How many steps it takes to get an abortion in each state

Why it matters: While abortion is a procedure related to reproductive health and is legal, the U.S. has been torn for more than 45 years over the moral and ethical considerations that go into ending a pregnancy.

• State legislatures have tried to restrict the procedure since the Supreme Court's 1973 decision that the Constitution provides “a right to privacy," which allows a pregnancy to be terminated.

Steps required to obtain an abortion:

(1) Original trip to the facility; (2) Parental notification (only required for minors under 18); (3) Parental consent (only required for minors under 18); (4) Counseling to discourage; (5) Undergo a waiting period; (6) Perform/view ultrasound; (7) Trip to clinical facility; (8) Undergo procedure.

The Heartland divide: The Northeast and West Coast require the lowest number of steps to obtain an abortion, while restrictions increase in the South, Great Plains and Midwest.

• Virginia is the most restrictive state in the U.S. for minors under 18, who must take 8 steps to have an abortion by obtaining parental notification and parental consent.
• Arizona, Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi, Ohio, Wisconsin and Virginia are the most restrictive states for adults over 18.
• Washington state, Montana, Oregon, Nevada, California, New Mexico, Hawaii, New Jersey, Connecticut, New York, Vermont, Maine — plus D.C. — are the least restrictive states for adults and minors seeking abortions.
• Utah, South Dakota, Oklahoma, North Carolina and Missouri have the longest wait times before one can undergo the procedure, clocking in at 72 hours.

Knowledge gaps: States differ on how much they publish about the number of abortions obtained each year, according to findings by the Charlotte Lozier Institute, an arm of Susan B. Anthony List.

• As of 2016, Oklahoma and Minnesota had the highest CLI scores for comprehensive and publicly available information on abortions.
• States — and D.C. — voluntarily report data to the CDC's abortion surveillance system. The most recent data from the CDC shows that in 2015, New York (state and city) and Texas had the highest number of legal induced abortions, alongside those in unknown residencies.

The backdrop: President Trump has promised to appoint judges who would overturn Roe v. Wade's 1973 decision. A recent surge of "fetal heartbeat" bills — most of which have been temporarily blocked in court — aim to challenge Roe's federal abortion protections.

• The national abortion rate has dropped to 13.5, its lowest recorded level since Roe v. Wade's 1973 decision, according to the latest data from the Guttmacher Institute.
• The institute asserted that "abortion restrictions were not the main driver of the decline in the U.S. abortion rate between 2011 and 2017."

Go deeper: The states that have passed abortion restriction laws

Editor's note: This article has been updated with the latest data from the Guttmacher Institute.

• "After nearly a month of stonewalling, it appears clear that the President has chosen the path of defiance, obstruction, and cover-up," the letter reads.

The state of play: Several White House officials have told Axios' Alayna Treene that the administration has no plans of complying with the committees' demands for interviews or documents without a full House vote formally approving an impeachment inquiry.

The big picture: The Trump administration's initial refusal to turn over the whistleblower complaint on the president's interactions with Ukraine is what led House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to finally support a formal impeachment inquiry.

Go deeper: Trump letter dares Pelosi to hold vote on impeachment inquiry

• Johnson asked the Justice Department earlier this week to look into links between Ukraine and Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign. His letter questioned the narrative that Biden's actions in Ukraine had nothing to do with his son's connection.
• However, it was also discovered that he signed onto a 2016 letter that mirrored Biden's work to reform Ukraine's prosecutor general and judiciary.
• There is no evidence that Biden's reform work in Ukraine was to protect his son's business dealings, as the president and some of his allies allege, or that he committed any form of corruption.

The state of play: Sondland, a Trump political appointee who donated $1 million to the president's inaugural committee, denied that there was a quid pro quo between the Trump administration and Ukraine's government in a series of text messages that former Ukraine special envoy Kurt Volker provided to a group of House committees investigating the Trump-Ukraine matter.

• "I think it’s crazy to withhold security assistance for help with a political campaign," Bill Taylor, the top U.S. diplomat to Ukraine, texted Sondland.
• Sondland texted back: "Bill, I believe you are incorrect about President Trump's intentions. The President has been crystal clear no quid pro quo's of any kind."
• The New York Times reported that Sondland's response came only after he spoke to the president.

Go deeper: House committees release texts from former Ukraine envoy Kurt Volker