Abortion in Vermont is legal in all stages of pregnancy. A 2014

Pew Research Center The Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan American think tank (referring to itself as a "fact tank") based in Washington, D.C. It provides information on social issues, public opinion, and demographic trends shaping the United States and the w ...

poll showed 70% of adults in the state believed abortion should be legal in most or all cases, the second highest percentage in the country. The state funds abortions deemed medically necessary for low-income women via

Medicaid Medicaid in the United States is a federal and state program that helps with healthcare costs for some people with limited income and resources. Medicaid also offers benefits not normally covered by Medicare, including nursing home care and pers ...

. In November 2022, voters overwhelmingly passed ''Proposal 5'', the Reproductive Liberty Amendment, becoming one of the first three states, along with

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

and

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

, to amend their constitutions to explicitly include protections for abortion rights.

History

Legislative history

By the end of the 1800s, all states in the Union except Louisiana had medical exceptions in their legislative bans on abortions. In the 19th century, bans on abortion by state legislatures were largely about protecting the life of the mother given the number of deaths caused by abortions; state governments saw themselves as looking out for the lives of their citizens. As of 2013, California, Oregon, Montana, Vermont, and New Hampshire allow qualified non-physician health professionals, such as physicians' assistants,

nurse practitioners A nurse practitioner (NP) is an advanced practice registered nurse and a type of mid-level practitioner. NPs are trained to assess patient needs, order and interpret diagnostic and laboratory tests, diagnose disease, formulate and prescribe ...

, and certified nurse

midwives A midwife is a health professional who cares for mothers and newborns around childbirth, a specialization known as midwifery. The education and training for a midwife concentrates extensively on the care of women throughout their lifespan; co ...

, to do first-trimester aspiration abortions and to prescribe drugs for

medical abortion A medical abortion, also known as medication abortion, occurs when drugs (medication) are used to bring about an abortion. Medical abortions are an alternative to surgical abortions such as vacuum aspiration or dilation and curettage. Medical ...

s. In February 2019, Vermont House Human Services and Judiciary committees held public hearings about abortion in relation to H.57, a bill to establish reproductive rights in state law. ''Proposal 5'', the Reproductive Liberty Amendment, an amendment to the state constitution to codify abortion rights, was passed by the state senate. Receiving endorsements from Republican Governor

Phil Scott Philip Brian Scott (born August 4, 1958) is an American politician, businessman and stock car racer who has served as the 82nd governor of Vermont since 2017. A member of the Republican Party, he was elected governor in the 2016 general electi ...

Planned Parenthood The Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Inc. (PPFA), or simply Planned Parenthood, is a nonprofit organization that provides reproductive health care in the United States and globally. It is a tax-exempt corporation under Internal Reve ...

, and

ACLU The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1920 "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States". T ...

Vermont, the amendment went before voters in November 2022 and overwhelmingly passed, with about 77% voting in favor. {{Cite web , date=2022-11-09 , title=Vermont Conversation: The abortion election and male allies , url=https://vtdigger.org/2022/11/09/vermont-conversation-the-abortion-election-and-male-allies/ , access-date=2022-11-10 , website=VTDigger

Amendment text

{{blockquote, Personal reproductive liberty
That an individual’s right to personal reproductive autonomy is central to the liberty and dignity to determine one’s own life course and shall not be denied or infringed unless justified by a compelling State interest achieved by the least restrictive means., sign=, source=Chapter 1, Article 22 of the

Vermont Constitution The Constitution of the State of Vermont is the fundamental body of law of the U.S. state of Vermont, describing and framing its government. It was adopted in 1793 following Vermont's admission to the Union in 1791 and is largely based upon the ...

Judicial history

In 1972, the

Vermont Supreme Court The Vermont Supreme Court is the highest judicial authority of the U.S. state of Vermont. Unlike most other states, the Vermont Supreme Court hears appeals directly from the trial courts, as Vermont has no intermediate appeals court. The Court ...

issued a ruling that effectively ended abortion restrictions in the state. The

US Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point of ...

's decision in 1973's ''

Roe v. Wade ''Roe v. Wade'', 410 U.S. 113 (1973),. was a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in which the Court ruled that the Constitution of the United States conferred the right to have an abortion. The decision struck down many federal and s ...

'' meant the state could no longer regulate abortion in the first trimester. The Supreme Court overturned ''

'' in ''

Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization ''Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization'', , is a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in which the court held that the Constitution of the United States does not confer a right to abortion. The court's decision overruled both ''R ...

'' in 2022, returning the matter to the states.{{cite web , url = https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/24/politics/dobbs-mississippi-supreme-court-abortion-roe-wade/index.html , title = Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade , first = Arinne , last = de Vogue , date = June 24, 2022 , accessdate = June 24, 2022 , work =

CNN CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by ...

, archive-date = June 24, 2022 , archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20220624141808/https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/24/politics/dobbs-mississippi-supreme-court-abortion-roe-wade/index.html , url-status = live {{cite news , last1 = Howe , first1 = Amy , title = Supreme Court overturns constitutional right to abortion , url = https://www.scotusblog.com/2022/06/supreme-court-overturns-constitutional-right-to-abortion/ , work =

SCOTUSblog ''SCOTUSblog'' is a law blog written by lawyers, law professors, and law students about the Supreme Court of the United States (sometimes abbreviated "SCOTUS"). Formerly sponsored by Bloomberg Law, the site tracks cases before the Court from t ...

