Abortion rights

Protesters make their way to the Wisconsin Capitol Rotunda during a march to support overturning Wisconsin's near total ban on abortion on Jan. 22 in Madison, Wis.

Politics & Government

In its first ad of the 2024 cycle, Planned Parenthood pins GOP candidates on abortion

5:54pm August 22, 2023

by Sarah McCammon

As Republicans take the debate stage in Milwaukee, Planned Parenthood is launching ads on social media and streaming services quoting their positions on abortion.

Dr. Austin Dennard at her home in Dallas in May. She is one of 13 patients and two other doctors suing Texas over its abortion bans.

Health & Safety

For one Texas doctor, abortion bans are personal and professional

5:04am August 21, 2023

by Selena Simmons-Duffin

Dr. Austin Dennard is an OB-GYN who is going to give birth very soon. She also had to leave Texas to terminate a previous pregnancy because the fetus had a fatal condition.

A patient prepares to take mifepristone, for a medication abortion. A federal appeals court ruled to impose new restrictions on the drug Wednesday but the ruling will not take effect until the Supreme Court weighs in.

Ruling deals blow to access to abortion pill mifepristone — but nothing changes yet

7:19pm August 16, 2023

A federal appeals court would restrict the use of mifepristone, a pill used in medication abortions. But previous action by the Supreme Court means the status quo holds for now.

Protestors rallied at the Statehouse in Indianapolis on July 25, 2022, in opposition to a bill to ban abortions in Indiana. After a protracted legal fight lasting almost a year, the state's highest court ruled the ban could go into effect as soon as Aug. 1.

After yearlong fight, a near-total abortion ban is going into effect in Indiana

5:00am August 01, 2023

by Morgan Watkins

Indiana's law will bar abortions except in cases of lethal fetal anomaly, rape or incest, or when the woman's life or health are seriously jeopardized. The fallout will be felt across the Midwest.

Samantha Casiano told a Texas courtroom that she should have been able to let her daughter, who had anencephaly, "go to rest sooner."

Health & Safety

Denied abortion for a doomed pregnancy, she tells Texas court: 'There was no mercy'

9:23pm July 19, 2023

by Selena Simmons-Duffin

Women who had complicated and tragic pregnancies are suing Texas over its abortion bans. A hearing had emotional testimony in an Austin courtroom Wednesday. The state wants the case dismissed.

Louie Villasana, who just turned 1, with dad, Luis Fernando Villasana, and mom, Samantha Casiano.

In post-Roe Texas, 2 mothers with traumatic pregnancies walk very different paths

4:00am July 04, 2023

by Selena Simmons-Duffin

The state's abortion bans make no exceptions for fatal fetal anomalies. Two women had devastating pregnancy diagnoses — one could leave the state for an abortion, and the other could not.

Demonstrators protest about abortion outside the Supreme Court in Washington, June 24, 2022. In the year since, approximately 22 million women, girls and other people of reproductive age now live in states where abortion access is heavily restricted or totally inaccessible.

Health & Safety

A year after Dobbs and the end of Roe v. Wade, there's chaos and confusion

6:00am June 24, 2023

by Vanessa Romo

With states empowered to regulate abortion, doctors say they're trapped by vague laws that criminalize care. And ongoing court battles make it hard to keep up with the procedure's legal status.

The Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to abortion on June 24, 2022.

New abortion laws changed their lives. 8 very personal stories

5:00am June 23, 2023

by NPR Staff

After the Supreme Court ruled a year ago to overturn Roe v. Wade, more than a dozen states acted to outlaw abortion or severely restrict access. Here's how those laws affected the lives of residents.

Anna drove 40 minutes from her home to pick up free diapers from Tere Haring at Allied Women's Center in San Antonio. Anna, who is pregnant with her seventh child, says she did consider abortion: "All I could think about — like, I need an abortion because there's no way I can deal with everything going on right now and taking care of all the boys by myself and having another baby."

They tried and failed to get an abortion. Texas family grapples with what it'll mean

4:48pm June 22, 2023

by Katia Riddle

Anna and Tony have six kids and are expecting a seventh. They couldn't afford to travel to where abortion is legal. With few places to turn to for help, they're worried about their family's future.

Queue Listen Now

Abortion access in the U.S., 2013 vs. 2023: The number of Americans who live more than 200 miles from a clinic or hospital that provides abortion dramatically grew in the past decade.

Health & Safety

How many miles do you have to travel to get abortion care? One professor maps it

5:26pm June 21, 2023

An economics professor at Middlebury College and her undergrad research assistants have been tracking access to abortion care since 2009. These maps show the dramatic changes in the past decade.