Abortion is a critical component of reproductive healthcare and a common procedure, with nearly one in four pregnant individuals having an abortion by the age of 45. Since the landmark 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade, which upheld a pregnant individual’s constitutional right to seek an abortion, state legislatures have created a complex patchwork of laws regulating when and how abortion services can be provided, and abortion has since become one of the most highly regulated procedures in the United States. The June 24, 2022, decision in Dobbs v. Jackson overturned the federal protection for pre-viability abortions, allowing states to ban or severely restrict abortion and further dividing access to abortion.

This Collection includes datasets that capture US state laws regulating abortion. Many of the datasets in this Collection were created through a collaboration with subject matter experts from Resources for Abortion Delivery (RAD), Guttmacher Institute, American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR), National Abortion Federation (NAF), and Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA).