DATA
Enter
26
STATES
2
STATES
STATES WITH ABORTION WAIT
HUFFINGTON
08.11.13
13
STATES
11
STATES
STATES WITH ABORTION AND GUN WAIT
STATES WITH GUN WAIT
SOURCES: GUTTMACHER INSTITUTE, SMARTGUNLAWS.ORG
Get in Line for an Abortion.
Step Right Up for a Gun.
In many states, it takes longer to get an abortion
than it does to purchase a gun. Twenty-six
states require women to wait for an abortion,
usually 24 hours after an initial counseling
session — making the procedure more drawn
out for everyone and less accessible to people
who live in rural areas or have to take time off of
work. Several of these states do not waive the
waiting period in cases of rape. And in all but
two of the states that mandate waiting periods
for abortions, there is no wait at all to purchase
a firearm.
The federal government protects both the
right to bear arms and the right to have an
abortion, but barriers to exercising these rights
often depend on whether a state is controlled by
STATES WITH NO WAIT
Democrats or Republicans.
Studies have shown that waiting periods for
abortions do not change women’s decisions to
go through with the procedure, and they cause
“excessive” emotional and financial hardships.
Waiting periods for guns are intended to allow
for a “cooling off” period and to provide time for
background checks, which were not extended
to cover private sales after a background check
compromise was blocked by the Senate in April.
It’s hard to predict the impact of waiting
periods in an unevenly regulated gun market,
but the waiting periods imposed by the Brady
Act in 1994 were linked to a drop in
gun suicides, which now outnumber
gun homicides in the U.S. — Katy Hall