Is it illegal (or just plain third-wordish) in countries in the Far East? Maybe the reason to eliminate the residency requirement has more to do with Pacific Island visitors than with US residents on the mainland.
Just trying to think what would motivate Hawaii to do thi$.
Hawaii gets tons of tourists from Japan--what are abortion laws like in Japan?
Residency is a very fuzzy thing in the U.S. One can easily be a legal resident of more than one state at the same time, since so many factors are used to determine residency for things like taxes, voter registration, and public school access -- add up all the relevant laws and it's VERY easy to be a legal resident of more than one state, whether you want to be or not. I pay resident taxes in two states, and happily take advantage of in-state tuition rates in one, and better 2A rights and car insurance rates in the other (the car actually does spend 98% of its time in the state where it's registered and insured) -- I technically could file as a non-resident in one of those states, but that would cost me more in both state taxes (due to the effects of interstate offset provisions) and federal taxes (because I couldn't claim the residential mortgage deduction on my main home and vacation home, in a state where I file non-resident taxes).
Having a residency requirement for any medical procedure would just turn into an expensive mess of legal challenges. No doctor that I've ever seen for anything would have any reason to examine my state residency status, nor am I interested in having doctors collecting information about where I own and rent homes, where my car is insured, where I pay taxes, etc. If a doctor turns somebody away because s/he isn't sure about their residency status, the patient could subsequently sue and win big (in the case of abortion, think child support for 18 years, plus a bunch of damages). If a doctor provides an abortion to someone with fuzzy residency status, s/he'll end up with the anti-abortion lobby pushing local prosecutors to go after him/her.