Nearly half a century after the Supreme Court struck down an abortion ban as unconstitutional and declared with its historic Roe v. Wade ruling that people in the United States have a right to choose whether or not to have an abortion, the nation’s highest court overturned that decision on June 24.
“There are occasions when past decisions should be overruled, and as we will explain, this is one of them,” Justice Samuel Alito wrote in the majority opinion, a draft of which had been leaked several weeks in advance. In its final decision on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the court held that “the Constitution does not confer a right to abortion. Roe and Casey [Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pa. v. Casey] must be overruled, and the authority to regulate abortion must be returned to the people and their elected representatives.”
What that means in practice is that individual states now have the power to determine whether abortion is legal. In some states, including Alabama, Wisconsin, and Missouri, bans are already in effect. In others, such as Mississippi and Wyoming, abortion will be banned within 30 days of the SCOTUS decision or sometime this summer. All in all, more than half of U.S. states are “certain or likely” to ban abortion in the absence of Roe, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research and policy organization dedicated to sexual and reproductive health and rights.
Meanwhile, other states—including California, New York, and New Jersey—have been preparing for the impending fall of Roe by touting existing protections as well as strengthening and expanding them.
Earlier this month, for instance, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy appealed to companies to move to New Jersey to protect their employees’ right to abortion: “The overturning of a woman’s right to bodily autonomy—and the chilling effect this decision will have on your ability to attract and retain top female talent by being located in a state which has refused to recognize women’s reproductive freedom—cannot be ignored,” he wrote in a letter to dozens of organizations located in conservative states.
Murphy’s message echoes what advocates for reproductive rights have been saying. “Make no mistake: Companies will have to respond to the upcoming Supreme Court ruling on abortion rights,” Shantelle Dockett, Associate Director of Corporate Engagement at Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said in a statement to The Muse prior to the final SCOTUS decision. “Because employees, both now and in the future, are going to care where they stand and what types of benefits they provide.”
Some employees and job seekers have surely already considered not just employer policies but also state track records on abortion access among other factors when making decisions about where to live and work—and the end of Roe ups the stakes of these kinds of deliberations.
“It would be wise for anyone to consider their whole work-life flow when choosing where to live and work, and doing so in a way that aligns with their value system,” says Muse career coach Bryn Panee Burkhart, founder of Next Evolution Leadership Coaching & Career Management. “Certain states are currently crafting and passing legislation concerning abortion and gun control that can have a very real impact on the quality of life for individuals and families. It would be prudent to understand these things and take them into account in one’s decision-making.”
So where does that leave you? Not everyone has the privilege of being able to choose where to live or to pick up and move across the country in the wake of a court ruling. But if you do have some flexibility and abortion rights are a factor you’d like to consider in your job search, here are 20 states (plus the District of Columbia) where abortion is legal and likely to remain protected—along with open jobs in each.
Note: This list is based on Guttmacher Institute resources (this one updated as of June 1, 2022 and this one updated as of June 30, 2022), as well as this New York Times project updated as of June 30, 2022, with supporting information from various other sources. Some of these states do still have some restrictions on abortion and the absence of other states from this list doesn’t mean there is no abortion access there. In addition, the specifics of policies vary and are in flux, especially at this moment, so please check the details and most up-to-date information before making any decisions.
