Since there is medical disagreement on the point of viability, states have adopted their own specific guidelines. In 1989, in the case of Webster v. Reproductive Health Services, Inc., the U.S. Supreme Court further specified the types of restrictions that states may make on abortions. The court declared that states may require physicians to perform tests to determine whether a fetus is viable before performing an abortion on a woman pregnant for 20 or more weeks. The court also ruled that states may outlaw abortion in public hospitals and clinics. Accordingly, the law in this issue is still evolving.
Many states are currently in the process of modifying their abortion laws.
Some of these laws will, no doubt, be reviewed by the Supreme Court in the coming years.