Final answer:
Before the overturn of Roe v. Wade in 2022, states could regulate but not ban abortions in the second trimester and could restrict or prohibit them in the third trimester, except when the mother's life was at risk.
Step-by-step explanation:
Prior to the 2022 overturn of the 1973 ruling in Roe v. Wade, states had limited rights to make abortion laws. The Supreme Court's decision provided that a woman's right to privacy under the 14th Amendment included the autonomy to terminate a pregnancy during the first trimester without any state interference. States could regulate abortion in the second trimester and could restrict or ban it in the third trimester, provided the life of the mother was not in jeopardy.
Before Roe v. Wade, abortion was illegal in much of the United States. The 1973 decision declared that the right to privacy upheld in the Griswold v. Connecticut case included a woman's right to an abortion. However, after this decision, starting in the 1980s with the Planned Parenthood v. Casey case, the Supreme Court allowed states to implement certain restrictions that did not pose an undue burden on a woman seeking an abortion, increasing the ability for states to regulate abortions more strictly, while the key provisions of Roe were still formally in place.