by Ashley Kurzweil and Katherine Gallagher Robbins
Three years later, the Supreme Court’s decision to eliminate the federal constitutional right to abortion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization continues to undermine women and birthing people’s reproductive freedom, erode their economic security, and endanger their health and lives. Policies across the country that ban abortion and threaten to criminalize pregnant people for their reproductive health decisions expose abortion patients to health risks, pregnancy surveillance, and potential prosecution.
New National Partnership for Women & Families analysis shows that three years after Dobbs, more than 31 million women of reproductive age live in the 22 states where abortion is banned or under threat – 41 percent of all reproductive-age women in the United States. More than 14 million women of color live in these states. Black women are especially likely to live in states where abortion is banned or under threat – more than half (54 percent) of Black women in the U.S. live in these 22 states.
We also find that more than 21 million women of reproductive age live in states where legislators have proposed bills that would criminalize people for having an abortion – 28 percent of U.S. women. Black women are especially impacted, with one-third of all Black women in the U.S. living in these 13 states.
Abortion access across states remains chaotically in flux post-Dobbs – with state courts weighing in on the constitutionality of bans; Republican state legislators angling to enact horrifying measures to criminalize people who have an abortion and those who help them; voters in red, blue, and purple states passing ballot measures to secure reproductive rights protections; and clinic closures and provider shortages undercutting abortion access even in states where it is legal or nominally available via narrow exceptions. Despite the ever-changing access landscape, it is clear that anti-abortion policies are harming millions and growing more extreme.
We find that of the women of reproductive age in the 22 states where abortion is banned or under threat:
- 9.9 million are women who are economically insecure;
- 13.4 million are mothers with children under 18 at home;
- 2.7 million are disabled women;
- 345,000 are veterans; and
- 2.6 million women live in a rural area.
14.3 million reproductive-age women of color live in these 22 states, including:
- 6.2 million Latinas—the largest group of women of color living in these states;
- 5.5 million Black women;
- 272,000 American Indian/Alaska Native women;
- 1.2 million Asian American, Native Hawaiian, or Pacific Islander women; and
- 3.6 million multiracial women.
While people from all communities are harmed by abortion bans, we find that Black women, women who live in rural areas, women veterans, and women who are economically insecure are especially likely to live in these states.
Over the last three years, thousands of women have not been able to get the abortion care they sought, with dire consequences for their lives and well-being. In particular, pregnant people living in states where abortion is banned or under threat face severe health risks, from harrowing delays in emergency abortion provision to fatal denials of care. Many have been forced to continue pregnancies that are nonviable or put their own lives in jeopardy. Abortion bans have stripped pregnant people of bodily autonomy, caused irrevocable health complications and fertility loss, and led to tragic and preventable deaths.
Banning abortion makes pregnancy more dangerous, and women and birthing people are experiencing a horrifying health crisis post-Dobbs. As abortion bans intersect with abiding structural racism to exacerbate the ongoing maternal health crisis, health outcomes have worsened. Black women are more likely to experience adverse health outcomes as they face higher rates of maternal mortality and morbidity and disproportionately live in states where abortion is banned or under threat. Research shows that women of color who lived in states that ban abortion were significantly more likely to die during pregnancy, while giving birth, or soon after the birth of their child, compared to those who lived in states where abortion care was legal and accessible.
Post-Dobbs Criminalization Risks
Layered onto confusion about the legality of abortion care, logistical barriers to access, and the perils of delays and denials, pregnant people face heightened risks of criminalization three years post-Dobbs. Republican state lawmakers in 13 states introduced bills during this year’s legislative session that would bring homicide charges against people who have an abortion. In several of these states, pregnant people could be subject to the death penalty if the bills were to become law.
Among the more than 21 million women of reproductive age from various communities that live in states with these extreme proposals, it’s no coincidence that 9.4 million are women of color and 6.7 million are women who are economically insecure. These measures are designed to control women and their communities by policing their reproduction, especially communities of color and white people with low incomes. Abortion criminalization policies are tactics of white supremacy – emboldening state-sanctioned surveillance and prosecution of women of color and compelling more white women to have children in support of pronatalist population growth goals.
The so-called “abortion abolitionists” pushing for “fetal personhood” and criminalizing people who have abortions as murderers have moved from the fringes towards the center of the anti-abortion movement three years post-Dobbs. While these bills have not yet passed, their proposal alone instills a deep fear of surveillance and criminalization among pregnant people – deterring them from getting the care they need, isolating them from their communities and support systems, and exacerbating mistrust between them and their doctors. This is especially threatening for women of color, who are already more likely to be over-surveilled and over-policed. National Partnership analysis disturbingly shows that Black women are especially likely to live in states with bills to criminalize abortion patients; one-third of Black women live in these 13 states.
Even without these policies in effect, state authorities may already be able to weaponize abortion bans, “personhood” laws that grant fetuses legal rights and protections, and a range of other criminal statues (such as those for child abuse and endangerment, murder and homicide, and fetal harm) to investigate and prosecute people for their reproductive health decisions and pregnancy outcomes. Low-income women, Black women, and brown women are disproportionately subjected to criminal proceedings arising from their pregnancies. Taken together with a string of post-Dobbs lawsuits, investigations, and charges related to abortion, these risks intensify concerns among pregnant people regarding reproductive health surveillance, data privacy, and pregnancy criminalization.
