There is no medical limit on how many abortions a person can have, and having multiple abortions does not reduce future fertility. But there are significant legal limits on *when* during a pregnancy an abortion can be performed, and those limits vary dramatically depending on where you live. In the United States, 41 states currently have some form of abortion ban in effect, ranging from total bans to restrictions that kick in at specific points in pregnancy.
Gestational Limits in the U.S.
The legal landscape breaks down into three broad categories. Thirteen states have total bans on abortion, with only narrow exceptions. Twenty-eight states ban abortion based on how far along the pregnancy is. And nine states plus Washington, D.C. do not restrict abortion based on gestational age at all.
Among the states with gestational limits, seven ban abortion at or before 18 weeks. Florida and Georgia, for example, set their cutoff at 6 weeks, a point when many people don’t yet know they’re pregnant. The remaining 21 states with gestational bans set their limits somewhere after 18 weeks, often at “viability,” which is the point at which a fetus could potentially survive outside the uterus. That threshold generally falls between 24 and 26 weeks, though it’s not a hard line. Survival rates at 23 weeks range from 23% to 27%, climbing to 67% to 76% at 25 weeks, according to data from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. Before 23 weeks, survival is around 5% to 6%.
States without any gestational restriction include Alaska, Colorado, New Jersey, Oregon, and a handful of others. Even in these states, the practical availability of later procedures is limited by how few clinics offer them.
States With Total Bans
Alabama, Arkansas, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, and West Virginia currently enforce total or near-total bans. In these states, abortion is illegal at any point in pregnancy except under specific exceptions.
Nearly all bans include an exception to prevent the death of the pregnant person. Many also include exceptions for serious physical health risks, lethal fetal anomalies, or pregnancies resulting from rape or incest, though the specifics vary widely. Most states that include a health exception limit it to physical conditions and explicitly exclude emotional or psychological health. Alabama is currently the only state with an abortion ban that includes mental health within its broader health exception.
In practice, these exceptions can be difficult to use. Physicians in restrictive states often face uncertainty about what qualifies, and some have delayed or declined to perform legal abortions out of fear of prosecution.
Medication Abortion Has Its Own Limit
Medication abortion, which uses a two-drug regimen to end a pregnancy without surgery, is FDA-approved for use through 10 weeks of pregnancy (70 days from the first day of the last menstrual period). This is a clinical limit, not just a legal one. The medications are less effective and carry higher risks of incomplete abortion as pregnancy progresses beyond that window.
This method accounts for a large share of abortions in the U.S. CDC surveillance data from 2021 shows that 80.8% of all abortions were performed at 9 weeks or earlier, and 93.5% occurred within the first 13 weeks. Only 5.7% took place between 14 and 20 weeks, and just 0.9% occurred at 21 weeks or later.
How Procedures Change Later in Pregnancy
The type of procedure changes as a pregnancy progresses, which is part of why access becomes more limited at later gestational ages. In the first trimester, medication abortion or a straightforward aspiration procedure is standard. In the second trimester (14 to 26 weeks), a surgical procedure called dilation and evacuation is typically used. This requires more preparation: one night of cervical preparation for pregnancies between 13 and 23 weeks, and two nights for pregnancies between 24 and 26 weeks.
Fewer providers are trained to perform later procedures, and fewer clinics offer them. Even in states without gestational limits, a person seeking an abortion after 20 weeks may need to travel long distances and pay significantly more out of pocket. Later abortions are also more likely to involve complex medical circumstances, such as fetal anomalies diagnosed at the 20-week anatomy scan or serious maternal health complications that develop as pregnancy progresses.
How Other Countries Handle Limits
Most countries that permit abortion set a gestational limit for elective procedures and allow later abortions only for medical reasons. France legalized abortion in 1975 and has gradually extended its limit, most recently to 14 weeks in 2022. In 2024, France became the first country to enshrine abortion rights in its constitution. Ireland legalized abortion in 2018 up to 12 weeks, with exceptions for maternal health beyond that point.
Poland represents the other end of the European spectrum. A 2020 ruling eliminated abortion for fetal abnormalities, leaving exceptions only for rape, incest, and life-threatening pregnancies. Even those legal exceptions have become difficult to access in practice, as physicians have grown reluctant to perform the procedures.
The U.S. is unusual in how much variation exists within a single country. Depending on which state you live in, abortion access ranges from no restrictions at all to a near-total ban, creating a patchwork where geography is often the single biggest factor in whether someone can obtain the procedure.
No Limit on Number of Procedures
No U.S. state limits how many abortions a person can have over their lifetime. There is also no medical reason to impose such a limit. Having one or more abortions does not increase the risk of infertility, pregnancy complications, or breast cancer. These are persistent misconceptions, but large-scale studies have consistently found no link. Each pregnancy and each decision is evaluated independently, with the same gestational and legal rules applying regardless of how many prior abortions someone has had.