On the day that the US supreme court ruled to overturn Roe v Wade, stripping constitutional protections for reproductive health, a slew of US states immediately moved to ban abortion across Republican-run swaths of America.
The moves were swift in many of the 13 US states which have previously passed abortion-banning “trigger laws” designed to come into effect when the federal right to abortion was removed.
These states include Arkansas, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and Wyoming, according to the Washington Post. Those statutes either banned abortion once this decision came down, required some sort of action from a state official certifying the supreme court’s ruling, or stipulated that the ban would go into effect days or weeks afterward.
Missouri’s legislation immediately went into effect. Six minutes after the supreme court decision came down, Missouri’s attorney general, Eric Schmitt, certified this decision, and tweeted: “Following the SCOTUS ruling overturning Roe v. Wade, Missouri has just become the first in the country to effectively end abortion with our AG opinion signed moments ago. This is a monumental day for the sanctity of life.”
The Missouri law, which provides no exception for rape or incest, classifies the act of inducing an abortion as a class B felony, meaning it could result in a five- to 15-year prison sentence. It applies to abortion providers, though it’s unclear whether someone could be prosecuted for using abortion-inducing medications, per the NPR station.
In South Dakota, as of today, all abortions are against the law “unless there is appropriate and reasonable medical judgment that performance of an abortion is necessary to preserve the life of the pregnant female” announced South Dakota’s governor, Kristi Noem, with top state lawmakers.
They added that they were planning a special legislative session “to save lives and help mothers impacted by the decision”.
Kentucky’s abortion prohibition – which permits the procedure solely to save a pregnant person’s life or prevent debilitating injury – has also gone into effect, the Louisville Courier-Journal reported. The state’s trigger law similarly stated that the state’s anti-abortion legislation “shall become effective immediately”.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky reportedly said that the state’s only full-time abortion clinic has stopped providing these procedures “as a precaution”. People seeking abortions will have few options within close proximity, as Illinois and Virginia are the only two of the seven states neighboring Kentucky that have mostly unrestricted reproductive health services.
Louisiana’s abortion went into effect after Roe was overturned. It bars most abortions and makes providing them illegal. The law does not provide any exceptions for rape or incest, no matter the age of the pregnant person, according to Nola.com.
The law allows exceptions when there is an extreme risk of death or disability. At the same time, the statute requires that a doctor makes “reasonable” efforts to save the fetus and mother, the site said. Legislators in the state have also ruled to criminalize mail or internet-based purchase of abortion pills.
Arkansas’s abortion ban will go into effect as soon as the state’s attorney certifies that Roe has been overturned. Almost all abortions are prohibited, except when a pregnant person faces a life-threatening medical emergency, the Arkansas Democrat Gazette reported.
Mississippi’s ban will go into effect “within days” and also requires the state attorney general’s sign-off. In North Dakota, the abortion prohibition is enacted in 30 days after its legislative council greenlights the state attorney general’s certification, the Washington Post said.
Wyoming and Utah will see bans within 30 days once state authorities officially recognize the supreme court decision. Idaho’s ban will go into effect in 30 days, as will Tennessee’s, per the newspaper.
Some states, including Arkansas and Missouri, had “trigger law” bans on the books that went into effect as soon as Roe fell.
In Alabama, the state’s three abortion clinics stopped performing the procedure for fear providers would be prosecuted under a law dating to 1951.
At the Alabama Women’s Center for Reproductive Alternatives in Huntsville, the staff had to tell women in the waiting room Friday morning that they could not perform any more abortions that day. Some had come from as far away as Texas for an appointment.
“A lot of them just started breaking down crying. Can you imagine if you had driven 12 hours to receive this care in this state and you are not able to?” clinic owner Dalton Johnson said. Patients were given a list of out-of-state places still doing abortions.
Abortion providers across Arizona likewise stopped doing procedures while they try to determine if a law dating to pre-statehood days before 1912 means doctors and nurses will face prison time now.
In Texas, providers wondered which law they had to follow: a 1925 ban, a 2021 law that limits abortions to the first six weeks of pregnancy, or a trigger law that bans the procedure outright, but wouldn’t take effect for a month or more. The confusion led them to suspend abortions while they seek legal advice.
In Texas the Republican attorney general, Ken Paxton, warned they could face immediate prosecution for performing abortions under the Prohibition-era ban, which carries a sentence of two to five years in prison.
It was the risk of prosecution under a 19th-century abortion ban punishable by prison that led the Women’s Health Center of West Virginia to stop performing the procedure.
The West Virginia governor Jim Justice, a Republican, said he will not hesitate to call the legislature into special session if the ban needs to be clarified.
In Ohio, a federal judge dissolved an injunction, allowing a 2019 state law to take effect banning most abortions at the first detectable fetal heartbeat.
Oklahoma, which has the most severe abortion ban in the US, also has a trigger law. Under this statute, providing an abortion is a felony, carrying a prison sentence of twoto five years, the Oklahoman reported.
The Associated Press contributed to this story
