Advanced Practice Clinicians Providing Abortion Care

April 8, 2026

This fact sheet was written by Kimya Forouzan. It was edited by Ian Lague.

Advanced practice clinicians (APCs) include physician assistants (PAs), advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs), nurse practitioners (NPs), certified midwives (CMs) and certified nurse midwives (CNMs). In recent decades, some states have expanded the types of health care providers who are able to provide abortion care to include advanced practice clinicians, in addition to physicians. While some states permit APCs to provide abortion care, others explicitly bar them from providing abortion care, limiting the practice only to physicians.

In the context of this resource, “providing” abortion care means prescribing medication abortion or directly performing procedural abortions. While in some states advanced practice clinicians are not able to provide abortion care in all these ways, they are still often integral to the medical teams providing this care.

Some states impose legal limits on the types of abortion care that advanced practice clinicians can provide, while others defer to professional scopes of practice for these clinicians. For example, some states place limits on the gestational duration at which advanced practice clinicians may provide care. Others may limit the care that advanced practice clinicians can provide to medication abortion or aspiration abortion. Additionally, some state laws or professional licensing boards may set parameters on general care provision by these advanced practice clinicians, which is not included in the scope of the table below.

Highlights

25 states permit advanced practice clinicians to provide abortion care.
- 18 of those states place limits on the types of abortion care that can be provided.
26 states explicitly bar advanced practice clinicians from providing abortion care.
All 13 of the states that have total abortion bans also explicitly bar advanced practice clinicians from providing abortion care. In these states, abortion care is provided only under very limited exceptions.

Current Policy Status Table

Advanced Practice Clinicians Providing Abortion Care
Jurisdiction	Permitted to provide abortion care			Limits on care that APCs can provide	Explicitly bars APCs from providing abortion care
Jurisdiction	Physician assistants	Advanced practice registered nurses/Nurse practitioners	Certified Midwives/Certified Nurse Midwives	Limits on care that APCs can provide	Explicitly bars APCs from providing abortion care
Alabama (total ban)					X
Alaska	X	X		X (limited to medication and aspiration abortion)
Arizona					X
Arkansas (total ban)					X
California	X	X	X	X (limited to medication abortion and aspiration abortion in the first trimester)
Colorado*	X	X	X	X (must be within APC’s scope of practice)
Connecticut	X	X	X	X (limited to medication and aspiration abortion)
Delaware	X	X	X	X (PAs may provide procedural abortion care in collaboration with a physician; NPs and CNMs must complete specialized training for procedural / medication abortion; PAs and APRNs may prescribe medication abortion)
District of Columbia*	X	X	X	X (must be within APC’s scope of practice)
Florida					X
Georgia					X
Hawaii	X	X		X (limited to medication abortion or aspiration abortion in the first trimester)
Idaho (total ban)					X
Illinois	X	X		X (limited to medication abortion or aspiration abortion that does not require general anesthesia)
Indiana (total ban)					X
Iowa					X
Kansas					X
Kentucky (total ban)					X
Louisiana (total ban)					X
Maine	X	X
Maryland	X	X	X	X (must be within scope of APC's license or certification)
Massachusetts	X	X	X	X (limited to pregnancies of less than 24 weeks, per the state's gestational duration ban; abortions provided under exceptions to that ban can be provided only by a physician)
Michigan	X	X	X
Minnesota	X	X	X
Mississippi (total ban)					X
Missouri					X
Montana	X	X	X	X (limited to “early abortion”)
Nebraska					X
Nevada					X
New Hampshire	X	X
New Jersey	X	X	X	X (limited to the first 14 weeks of pregnancy; CNMs and CMs are required to have specific certifications for procedural abortion)
New Mexico		X		X (limited to medication abortion)
New York	X	X	X
North Carolina	X	X	X
North Dakota (total ban)					X
Ohio	X	X	X	X (limited to medication abortion)
Oklahoma (total ban)					X
Oregon*	X	X	X	X (must be within APC’s scope of practice)
Pennsylvania					X
Rhode Island	X	X	X	X (must be within APC’s scope of practice and limited to medication abortion)
South Carolina					X
South Dakota (total ban)					X
Tennessee (total ban)					X
Texas (total ban)					X
Utah					X
Vermont	X	X	X	X (must be within APC’s scope of practice)
Virginia		X		X (limited to first trimester)
Washington †	X	X
West Virginia (total ban)					X
Wisconsin					X
Wyoming					X
Total	23	25	17	18	26

*There are no laws in Colorado, DC and Oregon restricting advanced practice clinicians from providing abortion care. APCs in these states may be able to provide this care if it aligns with their professional guidelines and obligations.

† Washington also permits other health care providers who are acting within their scope of practice to provide abortion care.

Suggested citation: Guttmacher Institute, Advanced practice clinicians providing abortion care, State Laws and Policies (as of April 2026), 2026, https://www.guttmacher.org/state-policy/explore/advanced-practice-clinicians-providing-abortion-care.