What are Minnesota’s abortion laws?
Minnesota abortion laws are not as restrictive as many other states, but they do require the informed consent of the mother (i.e. mandatory counseling about the medical risks of abortion), followed by a 24-hour waiting period.
Is there a waiting period for abortion in Ohio?
In recent years, various legislatures have enacted laws and ordinances mandating a waiting period for women seeking to obtain abortions. Legal challenges to such statutes have been successful, except in one instance (Akron, Ohio), and a federal judge in Tennessee recently struck down a waiting perio …
How long do you have to wait between counseling and abortion?
In addition to abortion counseling requirements, many states require that at least 24 hours elapse between the counseling and the abortion. In states in which the counseling must be obtained in person (rather than via mail, fax, Internet or phone) and the woman must then wait a specified time period, most often 24 hours,...
What are the abortion laws in the state of Wisconsin?
Wisconsin abortion laws state that abortions are legal until 22 weeks of pregnancy. The procedure must be done by a licensed physician in a licensed maternity hospital. Minors must receive the written consent of a parent or legal guardian unless the pregnancy results from rape, incest, or the minor is suicidal.
What is waiting period for abortion?
Evidence You Can Use: Waiting Periods for Abortion is designed to give advocates, service providers and policymakers the data and resources they need to engage in ongoing policy discussions in their states. It includes information on state laws and policies, a synthesis of the relevant research, information on states in which the issue has been debated in the past three years and links to state-specific data. The toolkit provides an evidence base for understanding the impact of waiting periods on access to abortion services.
How long do you have to wait to get an abortion?
However, many states require patients to wait for some period of time—from 18 hours to three days or more—between preabortion counseling and the abortion itself. Some states require in-person counseling (rather than counseling via phone, internet or mail) before the waiting period can begin.
What was the effect of the Mississippi 24-hour abortion waiting period?
Three studies conducted in Mississippi in the early 1990s found that the state’s mandatory in-person counseling and 24-hour waiting period were associated with a decline in the abortion rate, a rise in abortions obtained out of state and an increase in the proportion of second-trimester abortions. 1,13–15.
How much does it cost to have an abortion at 10 weeks?
Later abortion procedures are typically more costly than procedures performed at earlier gestational ages. For instance, in 2011 and 2012, the median charge for a surgical abortion was $495 at 10 weeks’ gestation, compared with $1,350 at 20 weeks. 16
Why are abortions delayed?
Delays Due to Waiting Periods. Waiting periods can contribute to delays in obtaining abortion care, which is problematic because both the cost and risk of an abortion increase as the pregnancy continues.
How many trips to abortion clinic?
Some states have in-person counseling requirements, which means that if a waiting period is also in effect, a person seeking an abortion must make two trips to their provider. Making two separate trips may involve more complicated logistics, additional costs and delays in care.
How many trips to a health care provider to get an abortion?
These types of provisions mean that patients must make two trips to a health care provider in order to obtain an abortion. Making two trips can pose a burden for people who need to arrange for time off from work or caretaking duties, and for those who live far from an abortion provider.
What are the restrictions on abortion?
Some of the more common abortion restrictions include mandatory waiting periods between initial consultations and the procedure, mandatory ultrasounds; mandatory counseling about abortion and alternatives, licensing restrictions on facilities, and parental consent requirements. Some states, such as California, do not have these additional restrictions.
What is the definition of failure to meet standards of legal abortion?
Failure to meet standards of legal abortion; sale or manufacture of drug, substance, or instrument intended for unlawful use in miscarriage or abortion procedure; act, procedure, or use of any instrument, medicine, or drug which is supplied, prescribed for, or administered to a pregnant woman which results in the termination of pregnancy
When was abortion legalized?
Abortion was legalized by the U.S. Supreme Court ( Roe v. Wade) in 1973 , defining the rights of the mother and the interests of the state into three 12-week trimesters. The Court ruled that the state can't regulate the procedure in the first trimester beyond certain requirements that it be performed in a medically safe facility by a licensed physician. However, many states have placed additional legislative restrictions on abortion, resulting in a patchwork of drastically different state laws.
Does Minnesota require abortions?
Minnesota abortion laws are not as restrictive as many other states, but they do require informed consent of the mother (i.e. mandatory counseling about the medical risks of abortion), followed by a 24-hour waiting period. The mandatory counseling session also requires the patient to learn about whether the fetus will experience pain and other information that critics say is meant to discourage women from seeking abortions.
How long can you delay an abortion?
Around the country, states have passed laws that force women to delay their abortions for a specified period of time, generally at least 24 hours, after obtaining state-mandated information designed to persuade them not to have an abortion. In a number of states, the laws require women to make two trips ...
How many states have abortion laws?
The harm of such restrictions is felt most by those who have the fewest resources - poor women, minors, rural women, working women without insurance or sick leave, and battered women. Eighteen states currently have laws that force women to delay their abortions unnecessarily: Alabama, Arkansas, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, ...
How does the cost of abortion affect women?
In addition to the increased cost of the procedure, forcing women to make two trips to the clinic results in added costs. Women must arrange to take extra time off from work, potentially jeopardizing jobs they cannot afford to lose; find additional child care; and scrape together money for the travel and lodging costs generated by the mandatory delay. Together with the cost of the abortion itself, these costs can work to prevent women from obtaining the abortions they seek.
