WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court`s decision on the bombing, its landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade on abortion rights, reversed 50 years of precedent, giving state lawmakers across the country the power to restrict or ban abortion. The result will be a patchwork of laws that vary depending on where a person lives. These laws are creative ways to protect access to abortion. Yet even the most ardent supporters of these laws recognize that they undermine some of the key principles of our federalist structure. States generally cooperate out of mutual respect. These pro-abortion laws test this basic principle of interstate politeness. We have argued elsewhere for the importance of such laws, but we cannot help but recognize that these laws would destroy a key aspect of our national structure.

These interstate conflicts could also end up in the Supreme Court, where fundamental constitutional issues surrounding national citizenship and state sovereignty will be at stake. To determine which category each U.S. state, D.C., and territory falls into, we first examined whether abortion rights are protected (“protected”) by state, territory, or Washington laws; If so, we investigated whether the state, territory, or District of Columbia has enacted laws or policies that improve access to abortion treatment (“enhanced access”). If abortion is not protected by state or territorial (“Unprotected”) laws, we then investigated whether the government had enacted laws or policies to restrict or prohibit access to abortion treatment (“Hostile”). Finally, we looked at states that have criminalized abortion and banned it completely (“illegal”). Based on our analysis, we then placed each state, territory, and District of Columbia in one of five categories, which exist along a spectrum ranging from “extensive access” to “protected” to “unprotected” to “hostile” and finally “illegal.” The abortion bans, enacted since Roe, were intended to ban abortion altogether if the Supreme Court restricted or overturned Roe, or if a federal amendment banned abortion. Missouri has already given us a taste of what it will look like. Earlier this year, a Missouri legislature introduced an amendment that would create civil liability for anyone who helps another person travel out of state to have an abortion. While this bill has not gone into effect, it`s a clear signal that anti-abortion lawmakers are already thinking about that next limit. If they go in that direction, they will be acting against the basic principles of how Americans think about travel and law.

Most of us assume that when we travel out of state, we must obey the laws wherever we are, and that the laws of our home state do not apply. Think of gambling in Las Vegas before it was largely legal elsewhere – people went there without even thinking about the fact that their home state, where gambling was illegal, would punish them if they returned from Nevada. Use this map to examine the distribution of abortion laws by state in real time — and abortion bans, types of abortion restrictions, trigger bans, and more. Idaho was the first state to enact a Texas-inspired law. Idaho law prohibits abortion after about six weeks and allows family members (including relatives of a rapist) of the “unborn child” to sue a provider who performs an abortion. The law passed last month, but the Idaho Supreme Court temporarily barred it from going into effect. Missouri has introduced a law that allows individuals to sue an out-of-state abortion provider or even someone who helps transport a person across state borders for an abortion. Wyoming has passed a law banning most abortions, which will be triggered if the Supreme Court overturns Roe. The boldest effort so far, however, has been in Oklahoma, a target for Texans seeking abortions. Two weeks ago, the Oklahoma legislature declared it a crime punishable by ten years in prison to perform an abortion except to save a woman`s life in a medical emergency. The governor signed the bill last Tuesday; The law is expected to come into force in August.

In June, the U.S. Supreme Court, Roe v. Wade, opened the door for states to ban abortion altogether. Just weeks after the decision, nearly all of the 13 states` trigger bans are in effect, and abortion is illegal in several states. Read more>> Four states have laws banning abortions after 20 weeks: Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, and North Carolina. While many Republican-led states have passed laws restricting access to abortion, Democratic-led states have taken steps to defend abortion rights. Sixteen states and the District of Columbia have taken such measures: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington. And lawmakers in seven states have passed executive orders that do not have the force of law and express their intention to ban abortion as much as possible if Roe falls.

However, just as rights can be deployed and expanded, they can also withdraw and constrain themselves in breathtaking ways, following a certain logic on a case-by-case basis. In the upcoming decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women`s Health Organization, it is generally expected that the court will strike down or seriously undermine its abortion rights cases Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey. According to comments from the six conservative justices at the December hearings, the strength of that expectation prompted state lawmakers to act as if Roe was already gone.