Talk:Abortion law in the United States by state

This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 28 August 2019 and 20 December 2019. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Kimiesha (article contribs).

Extraneous asterisk - trigger laws with unusual clauses

In the "Bans of Abortion" table in the row for South Dakota, there is an asterisk next to the value "No" in the column "Trigger Law on any abortion".

There is no other asterisk in the article. Perhaps the original editor was referring to this point that there is something unusual about South Dakota's trigger law:

South Dakota has a unique "trigger" law saying abortion will be banned there, except to save the pregnant woman's life, effective "on the date that the states are recognized by the U.S. Supreme Court to have the authority to prohibit abortion at all stages of pregnancy."

Mississippi also has a timing associated with its trigger law:

Mississippi statute takes effect 10 days after the state’s attorney general determines in writing that the Supreme Court has overturned the ruling.

Is there anything unusual or notable about the other states' trigger laws?

Here is a reference where I saw this information. Here is an older document referring to another page which is 404.

Additional trigger law info.

I will delete the asterisk for now and when I have good references I am sure of, I will update the table again.

U.S. territories

The 5 inhabited U.S. territories (American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands) are not mentioned anywhere in this article. Is abortion legal in American Samoa? Is there a trigger law on abortion in Puerto Rico? What is the status of abortion in Guam? The Northern Mariana Islands has its own Wikipedia article on this issue: Abortion in the Northern Mariana Islands. The 5 inhabited territories should be added to the tables, and the title of the article should be moved to "Abortion in the United States by state and territory". LumaP15 (talk) 09:23, 5 January 2019 (UTC)

expired temporary ban

When a temporary ban expires, the law is simply in effect. What explanation is needed? 24.143.11.227 (talk) 14:40, 8 March 2019 (UTC)

Edits in tables re limits on abortion

Here I've WP:BOLDly inserted ping-pong convenience links between entries in the Bans of abortion table which have a Yes in the Illegal with limits column (I've also inserted a No in that column for Nevada, where that cell was blank) and corresponding entries in the Limits on abortion table. Some of these links don't make sense to me (e.g., California, which doesn't detail any limits in the second table), but I didn't spend any time trying to figure out why that was.

Feel free to improve or revert, as appropriate. Wtmitchell (talk) (earlier Boracay Bill) 09:36, 18 May 2019 (UTC)

Is the table on bans and limits on abortion up to date, considering legislation of recent months? If not, it should be updated.Dogru144 (talk) 23:29, 19 May 2019 (UTC)

Oregon laws

Here is a piece of news: http://www.washingtontimes.com, The Washington Times. "Kate Brown signs bill making Oregon first to offer free abortions for all, including illegal aliens". The Washington Times. Retrieved 19 May 2019. {{cite news}}: External link in |last1= (help) --Hienafant (talk) 12:56, 19 May 2019 (UTC)

Counseling laws map

The symbols on the shaded states of the counseling laws map need explaining.Dogru144 (talk) 00:34, 20 May 2019 (UTC)

First paragraph appears to state that abortion is illegal in Alabama. I am fairly sure that this is false.

(The relevant statute does not go into effect until November 2019, and will likely have its enforcement enjoined before then. Similar bills (with similar delays) have been enacted in several other states.)

2601:5CC:8201:E6B:A97E:63AA:DFF9:2187 (talk) 22:09, 21 May 2019 (UTC)

That appears to have been vandalism, and I've reverted it. See https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Abortion_in_the_United_States_by_state&type=revision&diff=898181578&oldid=897886160. Wtmitchell (talk) (earlier Boracay Bill) 22:35, 21 May 2019 (UTC)

Accessibility issue: Tables are missing some of the information that can be found in map images

There is some information in the map images on this page and on Abortion in the United States which is not in the table, making this information harder to obtain for blind people, who would have to click through to each individual state to gain this information. It would be better if this information were added to one of the tables on this page: - Current time limit for states expected to have a 6-8 week time limit starting in 2020 (table only shows future limit) - Nature of which types of abortions were legal (table only shows yes/no) - Nature of ultrasound requirements - Nature of parental notifications and consents required - All information from map - All information from map - All information from map

Thisisnotatest (talk) 08:06, 2 June 2019 (UTC)

State by state summaries

I happened to look at this article today and I fixed a couple of problems in the sections for individual states after looking at detail articles for the info. It strikes me that this article would be better without the long list of state-by-state sections and simply clarifying the current abortion situation for individual states as detailed in the wikilinked {{main article}} in the table, specifying an {{as of}} date there, and leaving expansion of the legislative history and other details to that wikilinked main article (per WP:SS). Table notes could be given for states with exceptional situations. Wtmitchell (talk) (earlier Boracay Bill) 07:32, 22 June 2019 (UTC)

Removed the unsourced map

I removed the unsourced map. It does not provide any sources at all and also it is inaccurate. At several states it states "indicates a limit at 6–8 weeks is expected to come into effect", "indicates a ban on abortion is expected to come into effect", but such laws are likely going to be struck down by courts (as they have been in the past, since such laws have been routinely introduced for years, and then struck down by courts). The only way such laws would come into force is if the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade/Planned Parenthood v. Casey. Currently, according to the Supreme Court, a state cannot impose a law which places legal restrictions imposing an undue burden for "the purpose or effect of placing a substantial obstacle in the path of a woman seeking an abortion of a nonviable fetus", according to Planned Parenthood v. Casey. If/when the Supreme Court changes that ruling, a map with the 6-8 weeks bans will be created, but right now it is out of place, since these are simply hypothetical restricts that are not and cannot be in effect without a Supreme Court decision. 2A02:2F01:5CFF:FFFF:0:0:50C:3058 (talk) 03:50, 13 August 2019 (UTC)

"currently" and WP:DATED

I happened to notice the word "currently" in categorizations on some of the map legends in this article. The particular item which caught my eye was "Waiting period law currently enjoined" for Florida in the "Mandatory waiting period laws in the US" figure. I see on the image description page that the current version of that image was uploaded in January 2018, and I see here that the status of that has apparently fluctuated since then, making the info in this article regarding that sometimes valid and sometimes not over that time span. I'm guessing that other maps shown it this article have similar problems; all the maps imply currency, but several of the map legends explicitly include the problematic word "currently". Where possible, I suggest removal of that word from the map legends and from the overall article. (similar concerns would apply separately to the text of the legends in the map image files themselves).

The only appearance of the word "currently" in the article prose is supported by a cite of this outside map as a supporting source. That map is undated but, going by this, appears to date back at least as far as January of 2014. Wtmitchell (talk) (earlier Boracay Bill) 14:09, 24 September 2019 (UTC)

I agree, we should remove the currently's and have each map VERY clearly state what year the data is from. ---Avatar317^(talk) 22:22, 26 September 2019 (UTC)

What about new york?

Why is New York not discussed here? THEMlCK (talk) 20:59, 26 September 2019 (UTC)

New York not included in table of contents

It seems as though whoever made the sections of the article stopped at the 50th entry, however since the District of Columbia is also included in the list, it means there are only 49 states, the last one being New York. Someone should add New York to the table of contents and add some info or link to the main article if there is one. 142.177.154.200 (talk) 17:04, 20 October 2019 (UTC)