New York Times: The Two Abortion Wars: State Battles Over Roe v. Wade
NYT Editorial
“Away from Washington, another ominous anti-abortion battle is accelerating in the states. Anti-abortion forces have been trying to take advantage of the 2007 ruling in which the Supreme Court upheld a federal ban on a particular method of abortion.
In 2010, more than 600 measures were introduced in state legislatures to limit access to abortion and some 34 secured passage, according to tallies by Naral Pro-Choice America and the Center for Reproductive Rights. November’s elections made the outlook even bleaker.
Twenty-nine governors are considered solidly anti-abortion, up from 21 before the election. In 15 states, both the legislature and the governor are anti-abortion, compared with 10 last year. This math greatly increases the prospect of extreme efforts to undermine abortion access with Big Brother measures that require physicians to read scripts about fetal development and provide ultrasound images, and that impose mandatory waiting periods or create other unnecessary regulations.
Such restrictions, combined with a persistent atmosphere of intimidation and violence, have taken a grievous toll on the fundamental right protected by Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that recognized a woman’s constitutional right to make her own child-bearing decisions. Eighty-seven percent of counties have no abortion provider, according to the Guttmacher Institute.”
“Americans who support women’s reproductive rights and oppose this kind of outrageous government intrusion need to respond with rising force and clarity to this real and immediate danger.”
