The historic Roe v. Wade ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court legalized abortion nationwide on January 22, 1973. Over the past three decades, access to abortion has been increasingly restricted by state laws, through initiatives that have particularly hurt young and low-income women. Many states have established limitations on public funding for abortion services and require parental consent and notification for teen abortions and mandatory counseling and waiting periods that cause costly delays. As a result, full reproductive health care is not equally accessible to all women in the U.S. Today, the fate of Roe v. Wade rests in the hands of a conservative Supreme Court. The Bush administration continues to nominate anti-abortion advocates who hold extreme right-wing positions and a Supreme Court vacancy is expected in the not-too-distant future, so a reversal of the Roe v. Wade decision has become a real and alarming possibility.

Restrictive Laws and Funding Bans

Since the Roe v. Wade decision, abortion opponents have continually attempted to undermine progressive legislation and have fought hard to uphold and add restrictions on women's right to abortion. The most common restrictions in effect are parental consent and notification requirements, mandatory counseling and waiting periods, and bans on funding for abortion services.

In the 1992 case Planned Parenthood v. Casey, the Supreme Court upheld the right to an abortion, but granted states the right to enact additional restrictions. This ruling seriously weakened reproductive freedoms previously granted to all women. As a result, young women are required to involve their parents and many women are forced into unrequested counseling designed to discourage them from choosing abortion or burdened by excessive waiting periods for abortion services, oftentimes adding significant expenses. Furthermore, mandates such as the Hyde Amendment, which denies Medicaid funding for most abortions, restricts financial assistance to women in need.

Anti-abortion forces are also currently pushing for vaginal abortion procedure bans which they freely admit is the first step in a strategy to nullify Roe v. Wade. Abortion rights foes will tell you these bans are aimed at late-term abortions, but in fact they are written to apply to every gestational stage and criminalize some of the most common vaginal abortion procedures.

State Assessment of Abortion Restrictions