Ohio as a Window Into Recent US Trends on Abortion Access and Restrictions

Abstract / Summary

First published in AJPH on July 8, 2020: 

Since the 1960s, abortion has been a political fault line in the United States. State legislatures have been most active in enacting the vast majority of abortion restrictions, with more than 1200 restrictions enacted since abortion was legalized in 1973. In this issue of AJPH, Norris et al. (p. 1228) provide further evidence of the negative effect of Ohio’s abortion restrictions. In Ohio, restrictions enacted in the past nine years—the state’s most active period of adopting restrictions since legalization—have amplified the effects of already existing abortion restrictions and further affected abortion access.