New Abortion Protections Post-Dobbs
Despite the attacks on reproductive freedom sweeping the country, people continue fighting for abortion access protections. In five states where abortion was previously banned or likely to be banned, ballot measures and state court rulings yielded new reproductive rights protections. Since Dobbs, state courts in Wisconsin and Montana issued rulings protecting abortion access and blocking bans. Furthermore, voters mobilized to secure reproductive rights protections in their state constitutions in Arizona, Ohio, Montana, and Missouri. However, in spite of the new state constitutional amendment in Missouri, the state supreme court recently allowed the state’s trigger ban to go into effect (blocking access to abortion), and the state legislature proposed its own constitutional amendment banning abortion.
National Partnership for Women & Families analysis shows that 5.7 million women of reproductive age live in the four states (Arizona, Montana, Ohio, and Wisconsin) that have new abortion protections from this last year in effect, including 1.9 million women of color. American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) women have especially seen gains due to the new protections, particularly in Arizona and Montana where AIAN women are larger shares of the population. Fourteen percent of all AIAN women of reproductive age gained abortion protections in the last year – roughly one out of every seven AIAN women in the U.S.
Advancing abortion access through ballot initiatives is only possible due to the hard work and strategic planning of state-level organizers who mobilize under difficult circumstances, including voter suppression, administrative and logistical barriers, and well-funded opposition. Women of color are often key to these efforts—leading grassroots organizing, policy advocacy, and community education in their states. For example, AIAN women and Latina organizers worked to spur turnout in their communities and were key to securing the ballot victory in Arizona, and Black women organizers led a robust field program in Ohio that helped clinch the win.
Three years post-Dobbs, we remain clear-eyed about the threats to abortion access from the Trump administration, Republican legislators, and the courts. We know they will stop at nothing to take away reproductive freedom and endanger the lives and well-being of millions, and we know how to fight back. We call on state and federal policymakers to do everything in their power to protect and expand abortion access. It is critical that we not only address the urgent harms and broken elements of our systems but also reimagine new policies that center the people who are most affected by abortion restrictions and reproductive oppression.
Note: This analysis has been updated to reflect a proposal in Ohio to criminalize abortion patients that was introduced on June 18, 2025.
Methodological note
In our analysis, a state in which abortion is banned or under threat meets at least one of the following criteria: (1) there is a “trigger” ban that took effect post-Dobbs; (2) it has gestational limits banning abortion between six and twenty weeks; or (3) there is an abortion ban with legal challenges pending in state courts. As of the publication date of this analysis, these states are Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, and Wyoming. See After Roe Fell: Abortion Laws by State. Additionally, in our analysis, states with bills to criminalize abortion patients are those in which state legislators have proposed legislation during this past legislative session that would bring homicide charges against people who have an abortion. As of the publication date of this analysis, these states are Alabama, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Texas.
This impact analysis uses the 2019-2023 American Community Survey accessed via IPUMS USA, University of Minnesota. We use a five-year dataset to have a sufficient sample size to analyze state-level data. While people of many ages can become pregnant, in this analysis we use ages 15-49 through this analysis to align with the Guttmacher Institute, the World Health Organization, and others. Racial categories in this analysis include women who identify as Latina and/or Hispanic and Latinas may be of any race. People are identified as having a disability in this analysis if they responded that they have difficulty in one or more of the following six realms: vision, hearing, cognitive, ambulatory, self-care, and independent living. People may have multiple disabilities. This is a limited definition of disability that excludes a portion of disabled people. For more information on how disability is measured in the American Community Survey please see the U.S. Census Bureau’s report How Disability Data are Collected from The American Community Survey. While people across the income spectrum may have difficulty making ends meet, in this analysis we define “economically insecure” as living in a family below 200 percent of the federal poverty line. Women are defined as living in “rural” areas if they live outside of metropolitan areas. Women in this analysis are especially unlikely to rely on Medicaid because states in which abortion is banned or under threat are also less likely to have expanded Medicaid. This analysis defines “mother” as having at least one own child (including step, adopted, or biological) under the age of 18 in the household. Due to data limitations, there are mothers who are not included in this definition, including those who have non-resident or older children or those whose children have passed away. Not all women of reproductive age have the potential to become pregnant—many of them may not be able to for medical reasons or they may not participate in sexual activities that could result in pregnancy.
Due to data limitations, this analysis does not include people who do not identify as women but may become pregnant, including transgender men and nonbinary people. The 1.6 million transgender people 13 and older and 1.2 million LGBTQ nonbinary people age 18-60 in the U.S. are deeply impacted by Dobbs. Many transgender and nonbinary people can become pregnant and are directly impacted by this ruling. The harms are more severe for transgender and nonbinary people of color, those who are disabled, and others who are members of multiply marginalized communities. The transgender and nonbinary communities are not mutually exclusive.
The authors are grateful to Lorena Bonet Velazquez, Jaclyn Dean, Marla Guerra, Mettabel Law, and Erin Mackay for their review and thoughtful contributions.
