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Roe v. Wade
Abortion in U.S. History
Federal and State Bans and Restrictions on Abortion
Types of State Restrictions on Abortion
Whole Woman's Health v. Hellerstedt
Recent Timeline of Attacks: 2009 to Today
Abortion Access
Access to abortion is legal, constitutionally protected, and supported by most Americans.
Join the BANS OFF OUR BODIES Movement
Politicians opposed to abortion rights have made it clear that their ultimate goal is to ban abortion nationwide. Join the fight for our right to make decisions about our bodies, lives, and futures!
Abortion Is Health Care
The attacks and deceptions continue, but here’s the truth: abortion is health care. Nearly a fourth of women in America will have an abortion by age 45. Every day, people across the United States make deeply personal decisions about their pregnancies. Those decisions deserve respect.
Read on to see how abortion opponents are coming after your access to safe, legal abortion and accurate information — and how you can take action to defend our constitutionally protected right.
The courts have protected safe, legal abortion throughout the United States since 1973, when the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed access to abortion as a constitutional right in its Roe v. Wade decision.
Yet for years, abortion opponents have fought to turn back the clock: stacking federal courts with anti-abortion judges; passing unconstitutional legislation; spreading deceptions; imposing arbitrary restrictions; and waging one legal battle after another. Their ultimate goal? Reverse Roe v. Wade and make safe, legal abortion impossible to obtain.
Attacks on Roe v. Wade
Attacks on Roe began to ramp up in 2011, when anti-abortion politicians made massive gains in federal and state elections. Since then challenges to safe, legal abortion have mounted at a rapid clip.
In some places, abortion restrictions have in fact made abortion harder to access. These restrictions fall especially hard on people with low incomes, for whom the cost of transportation, childcare, and taking time off work often combine to put abortion access out of reach.
Blogs About Abortion
Anti-abortion Members of Congress Proposing Nationwide Six-Week Ban
The Supreme Court plans to end the constitutional right to abortion — taking away our power to control our own bodies — and politicians aim to outlaw abortion across the United States, no matter where you live. We're fighting back.
Our Fears Confirmed: The Supreme Court Plans to Overturn Roe v. Wade
Abortion is still legal. It's still your right. But the Supreme Court is prepared to end your constitutional right to abortion.
Abortion Bans and Restrictions Mount in States Across the Country Just 2 Months Into 2022
Emboldened by a Supreme Court decision that could end the constitutional right to abortion this spring, politicians opposed to abortion rights have wasted no time advancing laws to harshly restrict abortion or ban it entirely.
Defend the Right to Abortion
With an extreme abortion ban in now in effect in Texas, politicians, neighbors, and even complete strangers can sue anyone who helps a person access an abortion in Texas after six weeks.
This is a red-alert moment for sexual and reproductive rights. And that's why we need your help.
Planned Parenthood is proud to provide safe, legal abortion at health centers around the country.
We believe you deserve accurate information, and access to the full range of reproductive health care services, including safe, legal abortion — so you can make your own, fully informed health-care decisions.
Abortion Access: Timeline of Attacks
2009–2021
Here are key attacks on abortion providers and abortion rights in the past decade.
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2009: Dr. George Tiller, an abortion provider, is assassinated while attending church in Kansas
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2010: Swept up by hostility to health-care legislation, anti-abortion politicians win elections to Congress and state legislatures — and then use gerrymandering and voting restrictions to entrench themselves in office.
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2011: Thirty-six states enact a then-record 92 new abortion restrictions.
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2012: Nineteen states enact 43 new abortion restrictions.
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2013: Ignoring mass protests, anti-abortion Texas politicians enact sweeping abortion restrictions. In the following three years, half of Texas's approximately 40 abortion providers close, leaving many people to travel hundreds of miles or cross states lines to get an abortion
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2014: Fifteen states enact 26 new abortion restrictions, including two bans on abortion at 20 weeks of pregnancy — bringing the total of states enacting 20-week abortion bans to 13.
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2015: Anti-abortion extremists linked to the group that killed Dr. Tiller release misleading, deceptive smear videos to demonize abortion providers and smear Planned Parenthood.
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2016: Anti-abortion Justice Antonin Scalia dies, setting up a fight for the future of the U.S. Supreme Court. In an unprecedented step, anti-abortion Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell refuses to start the confirmation process to fill the vacancy. Then, despite running close to 3 million votes behind his opponent, Donald Trump wins enough electoral votes to become president-elect.
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2017: Trump attacks abortion access — and swiftly moves on his promise to name judges who would “automatically” overturn Roe v. Wade.
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2018: Trump appoints — and the Senate confirms — a second anti-abortion Supreme Court justice, Brett Kavanaugh.
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2019: The Trump-Pence administration issues a Title X gag rule in an attempt to ban providers in the Title X program from telling millions of patients how they can safely and legally access abortion — and “defund” Planned Parenthood health centers by making it impossible for Title X patients to obtain birth control there.
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2020: Some anti-abortion politicians seized on the COVID-19 pandemic to try to impose abortion bans. See the timeline of the new coronavirus-based abortion bans and our fight against them.
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2021: In one of the most extreme abortion bans this country has ever seen, politicians, neighbors, and even complete strangers can sue anyone who helps a person access an abortion in Texas after six weeks. Learn more about this full-scale assault on abortion access.