, date = June 24, 2022 , access-date = June 24, 2022 , archive-date = June 24, 2022 , archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20220624142633/https://www.scotusblog.com/2022/06/supreme-court-overturns-constitutional-right-to-abortion/ , url-status = live

Clinic history

Number of abortion clinics in Vermont by year

{{See also, Abortion clinicBetween 1982 and 1992, the number of abortion clinics in the state declined by three, going from nineteen in 1982 to sixteen in 1992.{{Cite book, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RDqXplZptaIC, title=A State-By-State Review of Abortion and Reproductive Rights, last1=Arndorfer, first1=Elizabeth, last2=Michael, first2=Jodi, last3=Moskowitz, first3=Laura, last4=Grant, first4=Juli A., last5=Siebel, first5=Liza, date=December 1998, publisher=DIANE Publishing, isbn=9780788174810, language=en In 2014, there were six abortion clinics in the state. 64% of the counties in the state did not have an abortion clinic. That year, 38% of women in the state aged 15–44 lived in a county without an abortion clinic. In 2017, there were twelve Planned Parenthood clinics, of which six offered abortion services, in a state with a population of 136,459 women aged 15–49.

Statistics

In the period between 1972 and 1974, there were zero recorded illegal abortion deaths in the state. In 1990, 67,000 women in the state faced the risk of an unintended pregnancy. In 2013, among white women aged 15–19, there were 190 abortions, 0 abortions for black women aged 15–19, 10 abortions for Hispanic women aged 15–19, and 10 abortions for women of all other races. In 2014, 70% of adults said in a poll by the

that abortion should be legal in all or most cases.{{cite web, url=https://www.pewforum.org/religious-landscape-study/, title=Views about abortion by state - Religion in America: U.S. Religious Data, Demographics and Statistics {{! Pew Research Center, language=en-US, access-date=May 23, 2019 In 2017, the state had an infant mortality rate of 5.9 deaths per 1,000 live births. {, class="wikitable" , + Number of reported abortions, abortion rate and percentage change in rate by geographic region and state in 1992, 1995 and 1996 ! Census division and state , , colspan="3" , Number , , colspan="3" , Rate , , % change 1992–1996 , - , Year , , 1992, , 1995, , 1996, , 1992, , 1995, , 1996 , - , Total , , 1,528,930 , , 1,363,690 , , 1,365,730 , , 25.9 , , 22.9 , , 22.9 , , –12 , - , New England , , 78,360 , , 71,940 , , 71,280 , , 25.2 , , 23.6 , , 23.5 , , –7 , - , Connecticut , , 19,720 , , 16,680 , , 16,230 , , 26.2 , , 23 , , 22.5 , , –14 , - , Maine , , 4,200 , , 2,690 , , 2,700 , , 14.7 , , 9.6 , , 9.7 , , –34 , - , Massachusetts , , 40,660 , , 41,190 , , 41,160 , , 28.4 , , 29.2 , , 29.3 , , 3 , - , New Hampshire , , 3,890 , , 3,240 , , 3,470 , , 14.6 , , 12 , , 12.7 , , –13 , - , Rhode Island , , 6,990 , , 5,720 , , 5,420 , , 30 , , 25.5 , , 24.4 , , –19 {, class="wikitable" , +Number, rate, and ratio of reported abortions for Vermont, by reporting area of residence and occurrence, with percentage of abortions obtained by out-of-state residents, US CDC estimates ! colspan="3" , By Reported Residence , , colspan="3" , Occurrence , , rowspan="2" , % obtained by out-of-state residents ! rowspan="2" , Year , , rowspan="2" , Ref , - , Number , , Rate^ , , Ratio^^ , , Number , , Rate^ , , Ratio^^ , - , 1,161 , , 10.0 , , 189 , , 1,235 , , 10.6 , , 201 , , 6.8 , , 2014 , , , - , 1,121 , , 9.7 , , 190 , , 1,265 , , 10.9 , , 214 , , 12.4 , , 2015 , , , - , 1,131 , , 9.9 , , 196 , , 1,298 , , 11.3 , , 226 , , 14.1 , , 2016 , , , - , colspan="10" , ^number of abortions per 1,000 women aged 15–44; ^^number of abortions per 1,000 live births

Abortion financing

17 states including Vermont use their own funds to cover all or most "medically necessary" abortions sought by low-income women under

, 13 of which are required by State court orders to do so.{{cite web, url=http://www.equalrightsamendment.org/faq.htm, title=Frequently Asked Questions, author=Francis Roberta W., work=Equal Rights Amendment, publisher=Alice Paul Institute, archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090417234051/http://www.equalrightsamendment.org/faq.htm, archive-date=2009-04-17, url-status=dead, access-date=2009-09-13 In 2010, the state had 699 publicly funded abortions, of which all were state funded and none were federally funded.

Abortion rights views and activities

Protests

Women from the state participated in marches supporting abortion rights as part of a #StoptheBans movement in May 2019.{{Cite web , title=State House Rally for Reproductive Rights Planned for Tuesday {{! Vermont Business Magazine , url=https://vermontbiz.com/event/may/state-house-rally-reproductive-rights-planned-tuesday , access-date=2022-07-26 , website=vermontbiz.com

References

{{reflist {{Abortion by US state

Vermont Vermont () is a state in the northeast New England region of the United States. Vermont is bordered by the states of Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, and New York to the west, and the Canadian province of Quebec to ...

Healthcare in Vermont Women in Vermont