Abortion in the 'Trigger Law' States

In anticipation of Roe v. Wade - the 1973 U.S. legal precedent which guaranteed access to abortion across the country - being overturned, some states had trigger laws in place, which rendered abortions illegal automatically, while several others fast-tracked the signing of pre-prepared legislation over the weekend. In Utah and Louisiana, the trigger laws have since been blocked by courts, allowing abortions to resume in these states for now.

As described by Statista data journalist Katharina Buchholz, "some trigger laws have built-in delays for implementation and will cause abortions to become illegal within the next week in Mississippi and Wyoming and the next month or months in Idaho, Tennessee, Texas and North Dakota." Using Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data as collated by USA Facts, this infographic reveals the extent to which these rapid bans will have an effect on people seeking an abortion in the 13 trigger law states.

In 2019, a combined 97,426 abortions were reported in the affected states, while 109,210 were conducted on people resident in these states. The recent trend is one of increase, despite a considerably larger amount of residents in the 13 states having an abortion back in 2010 - 139,356. This decrease is indicative of a nationwide trend in falling abortion numbers. As covered by Statista previously, "both proponents of abortion and anti-abortion activists credit this to the passing of laws restricting women’s access to the procedure".