In 1970, when abortion was still illegal in most states, New York passed the most liberal abortion law in the nation. The procedure became legal up to 24 weeks of pregnancy, whereas previously abortion was treated like homicide. “One of my sons just called me a whore for the vote I cast against this,” one Catholic assemblyman said at the time; his other son, he reported, urged him to change his vote. He did, and the bill passed. Three years later, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its verdict in Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortion. Around 350,000 women travelled to New York for abortions between 1970 and 1973.

New York didn’t amend its law after Roe, and in time, its reforms didn’t feel very revolutionary. Abortion is still illegal after 24 weeks of pregnancy, unless a woman’s life is in danger; women who need late-term abortions for other reasons, like a fetus that’s no longer viable, must travel out of state for their procedures. It’s a precarious situation made even more uncertain by the sudden precariousness of Roe itself.

“I will be appointing pro-life judges,” Donald Trump promised in the final presidential debate with Hillary Clinton in 2016, adding that the legality of abortion “will go back to the individual states” if he puts “another two or perhaps three justices on” the Supreme Court. “And that will happen automatically, in my opinion, because I am putting pro-life justices on the court.” As president, he has kept his promise, first with Justice Neil Gorsuch and now with nominee Brett Kavanaugh, whose confirmation seems likely with Republicans in control of the Senate.

That has many worrying that Roe could be overturned in the coming years, and that abortion law will indeed go back to the states. “Women’s lives are on the line,” New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand said. “If this judge is confirmed by the Senate, the Supreme Court could take away women’s reproductive rights.”

If Roe were to be overturned, the outcome in conservative states seems clear: The Center for Reproductive Rights estimates that 22 states would ban abortion. “The threat level is very high now,” Amy Myrick, a staff attorney at the organization, told NPR. But that threat applies to blue states, too. Most states do not have laws guaranteeing a right to abortion, and a number of Democratic-leaning states have either failed to adopt measures that enshrine a positive right to abortion, or, as in New York, they recognize a limited right to abortion that’s seemingly out of step with their states’ politics. Some, like New Mexico and Massachusetts, even have archaic bans on the procedure that could theoretically come into play again.