State Washington law recognizes the fundamental right of the people of Washington state to make personal decisions regarding birth control and abortion without interference by government officials. This pamphlet explains your reproductive rights in Washington and the reasons for those rights. A woman has a legal right to decide for herself whether or not to have an abortion until the fetus is viable.
Fetal viability is a medical determination that the fetus can survive outside the woman's body.
After fetal viability, she can have an abortion if her doctor decides that continuing the pregnancy places her life or health in danger. These provisions are effectively identical to the protections established in 1973 by the United State Supreme Court in Roe v. Wade. State law declares that if the state provides maternity services for low-income women, it must offer them the full range of pregnancy health care options, including abortion. Even though the state pays for abortions for low-income women, Washington's abortion rights law does not involve increased state costs. In fact, it is more costly for the state to provide maternity care or to raise a child that is unwanted than it is to pay for an abortion.