Easily Compare State Laws on Abortion, Gun Regulation, and More In the past few months, debates about gun regulation, abortion, and voting rights have been the center of news outlets due to recent mass shootings and Supreme Court rulings. To help users better understand some of these timely topics, HeinOnline contains National Survey of State Laws (NSSL): an invaluable print and online resource that allows for quick state-by-state law comparison using an interactive chart. This is the easiest way to stay informed on current state law. Users can use the database to compare the same laws as they existed in 2005, 2008, 2015, 2018, and 2019. Navigating the Database From the database homepage, users can browse laws by category or topic. The topics featured in NSSL fall into eight general legal categories: Business and Consumer Laws; Criminal Laws; Education Laws; Employment Laws; Family Laws; General Civil Laws; Real Estate Laws; and Tax Laws. Select any category to view a list of topics. Select the More Information icon next to any topic to see a general overview of the law. Compare the various abortion laws within the United States. Once selecting the abortion topic, users will see an interactive chart including the specified law for each state. The top column includes important points for each law. Beneath, brief statements provide the core points for each state’s statute. References to state statutes and code sections are provided, helping researchers further their research. Comparing Across Specific States Since this chart includes every state, let’s narrow this down to only show the states of Mississippi and New York to see how their laws differ. Check the boxes next to each desired state and select Show only checked states. This provides a new chart showing only the two selected states, allowing for easy comparison. For example, we can see that in New York, a woman can have an abortion within 24 weeks if the fetus is not viable, if it is necessary to preserve the mother’s health, or if a woman chooses to not carry the baby. No consent or license is necessary to carry out the procedure. However, in Mississippi, abortion is allowed in the case where a mother’s life is at risk or if a pregnancy was caused by rape. The rape exception is only lawful if formal charges have been filed. Written consent of the mother must be provided. If the mother is under 18, the law then requires consent from both parents, unless it’s a medical emergency. Three licensed physicians must also sign off. View Previous Editions Users can analyze the data even further. Select View Previous under the Edition column to see how the law existed in previous years. Let’s see how the law has changed in New York. In this case, we can see that back in 2005, New York state required a licensed M.D. after the 12th week to sign off on a medical abortion. In addition, abortion was only allowed if the mother’s life was in danger. To access HeinOnline, please click here.
eResources Spotlight: HeinOnline: National Survey of State Laws
The Easiest Resource for Comparing Hot Topic Laws by State