Anti-Abortion State Legislators Rise in Power

By Sharon Johnson
WeNews senior correspondent
January 14, 2011
http://www.womensenews.org/story/reproductive-health/110113/anti-abortion-state-legislators-rise-in-power

     State legislatures look poised for what pro-choice
     activists grimly call a banner year in bills to
     limit abortion rights. The first of two stories on
     anti-choice momentum in the states after the 2010
     midterm elections.

(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.

"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."

'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.

Billboard Campaign Sparks Controversy

After Republicans won the governorship and majorities
of both houses of the Wisconsin legislature, Wisconsin
Pro-Life and the Atlanta-based Radiance Foundation, a
black anti-choice group, placed 13 billboards in
Milwaukee claiming that Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin
was responsible for the high number of abortions among
African Americans in the state.

"This campaign is our response to Planned Parenthood,
whose 75 years of existence in Wisconsin continues to
embrace the racist and eugenic idea that certain human
life can be destroyed. And they do it for profit," said
Ryan Bomberger, co-founder of the Radiance Foundation
in a statement. "Wisconsin is the birthplace of the
Republican party founded solely to abolish the
inhumanity and destruction of slavery. We hope that
something will stir Wisconsinites to see, regardless of
political party, that liberation and justice are part
of their historical DNA."

Tanya Atkinson, vice president of community education
of Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin, refuted the
charges.

"These groups are using racism to interfere with a
woman's ability to access health care," she said in a
phone interview. "Racial disparities in abortion rates
occur not because of a conspiracy but because many
people lack access to adequate and affordable health
care, including birth control. That's why we are going
to work harder than ever in 2011 to provide health care
for the more than 73,000 people who use our services
every year."


Sharon Johnson is a New York-based freelance writer.

For more information:
NARAL Pro-Choice America:
http://www.naral.org

Center for Reproductive Rights:
http://www.reproductiverights.org

Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin:
http://www.ppwi.org

___________________________________________

Portside aims to provide material of interest to people
on the left that will help them to interpret the world
and to change it.

Submit via email: [log in to unmask]

Submit via the Web: http://portside.org/submittous3

Frequently asked questions: http://portside.org/faq

Sub/Unsub: http://portside.org/subscribe-and-unsubscribe

Search Portside archives: http://portside.org/archive

Contribute to Portside: https://portside.org/donate