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Legislative activity on abortion in 2013

Does it seem like every day you are hearing or reading about one state or another attempting to pass some sort of legislative restriction on abortion? That's because it is true. The last four years or so have seen a dramatic increase in the number of legislative attempts to do the following:

  1. Attack the framework of Roe and Casey directly; North Dakota falls into this category, for example.
  2. Chip away at the Roe/Casey jurisprudential framework, with fetal pain legislation, bans on abortions after 20 weeks, and so on. This kind of legislation does not directly defy the Supreme Court's major abortion decisions-- although they are inconsistent with them-- but attempt to encourage judges to subtly rework the Roe/Casey doctrine. This is what pro-life activists successfully achieved with the federal Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003 and the Supreme Court case Gonzales v. Carhart. 
  3. Enact regulations that, on the surface, look like they are consistent with Roe/Casey but make it harder for women to obtain abortions. For example, many states have attempted to enact additional regulation of abortion clinics, referred to as TRAP laws (targeted regulation of abortion providers). Clinics find it impossible to meet the expensive and unnecessary requirements and close; this makes access to abortion harder. Other regulations make the process of obtaining an abortion more unpleasant by, for example, forcing women to undergo vaginal ultrasounds and endure lectures on the features of the fetus before being able to have an abortion.
  4. Deny public funding, support, or subsidization of organizations, like Planned Parenthood, that not only provide abortions but also a broad range of women's health and family planning services. 

If you want to get a better sense of the current legislative landscape, read the recently released Guttmacher Institute report on state law-makign activity in the first half of this year. It is eye-opening reading.

Links:

Report from the Guttmacher Institute (July 8, 2013): State-Level Assault on Abortion Rights Continues in First Half of 2013
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