October 24, 2024
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Four more states will ban almost all abortions this week as yet another slate of laws severely limiting the procedure takes effect following the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.
To date, 13 states have passed so-called trigger laws that were designed to take effect when that decision was announced. The majority of those states began enforcing their bans soon after the June 24 decision, but Idaho, Tennessee and Texas had to wait 30 days beyond when the justices formally entered the judgment, which happened several weeks after the ruling was announced.
That deadline is up Thursday. Meanwhile, North Dakota's trigger law is scheduled to take effect Friday.
The change will not be dramatic. All of these states except North Dakota already had anti-abortion laws in place that largely blocked patients from accessing the procedure. And the majority of the clinics that provided abortions in those areas have either stopped offering those services or moved to other states where abortion remains legal.
Texas, the country's second-largest state, has banned most abortions once fetal cardiac activity has been detected, which can be as early as six weeks into pregnancy. The ban has been in place for almost a year, since courts refused to stop the law last September.
While clinics were severely limited in the services they could provide during that time, they officially stopped offering abortions on the day of the Supreme Court ruling. Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton argued that state laws that banned abortion before Roe v. Wade could be enforced ahead of the implementation of the trigger law.
Much like Texas' current abortion ban, the upcoming trigger law does not include exceptions for rape or incest. Instead it has a loophole if a woman’s life or health is in danger.
But the state challenged a legal interpretation put forth by the federal government that was aimed at requiring Texas hospitals to provide abortion services if the life of the mother is at risk. On Wednesday, a federal judge temporarily blocked the government from enforcing that interpretation.
Texas argued that the federal guidance would have required hospitals to provide abortions before the mother’s life is clearly at risk, which would have violated the state’s trigger law.
A similar situation played out in Idaho, but there a federal judge ruled Wednesday that the state’s abortion ban violated federal law. U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill said the state could not enforce its abortion ban in cases where the pregnant person was experiencing a medical emergency that seriously threatened their life or health. Idaho's abortion ban makes all abortions felonies, but allows physicians to defend themselves in court by arguing that the procedure was necessary to save the life of the mother or done in cases of rape or incest.
Most abortions in Idaho were effectively banned on Aug. 12, when the Idaho Supreme Court allowed a different law to go into effect allowing potential relatives of an embryo or fetus to sue abortion providers.
In all, more than 40 states limit some abortions after a certain point in pregnancy, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a pro-abortion rights research group. Those state laws generally require a doctor to determine the gestational age before performing an abortion.
In Tennessee, just two of the six clinics that provide abortions have continued to offer the service since Roe was overturned. They are doing so even as Tennessee has enacted a “heartbeat law" similar to the one passed in Texas. Doctors who violate the law risk felony convictions and up to 15 years in prison.
North Dakota is also waiting to see if its trigger law will be implemented. Lawyers for the state's only abortion clinic, which recently moved a few miles to Minnesota, have asked for a delay as they pursue a lawsuit challenging the ban. A judge has promised to make a decision on the request by the end of this week.
