 So, abortion. Our mission here is to break down complicated things and help you know enough to solve arguments, make decisions, stay informed, and have the power to be a good citizen. Knowing more doesn't always help with arguments, though. Sometimes the more you know, the more you argue. This is probably one of those topics, but it's a complicated legal issue, so we thought it would help to break down some of the common laws at the national and state level. We're not going to cover the medicine or science around what the different procedures mean or when a fetus can live outside the womb because we're not qualified. You'll also see that many of our sources come from advocacy organizations. We prefer neutral sources, but there aren't a lot out there for this subject, so we focused on picking the facts out of the best sources we could find and reading sources on both sides to be sure nothing was being left out. We did our best to focus on what the laws about abortion are and to leave out anything about whether or not they're a good idea. First, let's talk about the Supreme Court. Abortion is something the Supreme Court has weighed in on several times. You've probably heard of the big case, Roe v. Wade. The Court ruled in 1973 that even though abortion isn't mentioned in the Constitution, a zone of privacy is protected and that zone includes the right for a woman to get an abortion. It's not an unlimited right though because the farther along the woman is in the pregnancy, the less right she has to an abortion. The Court split up the nine months of a pregnancy into thirds, or trimesters in fancy pants language, and each one allows more regulation of abortion. It starts out with the state not being able to regulate abortion very much at all in the first trimester and ends with the state being able to ban most of them except to save the life of the mother or in cases of rape or incest in the third trimester. You still hear about trimesters sometimes, but the Supreme Court actually got rid of the idea in 1992 in a case called Planned Parenthood v. Casey. The new rule was based around viability, or when a fetus can live outside the mother's womb, which might change based on newer medical technology. Before viability, a state can only regulate abortion if the regulation doesn't put too much burden on the woman's rights. After viability though, a state can restrict abortion as much as it wants except it can't ban abortions that protect the health of the mother or in cases of rape or incest. Between those two big changes, the ruling meant that states can pass more laws restricting abortions now than they could under Roe v. Wade. In the abortion cases since then, the Supreme Court hasn't changed its rules, though it has allowed more restrictions on abortion than it used to, sometimes even reversing a previous decision. Some have said that this means maybe the court will remove the protection for abortion or cut it back more if it keeps getting conservative members, which is one reason why the nominations to the court are such a big deal to the political parties. If Roe v. Wade was overturned, the law would go back to what it was in 1972, and some states would totally ban it while other states would allow it with different restrictions. Next, let's talk about the federal laws. There aren't many federal laws about abortion, but a big one is the partial birth abortion ban, passed in 2003 and upheld by the Supreme Court in 2007. This ban is a particular abortion procedure where the fetus is mostly removed from the womb before being aborted, otherwise the fetus would be caught up inside the uterus and then removed. It's important to remember that this is banning a way to do abortions, but many of those fetuses can be aborted in other ways. There's also a federal law keeping protesters from blocking the entrance to an abortion clinic or trying to intimidate people from going inside. And then there's the Hyde Amendment, which sadly is not named after Mr. Hyde from the story and has been a law since 1976. It refers to a budget rule that keeps federal money from going to pay for an abortion except where the mother's health is severely threatened or where rape or incest are involved. It covers any federal health care program or benefit, like Medicare or the children's health insurance subsidy. You may have heard of a big fight over defunding Planned Parenthood, which provides birth control, reproductive health care, and abortions to women. Federal money can't go directly to abortions because of the Hyde Amendment, but many Republicans have argued that any federal funding to Planned Parenthood indirectly helps them perform abortions because they don't have to spend it on other things. This has been voted on several times in Congress in the last few years, but hasn't passed. Finally, President Trump has put out an executive order which prevents any foreign aid from going to international organizations which provide or promote abortions in their educational materials. This is a rule that started with President Reagan and it changes with each new administration depending on whether the president is a Democrat or a Republican. That's some of the key federal laws, now we'll cover the state level, which is actually where most of the laws about abortion come from. The most basic kind of law is how far along to ban abortions. Some states have laws which ban abortion earlier than it seems like the Supreme Court decisions would allow, 20 weeks, which is before a viability. Some of those bans have been stopped by federal courts, but not all of them. But counting those, 21 states ban abortion at 20 weeks, 6 ban it at 24 weeks, 19 ban it at the point of viability, and 7 states, plus DC, don't ban it at all. Another 2 states ban it in the 3rd trimester, so there's a little piece left of Roe v. Wade's trimesters system, blast from the past. Some states don't have all the exceptions where the Supreme Court allows abortions late into the pregnancy, like the life of the mother, rape, or incest. Not having those has also been challenged in federal court. 19 states have their own laws banning partial birth abortions, and on top of this straight up bans, some states have rules for how abortions can be done, how they can be paid for, and what steps the woman has to take beforehand. Some even require it to be performed by two doctors or at a hospital after a certain point in the pregnancy. Some states don't allow tax dollars to pay for abortions, while others only use state tax money when federal tax money is available too. Some states won't even allow regular insurance plans to cover abortion. Most states allow doctors to refuse to do abortions, and some states also allow hospitals and clinics to refuse as well, though usually only for religious reasons. Some states require a woman to get counseling or an ultrasound before they can get an abortion. The counseling covers things like the health risks or how much pain a fetus can feel. There's a need for more studies on whether counseling or ultrasounds actually change anyone's decision, but the research that has been done seems to say that it doesn't, but just delays the abortion or causes the woman to go to a state where it's easier. Over half the states require a waiting period between the initial examination and the abortion. Usually it's 24 hours, but some require 48 or 72 hours. Again, there's not a lot of research on this, but the studies out there don't seem to show that the waiting periods cause many women to change their minds. Over half of states require one or both parents of someone under 18 to give their consent before an abortion, and another 11 require the parent to be notified. Some states have regulations on the hallways and buildings abortion clinics can use, how they can dispense medication, or what agreements they must have with the local hospital. There are fewer abortion clinics now than there were 10 years ago, though the number of clinics is obviously higher in blue states and lower in red states. People disagree about how much of that is caused by regulations and how much is caused by more people using better birth control or other things. Some clinics have been closing in blue states too. So what's the future for abortion laws? Many states have added new or bigger restrictions just since 2010, so the trend for abortion laws lately has been towards restricting it more. On the other hand, the Supreme Court just stopped states from requiring abortion clinics to have facilities and doctors comparable with nearby hospitals, which would have shut down many of the clinics. It's still an area of the law that changes a lot in the states and even at the federal level. Republicans in Congress want to pass more restrictions if they can get the votes. There are fewer abortions happening nationwide now than at any time since Roe v. Wade was decided back in 1973. No one knows why though. It might be the abortions are harder to get, it might be better birth control, it might be more use of things like plan B or it might be something else. If you want to know the laws in your state, you can check one of these sites. And there you have it. As always, sources are in the description. Stay tuned for our next video, which will be a new and improved version of our video on communism, socialism, and fascism.