: The courts are no longer the backstop we’ve long relied on them to be.

Oregon lawmakers and activists looked to their neighbors in Idaho, where an abortion ban modeled on the Texas law — including providing the right for specific relatives of the fetus to sue the abortion provider — is currently tied up in the courts, and decided to act. The state’s bold, necessary plan? Invest $15 million to support the costs associated with new patients traveling to the state to receive abortions and the providers performing the procedure.

Maryland is also a haven for abortion rights. But this year, lawmakers took the critical step of ensuring nurse practitioners, midwives, and physician assistants can provide abortion care. State legislators must be commended for not only passing this bill, but also overriding the veto of Governor Larry Hogan. The legislation also shores up clinical training for abortion provision.

No discussion of bold state policy to protect and expand abortion care is complete without mention of California. Advocates and lawmakers announced a plan that includes dozens of legislative, administrative, and budgetary proposals for the state to continue its leadership on ensuring available and accessible abortion care for all. Governor Gavin Newsom recently signed a law to cut costs for people using their private insurance to cover abortion care; notably, this is on top of existing requirements to ensure private insurance covers abortion care.

Connecticut is poised to enact a first-of-its-kind law to respond to the extreme and outrageous laws in effect such as Texas’s SB8 and one introduced in Missouri to threaten the ability of patients to cross state lines to access abortion. Connecticut’s bill — recently passed by the House and the Senate and now awaiting Governor Ned Lamont’s signature — will shield abortion providers and patients from lawsuits brought under other states’ anti-abortion laws. This critical bill lays bare the extremism of abortion opponents and aims to prepare us for the harsh new reality we are facing.

State legislators have multiple policy options for protecting abortion rights and expanding access to meet this moment, and we must applaud their actions. But we simply don’t have the numbers in many legislative chambers to advance pro-abortion rights bills. That’s why we all — as supporters of reproductive dignity and autonomy — must call on everyone to use the venues available to them in whatever role they hold to take action, from New York City’s city-funded abortion fund to Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s groundbreaking lawsuit to protect abortion rights in her state.

The reality we are facing as a country without the baseline protections afforded by Roe v. Wade is difficult to swallow. But as reproductive justice leaders like Monica Simpson, executive director of SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective, have been saying, “We can imagine a better world.” We didn’t get here, navigating a state-by-state patchwork of abortion legality and access, overnight, and we won’t fix it overnight. Some states are winning this battle, and they can serve as the motivation and model we need.