(KFF Health News) – Nineteen states now ban abortion at or before 19 weeks of gestation; 13 of those have a near-total ban on all abortions with very limited exceptions, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a nonpartisan research group that supports abortion rights.

Like Georgia, some of these states built their abortion restrictions around the legal concept of “personhood,” thus conferring legal rights and protections on an embryo or fetus during pregnancy.

Smith’s case has represented a major test of how this type of law will be applied in certain medical situations.

Despite mainly being unified in their opposition to abortion, conservatives and politicians in Georgia do not publicly agree on the scope of the law in cases like Smith’s. (Read More)