What would happen to abortion access if Roe v. Wade is overturned or weakened: Report
ABC News
The Guttmacher Institute put out a new report on what would happen if Roe, which granted the federal right to abortion, were overturned or weakened.
The Supreme Court has a real opportunity this year to overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark case that made abortion a federally protected right, or otherwise lessen the right to abortion.
The court will be hearing a case out of Mississippi, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, that asks the justices to directly reconsider the landmark precedent in Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, which many court watchers believe is closer to a possibility than ever with the current makeup of the court.
Should the court decide to overturn Roe, the right to abortion in the United States would be decided on a state-by-state basis. In that case, 26 states are "certain or likely" to ban abortion, according to a new report published Thursday by the Guttmacher Institute, a pro-abortion rights research organization.
The domino effect of that in the extreme, according to Guttmacher's report, would be that a person in Louisiana, where abortion would be banned, would have to drive 666 miles, one-way, on average to reach a provider. That's a 1,720% increase from an average Louisianan's current distance from a provider, which is 37 miles.