How much does it cost to get an abortion?
Whereas first-trimester abortions obtained from a nonhospital provider usually cost between $350 and $500, a second-trimester abortion at a clinic can cost $1,000 or more. And most clinics do not perform second-trimester abortions at all. Women who need second-trimester abortions either must take on the burden of traveling, often out of state, to a clinic that provides second-trimester abortions or must resort to a hospital. But the number of hospitals providing abortions has plummeted in the last decade, because of fear of harassment and mergers between formerly secular hospitals and religiously affiliated hospitals that prevent the newly merged entity from providing abortions. If a woman does find a hospital that provides second-trimester abortions, it will generally cost thousands of dollars, a cost that many women cannot afford.
Why do abortion clinics only do abortions once or twice a week?
And throughout the country, many of the clinics that do offer abortions only do so once or twice a week because of the scarcity of doctors. Given these realities, many women - particularly those who live in rural areas where abortion providers are few and far between - must travel hundreds of miles to reach the nearest clinic. ...
What is a mandated delay?
Mandated Delays Demean Women. Statutes mandating delays are generally coupled with biased counseling laws (often misleadingly called ""Women's Right to Know"" laws) that force doctors to provide every woman with information that is intended to discourage them from having an abortion . The mandatory delay ostensibly exists ...
Why is it important to push an abortion into the second trimester?
Pushing an abortion into the second trimester makes what would have been a routine procedure more complicated and risky. As the American Medical Association in its report on abortion states, ""Mandatory waiting periods [and other barriers] have the potential to threaten the safety of induced abortion.
How long do you have to wait to get an abortion?
25 states require a woman seeking an abortion to wait a period of time, usually 24 hours, between receiving counseling and the procedure (12 of these states have laws that require the woman to make two separate trips to the clinic to obtain the procedure)
How many states require counseling before abortion?
18 states require women be given counseling before an abortion that includes information on at least one of the following: the purported link between abortion and breast cancer (5 states), the ability of a fetus to feel pain (13 states), or long-term mental health consequences for the women (8 states)
How many states require abortion?
Information here is provided by the Guttmacher Institute. 38 states require an abortion to be **performed by a licensed physician. 19 states require an abortion to be performed in a hospital after a specific point in the pregnancy. 17 states require the involvement of a second physician after a specific point.
How many states have abortion coverage?
33 states and the District of Columbia prohibit the use of state funds except when federal funds are available (where the woman's life is in danger or is the result of incest or rape) 12 states restrict abortion coverage in private insurance plans (most often limiting coverage for when a woma's life is in danger)
What was the Roe v Wade case?
The 1973 Supreme Court case Roe v. Wade was a landmark decision for abortion in the United States. The case involved a woman living in Texas, using the name "Jane Roe" who became pregnant with her third child but wanted an abortion. Abortion was illegal in Texas except when the pregnancy is deadly for the mother. She hired two attorneys who filed on her behalf against district attorney Henry Wade, alleging that the abortion law was unconstitutional. The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas ruled in her favor, which was appealed by Texas to the U.S. Supreme Court.
What is the Supreme Court ruling on abortion?
The Supreme Court ruled that a woman had the right to choose whether or not to have an abortion, and the three trimesters of pregnancy were used as a framework for its legality. In the first trimester, governments could not prohibit a woman from choosing to have an abortion as long as a licensed physician did it.
When is abortion legal in Mississippi?
Currently, Mississippi abortion laws state that abortion is legal before 20 weeks of pregnancy.
Background
- The ability to obtain abortion care without delay is critically important to people's reproductive health. Abortion is a safe and legal medical procedure, and waiting periods are medically unnecessary. They introduce an unnecessary hurdle to obtaining medical care and intrude on the patient-provider relationship, while failing to protect the best interests of the patient. However, m…
State Laws and Policies
- For a chart of current laws and policies in each state related to waiting periods for abortion, see Counseling and Waiting Periods for Abortion. For information on state laws and policies related to other sexual and reproductive health and rights issues, see State Laws and Policies, issue-by-issue fact sheets updated monthly by the Guttmacher Institute’s policy analysts to reflect the mo…
Relevant Data and Analysis
- Lack of Medical Need for Waiting Periods
Waiting periods are not medically necessary and conflict with the principles of medical ethics. 1. Waiting periods serve no medical purpose; these hurdles are intended to make abortion less accessible.1,2 2. Like all health care providers, abortion providers operate under the principles o… - Women Sure About Abortion Decision
Women are confident in their decision to have an abortion. Mandated waiting periods only add a delay between a woman’s decision and her procedure. 1. A study of Wisconsin’s 2013 mandatory preabortion ultrasound law found that 93% of women were certain in their decision to obtain an …
Recent State Action on This Issue
- States that have addressed this issue over the past three years are listed below. E:State enacted a relevant measure V:State vetoed measure A:State adopted measure in at least one chamber States that require a specified amount of time between counseling and abortion procedure States that require counseling to be provided in person
Footnotes
- *An exception is Medicaid-funded female contraceptive sterilization, which cannot be performed until at least 30 days after informed consent is obtained.