The U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the decision which had legalized abortion across the country. This happened while the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the state of Mississippi, which passed an act that prohibits abortions after 15 weeks except in cases of medical emergency. In the opinion, Justice Samuel Alito fundamentally disagreed with the landmark case Roe v. Wade, which declared in 1973 that abortions after around 24 weeks gestation were unconstitutional. ABC News reports that this ruling will allow each state to pass its own abortion laws with several prepared to get rid of women’s abortion rights completely.
In Alaska, courts have interpreted abortion rights as protected under the State Constitution, so the repeal would have no effect. The Alaska Supreme Court recognized a fundamental right to reproductive choice under the Alaska Constitution in 1997. Voters will be asked in the fall if they want to hold a constitutional convention, and conservatives see this as a possibility to roll back abortion rights, according to the Associated Press.
According to an analysis from the Guttmacher Institute, a patient in Alaska must receive state-directed counseling that includes information designed to discourage the patient from having an abortion. The institute also found that, in 2017, 1,260 abortions were provided in Alaska, though not all that happened were provided to state residents – some may have traveled to another state for an abortion. There was a 14% decline in the abortion rate in Alaska between 2014 and 2017, from 10.0 to 8.6 abortions per 1,000 women of reproductive age. Abortions in Alaska represent 0.1% of all abortions in the United States.
According to state statute, consent to an abortion is informed and voluntary when the woman or other person whose consent is required certified in writing that the physician who is to perform an abortion has verbally informed the woman of the name of the physician who will perform the procedure and the gestational estimation of the pregnancy at the time of the abortion is to be performed.
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