Abortion Industry Assesses Legislative Landscape After Midtern Elections

This web news site represents the abortion industry, which apparently fears that the 2011 midtern elections could be game-changing.


Anti-Abortion State Legislators Rise in Power
by Sharon Johnson
WeNews senior correspondent

State legislatures look poised for what pro-choice activists grimly call a banner year in bills to limit abortion rights.

(WOMENSENEWS)--Pro-choice advocates are bracing for a tough year in state lawmaking.

"Thanks to the gains by conservatives in the Nov. 6 election, 2011 will be a banner year for anti-choice legislation in the states," predicted Donna Crane, policy director of the Washington-based NARAL Pro-Choice America, the political watchdog of the pro-choice movement for more than 30 years.

Only 34 of the more than 600 anti-abortion bills proposed by state lawmakers in 2010 were approved last year. But that number is set to soar, says Crane, because 15 states now have anti-choice legislatures and governors versus 10 in 2010--and anti-choice politicians made gains throughout the country.

"Other states have experienced significant increases in the number of conservatives who are in key positions in legislatures where they can roll back pro-choice laws that have been on the books for 30 years," she said.

The implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act--the landmark health care overhaul that President Obama signed in March--became a battleground for abortion financing last year and has intensified the desire of anti-choice legislators to introduce bills that will make it more difficult for women to finance the procedure at the state level.

By mid-July, when most state legislatures had adjourned for the year, five states had already passed laws prohibiting abortion coverage in the health insurance plans offered by the new state exchanges, which will begin operating in 2014.

"A deluge of similar bills will be introduced when legislatures reconvene this month," Crane said. "Although 1 out of 3 American women has had an abortion by the age of 45, conservatives will argue that abortion coverage is not an essential part of women's health care and should be excluded. If approved, these bans will have a profound impact on low-income, unemployed and other financially vulnerable women."

Push for Counseling Requirements
The November midterm election has also invigorated the movement to impose burdensome counseling requirements. Eighteen states have enacted such laws. More are expected to do so in 2011 because courts have upheld state laws requiring parental notification or consent and sometimes both.

Counseling on the negative psychological effects of abortion--a matter of clinical controversy--is mandated in Mississippi, Nebraska, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah and West Virginia.

In five states--Alaska, Kansas, Mississippi, Texas and West Virginia--state counseling materials claim a link between breast cancer and abortion, which researchers have discredited. [Note from Just a Blog of Protoplasm: the link has not been discredited, and may provide grounds for future tobacco-style litigation.]

"Ten states now require laws that make ultrasound images available to women during counseling, which is especially disturbing to women who are pregnant as a result of rape or incest," said Jordan Goldberg, state advocacy counsel for the U.S. legal program of the Center for Reproductive Rights, a New York-based legal advocacy group that litigated more than 20 choice-related cases in nine states in 2010.

Arizona, which has been a leader in introducing these measures, requires both adult women and minors to come to an abortion clinic twice before the procedure. It also requires physicians to tell patients that state services are available to provide financial help, although there are no such funds.

"Until 2007, state legislatures that wanted to impose restrictions like these faced uphill fights in the courts," said Goldberg. "But the 5-4 Supreme Court decision in Gonzales v. Carhart made it easier, because the court held that the government had a legitimate and substantial interest in protecting fetal life. As a result, laws that chip away at a woman's fundamental right to control her body and make decisions to end unwanted pregnancies have become increasingly common."

More'Viability' Debate Continues
Anti-choice groups are also looking to the states to impose a new standard of so-called viability, or the point at which fetuses can survive outside the womb.

In 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court in the landmark Roe v. Wade decision banned abortion after the fetus could survive outside the womb, typically about 22 weeks after fertilization. The Supreme Court decision has allowed exceptions to save a woman's life as well as to protect her mental or physical health.

But now anti-choice legislators in Montana are proposing a state constitutional amendment that says life begins when an egg is fertilized. Although a similar effort failed in the 2009 legislature and backers were unable to put the measure on the ballot in November, chances of passage in the state are now considered much higher. Republicans, who traditionally support anti-choice legislation, now have a majority in both the Montana Senate and House, the first time the GOP has controlled both state chambers in eight years.

The midterm election returns are also expected to increase attacks by anti-choice organizations outside the legislature and courthouse.