Next year marks the 40-year-anniversary of the Roe V. Wade Supreme Court ruling that legalized abortion.
A study by Theodore J. Joyce and Ruoding Tan at City University of New York and Yuxiu Zhang at Yale explored what would happen if the famous ruling were overturned.
Roe v. Wade were overturned, legal analysts have determined that abortion would probably be ruled illegal in 31 states. This would increase the average distance an American would have to travel to an abortion clinic to 157 miles.
The researchers were also interested in the topic because there is a significant possibility Roe v. Wade could be reversed:
Since Roe, many states have passed laws that reflect a widespread antipathy towards abortion on demand. These include financing restrictions, parental consent for minors, mandated counseling andwaiting periods, required ultrasounds as well as unnecessary building codes and licensingrequirements for providers. More recent legislative actions have sought a declaration that lifebegins at conception or when a fetal heartbeat is heard. Many analysts believe that the SupremeCourt is but one vote away from overturning Roe.
Overturning the ruling would also result in an increase in the U.S. population, the researchers said:
Under this scenario abortion rates would fall by 14.9 percent nationally, resulting in at most, 178,800 additional births or 4.2 percent of the U.S. total in 2008.
Here's a map showing which states would be projected to ban abortion and the average distance for residents to an abortion clinic:
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