STORY: It's been two years since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

Since then, litigation over abortion rights has exploded.

Here's a look at the different kinds of lawsuits pending, and where the challenges are brewing.

:: Lawsuits challenging bans outright

In these seven U.S. states, abortion rights advocates are challenging bans outright.

They used to be able to challenge abortion restrictions in federal court citing Roe v. Wade.

With that shield gone - they've shifted to bringing their cases in state courts...

...arguing the bans or restrictions infringe upon women's rights to privacy, liberty or due process guaranteed in state constitutions.

Those battles have already been unsuccessful in states like Florida, Idaho and Texas.

:: Abortion pills

There are five states where abortion rights advocates have sued to preserve access to the abortion pill or opponents have sued to block it.

Medication abortion uses the drugs mifepristone and misoprostol to induce abortion in early pregnancy.

It accounted for 63% of abortions in 2023, up from 53% in 2020, according to the Guttmacher Institute, an abortion rights research organization.

The Supreme Court this month rejected an appeal by abortion opponents that would have significantly restricted mifepristone's distribution.

:: Medical emergencies and interstate travel

A growing number of cases center on exceptions in abortion bans for women facing medical emergencies.

These lawsuits argue that the exceptions - which typically allow an abortion to save the mother's life or to prevent serious injury - violate women's rights, or are so unclear that doctors do not know when they apply.

The Texas Supreme Court recently rejected a challenge seeking to broaden and clarify the state's medical exception.

:: Lubbock County Court Handout, Texas

Several states and counties where abortion is banned have passed measures aimed at making it more difficult for their residents to travel to other states to get the procedure.

That raises new legal issues about governments' ability to legislate conduct outside of their borders.

:: Legal, but restricted

These are states where abortion is legal, but abortion rights activists are suing to challenge laws making it more difficult to access.

For example, a North Carolina lawsuit challenges a requirement that certain abortions be performed in hospitals, and a Michigan lawsuit challenges a 24-hour waiting period.

In the 2022 decision to overturn Roe, Justice Samuel Alito wrote that it was time to take the abortion issue out of the hands of the court and return it "to the people's elected representatives."

But rather than limit court battles, the number of cases challenging bans and restrictions is dizzying, and one abortion-related case is still before the Supreme Court.