Almost half of all Americans could lose access to abortion in their states if the Supreme Court strikes down Roe v. Wade, an outcome that seems all the more likely after a leaked draft Supreme Court opinion was published on Monday, sparking protests and calls to enshrine the landmark ruling in federal legislation.
A Center for Reproductive Rights analysis of state laws found that 25 states and three territories are “hostile” to abortion rights, meaning they could immediately prohibit abortion. The generally Southern and central states are home to 158 million Americans. The states encompass 47 percent of the United States land mass. It would mean a radically increased burden on the people who already have to travel long distances for reproductive care. (These states also imprison people at rates nearly double those found in states that have expanded access to abortion, according to a Mother Jones analysis of 2020 Decennial Census.)
Three more states plus Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands have no existing state protections, making it unclear if legislatures there would enact a ban. Abortion rights are either protected by state law or guarantee expanded access in the 22 other states.
The 25 hostile states already had far fewer abortions per person than other states between 2010 and 2019, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Abortion Surveillance data.
Review our methodology and reproduce this analysis using code from our GitHub page.
