The avalanche of restrictive anti-abortion laws in the past decade has curbed reproductive rights of American women and led to deep differences by region, according to a new study by the Guttmacher Institute.
“Fully 55 percent of women of reproductive age in the United States live in one of the 29 states considered hostile to abortion,” Guttmacher reported.
Mitt Romney with wife Ann
The 2010 election not only produced efforts in Congress to strip funding from Planned Parenthood clinics — which M
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The avalanche of restrictive anti-abortion laws in the past decade has curbed reproductive rights of American women and led to deep differences by region, according to a new study by the Guttmacher Institute.
“Fully 55 percent of women of reproductive age in the United States live in one of the 29 states considered hostile to abortion,” Guttmacher reported.
Mitt Romney with wife Ann
The 2010 election not only produced efforts in Congress to strip funding from Planned Parenthood clinics — which Mitt Romney promises to pursue if elected president — but multiple restrictions at the state level.
Legislatures newly under Republican control have passed multiple laws that require waiting periods, mandate pre-abortion counseling with a hostile focus, require ultrasound tests when there is no medical need and expand parental involvement when minors get an abortion.
Eighty such laws were enacted in the first half of 2011, an additional 39 in the first six months of this year. A total of 14 new restrictive laws have been enacted recently in just three states — Arizona, Louisiana and South Dakota.
“Over the last decade, the abortion policy landscape at the state level has shifted dramatically,” Guttmacher reported.
“Although a core of states in the Northeast and on the West Coast remained consistently supportive of abortion rights between 2000 and 2011, a substantial number of other states shifted from having only a moderate number of abortion restrictions to becoming overtly hostile.”
The latest restriction, under Texas’ Women’s Health Program, forbids doctors from any discussion with patients that would “promote elective abortions,” in effect telling physicians they can’t even mention the word.
A belt of states hostile to abortion now runs from North Dakota to Texas, and from Texas to Virginia. Only an order by a federal judge, earlier this week, has allowed Mississippi’s one clinic providing abortion services to remain in operation.
Washington voted to legalize abortion in 1970, three years before the Supreme Court’s landmark Roe v. Wade decision. The state passed a sweeping abortion rights initiative in 1991. Anti-abortion candidates have fared poorly in statewide elections.
In neighboring Idaho, by contrast, the Legislature in 2011 enacted a law banning all abortions after the 20th week of pregnancy, even in cases of rape, incest and physical or mental harm to a pregnant woman. The bill’s sponsor claimed that the “hand of God” was at work in the legislative chamber.
The trend is now toward specific kinds of restrictions, Guttmacher reported.
“Over the past six months, states appear to have paid particular attention to requiring extended delays for women seeking abortions,” said the report. Twenty-seven states require a wait, mainly 24 hours. Utah has recently enacted a 72-hour waiting period.
As well, several states have moved to curb and put curbs on sex education and family planning programs.
Tennessee and Wisconsin have adopted measures promoting the teaching of abstinence until marriage. Wisconsin rolled back family planning education and required it to stress abstinence until marriage.
Tennessee, to the delight of cable TV comics, enacted a law requiring teachers to “exclusively and emphatically” teach abstinence.