On June 24, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the 1973 ruling that provided constitutional protections for access to abortion for nearly 50 years. In the absence of those protections, individual states are now free to restrict, or ban, or protect abortion rights as they see fit. Anticipating the ruling, anti-abortion activists in some states campaigned for the passage of so-called “trigger laws,” which would automatically restrict or eliminate access to abortion once Roe was overturned. Thirteen states (listed below) enacted such laws. This is because those states had pre-Roe abortion bans that were never repealed, even though Roe meant they were unenforced for 50 years.

Source: New York Times June 25, 2022 06:45 UTC