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The Abortion in the United States Dashboard is an ongoing research project tracking state abortion policies and litigation following the overturning of Roe v. Wade. It features a continuously-updated map tracking the status of abortion bans across the United States, as well as briefs on topics such as medication abortion, insurance coverage, ballot measures, legal developments, and racial and ethnic disparities. It also offers a jumping off point to the latest national and state-specific abortion policies and statistics. Visit the Dashboard →
This issue brief explains how misinformation about contraceptives and how pregnancy is defined in state abortion bans may impact contraceptive access, and outlines the legal protections some states have established to affirm the right to obtain contraceptives.
A long-awaited new rule recently finalized by the Biden Administration gives LGBTQ+ people more protections against discrimination when seeking health care and coverage from a range of programs and organizations, including Medicaid, Medicare, Health Insurance Marketplaces, many health insurance plans, and most hospitals and providers. The rule has been subject to a wave of litigation across the Obama, Trump, and Biden Administrations and the Biden Administration's new rule reinstates protections eliminated by the Trump Administration.…
This brief overviews the Biden Administration’s 2024 final rule implementing Section 1557 of the ACA, which is home to the law’s major nondiscrimination provisions. It provides a brief background on 1557 rulemaking and identifies key differences between this rule and the 2020 rule from the Trump Administration. It highlights two areas of growing interest impacted by the rule – nondiscrimination protections related to pregnancy and nondiscrimination protections for transgender people. Table 2 summarizes the major…
In a new brief, KFF explores how abortion bans and restrictions in the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s 2022 Dobbs decision can further complicate pregnancy loss. Pregnancy loss, which includes miscarriage and stillbirth, is common, and for many people, it is a physically, mentally, and emotionally taxing experience. The medical interventions used to manage miscarriages and stillbirths are often the same medicines and procedures used in abortions, which means abortion bans and restrictions can end…
This brief examines pregnancy loss management in the Dobbs era and explores how limiting or banning abortion may have negative consequences on people experiencing miscarriage or stillbirth.
This analysis examines the implications of the Dobbs decision and state restrictions on abortion coverage for racial disparities in access to care and health outcomes.
On April 24, the Supreme Court will hear Idaho v. United States—the second case this term involving access to abortion. In a new brief, KFF examines what’s at stake, focusing on whether the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA)—a federal law requiring nearly all hospitals to ensure emergency room patients are stable before they are discharged from hospital care—preempts state abortion laws. The new brief reviews the background on the case and EMTALA,…
On April 24, 2024, the Supreme Court will hear the second case this term involving access to abortion: Idaho v. United States. At stake in this case is whether the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act, a federal law requiring hospitals to provide stabilizing treatment to patients who present to their emergency rooms, preempts state abortion laws and requires hospitals that accept Medicare to provide abortion care when it is necessary to stabilize a…
In a new brief, KFF examines how the Comstock Act, an 1873 anti-vice law banning the mailing of obscene matter and articles, could be used by an anti-abortion presidential administration to sharply restrict the availability of abortion nationwide. The Biden Administration’s Department of Justice has said the Comstock Act should not be interpreted literally with respect to abortion and has not enforced it. However, a future administration opposed to abortion rights could interpret the law…
This brief provides background on the Comstock Act, reviews how it has been interpreted by the Biden Administration’s DOJ, and considers how it could be enforced by an administration that is hostile toward abortion to severely restrict the distribution of drugs and supplies used for abortion, with implications for abortion access in all states across the country.
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