Some States Are
Strengthening Abortion Access and Protections for Clinicians and
Out-of-State Residents Seeking Abortions
If the Supreme Court
overturns Roe v Wade, the landmark decision that established the right
to abortion, then individual states can regulate abortion without any
federal requirement to protect abortion access. While about half of the
states in the U.S. will move to either ban or highly restrict abortion
access for their residents, there is growing momentum in a handful of
states to not only protect abortion access for their state residents,
but also to expand access to people who live in states that ban or
restrict abortion. A new KFF
brief takes a closer look at the policies and laws states
have enacted to protect abortion access.
Actions states have
taken range from clarifying and strengthening their long-standing
protections for abortion rights to enacting policies that seek to
assure affordable access to abortion services and to protect clinicians
in their states from criminal charges and civil liability if they
perform abortions.
Some states, like
California, Maryland, Washington, and Delaware, are finding ways to
expand the pool of clinicians qualified to provide an abortion. In New
Jersey, the governor signed a statutory protection for abortion.
Connecticut has enacted legislation to protect clinicians who provide
abortion care from out of state civil and criminal penalties. Maryland
and California recently passed laws requiring most insurance providers
to cover the cost of an abortion, with no cost-sharing.
While these approaches
may improve access to abortions for some, many people living in states
with an abortion ban, particularly those that are low-income, will
experience access challenges and may not be able to get to a
neighboring state to obtain an abortion, regardless of increased
protections and availability offered by neighboring states.
For more information
on abortion, including a new
Policy Watch on employer coverage of travel costs for
out-of-state abortions, visit the KFF
Women’s Health page.
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