U.S. Abortion Laws by State

Illegal

Alabama

 Alabama is enforcing its total abortion ban.

State Legal Details

Bans in Effect

  • Gestational Ban, 22-week LMP
  • Gestational Ban, Total Ban
  • Gestational Ban, Viability
  • Telemedicine Ban

Bans Enjoined

  • Method Ban

Restrictions in Effect

  • Biased Counseling Requirement
  • Fetal Personhood
  • Mandatory Ultrasound Requirement
  • Parental Involvement, Parental Consent Requirement
  • TRAP Requirements: Facilities, Facility Requirements
  • TRAP requirements: Providers, Reporting Requirement
  • Waiting Period Requirement

Restrictions

On June 24, 2022, Alabama began enforcing its total abortion ban, which prohibits abortion at  all stages of pregnancy1, following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade in the case Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.2

Alabama has not repealed other laws relating to abortion. It retains gestational bans at twenty weeks post-fertilization and at viability.3 The state prohibits D&X procedures and D&E procedures.4 Alabama law still requires pregnant people to undergo a mandatory forty-eight-hour waiting period, biased counseling, and an ultrasound.5 Alabama prohibits public funding 6 and private insurance coverage of abortion.7 The state still requires that a parent, legal guardian,8 or judge9 consent to a minor’s abortion.

In 2020, Alabama exploited the COVID-19 pandemic in an attempt to ban abortion care, issuing an executive order10 that purported to suspend procedures deemed “elective” by the state. This order contradicted major medical groups in the United States and around the world, which agree that abortion is essential and time sensitive health care.11 The U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama, Northern Division enjoined the order,12 and the Eleventh District Court of Appeals dismissed the State’s appeal.13

Alabama retains targeted regulation of abortion providers (TRAP) laws relating to facilities,14 unenforceable admitting privileges,15 and reporting.16 Alabama still restricts the provision of abortion care to licensed physicians.17 restricts providers from using telemedicine for the provision of abortion care.18 Providers who violate Alabama’s abortion restrictions may face civil and criminal penalties.19

State Protections

Alabama law does not include express constitutional or statutory protections for abortion. To the contrary, state constitution declares that the state “acknowledges, declares, and affirms that it is the public policy of this state to recognize and support the sanctity of unborn life and the rights of unborn children, including the right to life.”20

Post-Roe Prohibitions

Alabama has a pre-Roe ban.21 Abortion providers sued the Attorney General of Alabama after he declared that it is a violation of state law to assist or facilitate abortion care outside of Alabama. 22 In a 2024 order, the federal district court allowed the case to continue: “Alabama can no more restrict people from going to, say, California to engage in what is lawful there than California can restrict people from coming to Alabama to do what is lawful here.” 23

Conclusion

Now that the Supreme Court has overturned Roe, Alabama is enforcing its total abortion ban.1

  1. Ala. Code u00a7 26-23H-4. Robinson v. Marshall, 2022 WL 2314402 (M.D. Ala. Jun. 24, 2022) (order lifting preliminary injunction). ↩︎
  2. Dobbs v. Jackson Womenu2019s Health Org., 597 U.S 215 (2022), revu2019du00a0Dobbs v. Jackson Womenu2019s Health Org., 945 F.3d 265, 274 (5th Cir. 2019). ↩︎
  3. ALA. CODE u00a7u00a7 26-23B-5, 26-22-3. ↩︎
  4. Id. u00a7 26-23-3; id. u00a7 26-23G-3. See also W. Ala. Womenu2019s Ctr. v. Williamson, 900 F.3d 1310 (11th Cir. 2018), (permanently enjoining D&E ban) abrogated by Dobbs v. Jackson Womenu2019s Health Org., 597 U.S 215 (2022). ↩︎
  5. ALA. CODE u00a7 26-23A-4. ↩︎
  6. ALA. ADMIN. CODE r. 560-X-6-.09(1). ↩︎
  7. ALA. CODE u00a7 26-23C-3. ↩︎
  8. Id. u00a7 26-21-3(a). ↩︎
  9. Id. u00a7 26-21-3(d). ↩︎
  10. State Health Officer Scott Harris, Order of the State Health Officer Suspending Certain Public Gatherings Due to Risk of Infection by COVID-19 Amended, sec. 7 (Mar. 27, 2020) (https://governor.alabama.gov/assets/2020/03/Amended-Statewide-Social-Distancing-SHO-Order-3.27.2020-FINAL.pdf) (postponing “all dental, medical, or surgical procedures,” except those: “necessary to treat an emergency medical condition” and those “necessary to avoid serious harm from an underlying condition or disease, or necessary as part of a patient’s ongoing and active treatment.”). ↩︎
  11. See Joint Statement on Abortion Access During the COVID-19 Outbreak, Am. Coll. Obstetrics & Gynecologists (Mar. 18, 2020), https://www.acog.org/news/news-releases/2020/03/joint-statement-on-abortion-access-during-the-covid-19-outbreak; see also Disaster Risk Management for Health: Sexual and Reproductive Health, World Health Org. (May 5, 2011), https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/disaster-risk-management-for-health-sexual-and-reproductive-health.; Safe Abortion Care in the Minimum Initial Service Package (MISP) for Sexual and Reproductive Health in Humanitarian Settings, Inter-Agency Working Grp. (Dec. 19, 2019), https://iawg.net/resources/safe-abortion-care-in-the-minimum-initial-service-package-misp-for-sexual-and-reproductive-health-in-humanitarian-settings. ↩︎
  12. Robinson v. Marshall, No. 2:19CV365-MHT, 2020 WL 1847128 (M.D. Ala. Apr. 12, 2020). ↩︎
  13. Robinson v. Harris, No. 20-11401-W, 2020 WL 3989457 (11th Cir. May 5, 2020). ↩︎
  14. ALA. CODE u00a7 26-23E-9; ALA. ADMIN. CODE r. 420-5-1-.01 et seq. ↩︎
  15. ALA. CODE u00a7 26u201323Eu20134(c), invalidated by Planned Parenthood Se., Inc. v. Strange, 172 F. Supp. 3d 1275, 1278 (M.D. Ala. 2016). ↩︎
  16. ALA. CODE u00a7 22-9A-13. ↩︎
  17. Id. u00a7 26-23A-7. ↩︎
  18. Id. u00a7 26-23E-7. ↩︎
  19. See, e.g., Ala. Code u00a7u00a7 26-23A-9, 26-23H-6 ↩︎
  20. ALA. CONST. art. I, u00a7 36.06. ↩︎
  21. ALA. CODE u00a7 13A-13-7. ↩︎
  22. Yellowhammer Fund v. Att’y Gen. of Alabama, No. 2:23CV450-MHT (M.D. Ala. May 6, 2024). ↩︎
  23. Id. at 23. ↩︎
  24. Ala. Code u00a7 26-23H-4. Robinson v. Marshall, 2022 WL 2314402 (M.D. Ala. Jun. 24, 2022) (order lifting preliminary injunction). ↩︎