An incredible variety of policies have been implemented which affect women seeking abortions. In fact, the variety of laws that exist is staggering, to include all state laws would be a tremendous task, so lets examine the trends. The most common policy adopted by the states is that health care facilities can turn down women seeking abortions. Of the 43 states which have this type of policy, 16 have limited the scope of this to only private and religious facilities. Also, 36 states limit late-term abortions, while only 14 have adopted partial-birth abortion bans. It is important to note that almost all limits on abortion include exceptions for cases of rape, incest, and to save the mother. The next most commonly found policy also deals with the rights of health care providers. 39 states have laws which require a physician to perform an abortion. Similarly, nineteen states force hospitals to seek a second opinion from another physician and eighteen states require abortions to be performed in hospitals. Continuing with policies that deter women from having abortions, 35 states require that the parents of a minor seeking an abortion must be notified; 22 states require parental consent. Some states now force hospitals to distribute information, most commonly pamphlets about other options available. Nearly half of all the states require women to wait roughly 24 hours before a doctor is allowed to perform an abortion. One of the most heated areas of abortion policy is funding. Every state has laws on this hot topic, 32 states prohibit health care providers from using state funds to perform abortions. Seventeen states allow their funds to be used for abortions. South Dakota is the only state which has a total ban, their only exception being to save the mother's life. While using state funds to pay for abortions is a hot topic, only four states prohibit insurance companies from covering abortion.Now that all the different policies adopted by states have been explored, it is important to discuss why these differences exist.
While there are some guaranteed causes for the variety of state policies on abortion, there are even more possible explanations. One guaranteed cause of at least some of the variety is the Supreme Court. In the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling, the federal government trumped all state levels. Several rulings since then have limited how states can regulate abortion. Another reason a variety of laws exist is that many states passed their own laws before the Supreme Court's decision on Roe v. Wade. Another definite cause came about from the medical community's push to regulate abortion practices. Though only a few concrete causes explain variety, many more possible explanations should be considered. One explanation is that differences in the structure of state governments are to blame. While some states have very porous governments, others are structured in a way which limits the involvement of citizens. Another possible explanation is that small groups of people have exploited weak state governments to promote their personal agendas. While this helped women in the U.S. to gain equality, it has also been exploited to create anti-abortion policies. Another explanation worth considering is that public opinion shapes state law. In many cases public opinion is that abortion should remain legal, but it is also sensible to discourage abortions. Under this guise, many laws force women seeking abortions to jump through hoops. If public opinion is to blame for the different policies, then the underlying factor must be political parties. Both parties have utilized public opinion to promote their agendas. It can easily be said that these explanations, while possible, are not likely. Many will simply claim that the large number of states necessarily causes the variety of laws. Along the same lines, another simple explanation that is very likely is that that different states desire to have their government function in different ways. Considering that almost no two states have the same abortion policies, this explanation seems most obvious. It is clear that the differences in law exist can not be pin-pointed on key thing, it is likely that all are in some way the cause.