After Roe Fell: U.S. Abortion Laws by State

Protected

Alaska

Abortion will remain legal in Alaska. In 1997, the state’s highest court recognized a fundamental right to “reproductive choice” under the Alaska Constitution.

State Legal Details

Bans Enjoined

  • Method Ban

Restrictions in Effect

  • TRAP Requirements: Facilities, Facility Requirements
  • TRAP requirements: Providers, Reporting Requirement

Restrictions

Alaska law prohibits D&X procedures, but that ban is permanently enjoined.1 Alaska law includes an unenforced, unconstitutional parental involvement requirement.2

In 2020, Alaska exploited the COVID-19 pandemic in an attempt to ban procedural abortion care, issuing an executive order3 that purported to suspend procedures deemed “non-essential or elective.” 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.4 Less than a week after issuing the order, Governor Mike Dunleavy decided non-essential or elective medical procedures could resume.5

Alaska’s targeted regulation of abortion providers (TRAP) laws include requirements related to facilities6 and reporting.7 Reporting requirements related to minors’ abortions were held unconstitutional.8 Alaska law restricts the provision of abortion care to licensed physicians.9

State Protections

Alaska law includes constitutional protections for abortion. The Alaska Supreme Court has interpreted the privacy provision found in the state’s constitution to protect a pregnant person’s right to make reproductive decisions, including abortion, as a fundamental right, and more protective than the U.S. Constitution.10 The Alaska Supreme Court has also found that limits on public funding for abortion were unconstitutional under the state equal protection clause.11

Post-Roe Prohibitions

Alaska does not have a pre-Roe ban, because certain abortions were legalized before Roe.12

Conclusion

Now that the Supreme Court has overturned Roe, Abortion will remain legal in Alaska. In 1997, the state’s highest court recognized a fundamental right to “reproductive choice” under the Alaska Constitution.

  1. ALASKA STAT. u00a7 18.16.050. Planned Parenthood of Alaska, Inc. v. State, No. 3AN-97-6019 CIV (Alaska Super. Ct. Mar. 13, 1998), appeal withdrawn, No. S-08610 (Alaska June 29, 2000). ↩︎
  2. Planned Parenthood of The Great Nw. v. State, 375 P.3d 1122 (Alaska 2016) (striking down as unconstitutional ALASKA STAT. u00a7 18.16.010-040); see also State v. Planned Parenthood of Alaska, 171 P.3d 577, 585 (Alaska 2007). ↩︎
  3. Gov. Mike Dunleavy, Amended COVID-19 Health Mandate 5.1 (Apr. 7, 2020), Amended COVID-19 Health Mandate; Gov. Mike Dunleavy, COVID-19 Health Mandate 005, Attachment C (April 7, 2020), Non-Urgent or Elective Procedures and Surgeries ↩︎
  4. See Joint Statement on Abortion Access During the COVID-19 Outbreak, AM. COLL. OBSTETRICS & GYNECOLOGY (Mar. 18, 2020); Disaster Risk Management for Health: Sexual and Reproductive Health, WORLD HEALTH ORG. (May 2011); Safe Abortion Care in the Minimum Initial Service Package (MISP) for Sexual and Reproductive Health in Humanitarian Settings, INTERAGENCY WORKING GRP. (Dec. 19, 2019) ↩︎
  5. Dennis Carter, Abortion Access During COVID-19, State by State, Rewire News Grp. (Apr. 14, 2020, 3:55 PM) ↩︎
  6. ALASKA STAT. u00a7 18.16.010(a)(2); ALASKA ADMIN. CODE tit. 7, u00a7 12.370. ↩︎
  7. ALASKA STAT. u00a7 18.50.245(b). ↩︎
  8. Planned Parenthood of The Great Nw., 375 P.3d at 1145 (striking down as unconstitutional ALASKA STAT. u00a7 18.16.040). ↩︎
  9. ALASKA STAT. u00a7 18.16.010(a)(1). ↩︎
  10. Planned Parenthood of The Great Nw., 375 P.3d at 1129 (Alaska 2016) (“In 1997 we examined this express privacy provision in the context of pregnancy-related decisions and held that a woman’s fundamental privacy right to reproductive choice is more broadly protected by the Alaska Constitution than the United States Constitution”) (citing to Valley Hosp. Ass’n, Inc. v. Mat-Su Coal. for Choice, 948 P.2d 966-69 (Alaska 1997)). ↩︎
  11. ALASKA ADMIN. CODE tit. 7, u00a7 43.140, invalidated by State, Dept. of Health & Soc. Servs. v. Planned Parenthood of Alaska, Inc., 28 P.3d 904, 915 (Alaska 2001) (repealed 2010); see also ALASKA STAT. u00a7 47.07.068, invalidated by State v. Planned Parenthood of the Great Nw., 436 P.3d 984 (Alaska 2019). ↩︎
  12. 1970 Alaska Sess. Laws ch. 103, u00a7 1 (former ALASKA STAT. u00a7 11.15.060(a)(1)-(2)). ↩︎