I knew that I was seeing a ridiculous number of reports about state legislatures attacking abortion rights and introducing other crazy anti-women bills, but it’s good to see it collected in one place. So far, there have been 916 bills introduced that aim in some way or another to make life more difficult for women. And 120 of those bills have been approved by at least one chamber (whether the Senate, Assembly, House of Delegates, or whatever).
As a whole, the proposals introduced this year are more hostile to abortion rights than in the past: 56% of the bills introduced so far this year seek to restrict abortion access, compared with 38% last year. Three topics—insurance coverage of abortion, restriction of abortion after a specific point in gestation and ultrasound requirements—are topping the agenda in several states. At the same time, legislators are proposing little in the way of proactive initiatives aimed at expanding access to reproductive health –related services; this stands in sharp contrast to recent years when a range of initiatives to promote comprehensive sex education, permit expedited STI treatment for patients’ partners and ensure insurance coverage of contraception were adopted. For the moment, at least, supporters of reproductive health and rights are almost uniformly playing defense at the state level.
I assume this is going to cause some kind of backlash. What do you think?
