Here’s how some U.S. states are moving to restrict abortions

The U.S. Supreme Court has ended constitutional protections for abortion that had been in place for nearly 50 years.

The decision by its conservative majority to overturn Roe v. Wade on Friday is expected to lead to abortion bans in roughly half the states.

Here’s how some states are moving to restrict abortions following the ruling:

Mississippi

The case before the court, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, centred on a Mississippi law banning abortion after 15 weeks.

Only about 100 patients per year get abortions after 15 weeks at Mississippi’s lone abortion clinic, the Jackson Women’s Health Organization.

The facility does not provide abortions after 16 weeks.

At least 13 states, including Mississippi, have so-called trigger laws that ban or severely limit abortion and are set to come into effect virtually as soon as Roe v. Wade is overturned.

Texas

The first sign that the U.S. Supreme Court might be receptive to wiping away the constitutional right to abortion came in late summer of 2021, when the justices divided 5-4 in allowing Texas to enforce a ban on the procedure at roughly six weeks, before some women even know they are pregnant.

That dispute turned on the unique structure of the law, including its enforcement by private citizens, via civil lawsuits, rather than by state officials, and how it can be challenged in court. Then in December, after hearing additional arguments over whether to block the Texas law known as S.B. 8, the court again declined to do so, also by a 5-4 vote.

After Friday’s ruling, Texas abortion providers wondered which law they had to follow — a 1925 ban, the 2021 law 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.

Missouri

Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt said he was acting immediately to enforce a state law banning abortion except in “cases of medical emergency.”

The 2019 Missouri law included a trigger provision making effective upon notification by the attorney general that the U.S. Supreme Court had overruled Roe v. Wade in whole or in part.

“With this attorney general opinion,…