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Background: While globally abortion is becoming more legalized, the United States has recently eliminated the constitutional right to abortion. This goes against the human right article 25 stating each individual’s right to sexual and reproductive health as well as the Sustainable Development Goals 5 on gender equality and 16 on peace, justice and strong institutions.

Aim: To study the implications that restrictive abortion laws have in the United States on individual, population and system level.

Methodology: Scoping review that analyzes the data of the selected 20 articles including qualitative, quantitative, mixed methods and gray literature.

Results: The gravest implications of restrictive abortion laws are on individual level for abortion seeking women who face multiple barriers to access abortion depending where in the country they live, affecting their mental and physical health and even leading to death. Their human rights are violated in their lack of autonomy, privacy and standardized care. Abortion care providers face various consequences of criminalization and might choose to relocate to non-restrictive states. On population and system level, maternity care deserts as well as rising inequality are few of the many implications.

Conclusions: There are multiple implications that are caused by the restrictive laws and the full impact is yet to be seen. The gendered impact is indisputable as well as the additional burden to already marginalized and vulnerable communities that are overrepresented as abortion seekers.