Abortion in Hawaii is legal. 66% of adults in Hawaii said in a poll by the Pew Research Center that abortion should be legal in all or most cases.[1] Hawaii began allowing elective abortion care de jure in 1970, the first state to do so. State law enacted at that time stated said, "the State shall not deny or interfere with a female's right to choose or obtain an abortion of a nonviable fetus or an abortion that is necessary to protect the life or health of the female."
The number of abortion clinics in the state has been declining for years. There were 15 hospitals that performed abortions in 1970, 51 clinics in 1982, 52 clinics in 1992, six in 2011, four in 2014, and three in 2017. In 2017, women in rural parts of the state had trouble accessing abortion services because of lack of clinics and costs to travel. There were 3,643 abortions in 1970, 2,147 in 2014 and 3,200 in 2017.[2] Public funding existed for abortions for poor women using state Medicaid funding. People in Hawaii participated in the #StoptheBans movement in May 2019.
Many of the state's poor, rural women rely on Title X services that provide family planning assistance, including prenatal carry. Under Donald Trump, these dollars have been cut in Hawaii, leaving poor and rural women particularly vulnerable when it comes to the ability to access prenatal care.[3]
- ^ "Religious Landscape Study".
- ^ "State Facts About Abortion: Hawaii". Guttmacher Institute. 2020-03-01. Retrieved 2020-06-30.
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