For background, read America Turns Against Abortion on Demand, as seen when 'Life' Won the 2010 Election, and also read about state pro-life laws immediately thereafter.
Not surprisingly, Media See Pro-lifers Gaining on Abortionists
It is clear that States' Abortion Laws Reflect Growing Public Abhorrence
UPDATE 4/15/12: 2012 maintains pace of state abortion restrictions
UPDATE 1/8/12: Abortionists say 2011 was banner year for pro-life legislation
UPDATE 5/31/11: San Francisco journalist struggles to explain pro-life America
UPDATE 5/10/11: Liberal NPR outlines pro-life progress across America
UPDATE 4/16/11: Abortionists Lament Pro-life Fury in States
-- From "Wave of anti-abortion bills advance in the states" by David Crary, Associated Press 3/24/11
Dozens of bills are advancing through statehouses nationwide that would put an array of new obstacles -- legal, financial and psychological -- in the paths of women seeking abortions.
The tactics vary: mandatory sonograms and anti-abortion counseling, sweeping limits on insurance coverage, bans on abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy. To abortion-rights activists, they add up to the biggest political threat since the Roe v. Wade decision of 1973 that legalized abortion nationwide.
What's different this year is not the raw number of anti-abortion bills, but the fact that many of the toughest, most substantive measures have a good chance of passage due to gains by conservative Republicans in last year's legislative and gubernatorial elections. On Tuesday, South Dakota Gov. Dennis Daugaard signed into law a bill that would impose a longest-in-the-nation waiting period of three days before women could have an abortion -- and also require them to undergo counseling at pregnancy help centers that discourage abortions.
Of the various types of bills, the insurance bans could have the broadest impact, according to some abortion-rights activists.
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
From "Lawmakers See Surge of Anti-Abortion Bills" posted at KOLR/KSFX TV Springfield, MO 3/25/11
Felecia Epps, a law professor at the UALR Bowen School of Law, says part of the increase in anti-abortion legislation is due to the freshly-elected crop of conservative lawmakers.
Recent Supreme Court rulings are another factor, Epps says, rulings that fail to define what barriers states can put on legal abortions.
"(For example) What type of restrictions are really going to be a burden, and what can the state do in terms of informing, having waiting periods, legitimately," Epps said. "I think what's happening is states are putting more obstacles out there, so there's more things a woman would have to go through in seeking an abortion."
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
From "Abortion battles spring up nationwide as states test the limits of Roe v. Wade" by Stephanie Condon, CBS News 3/21/11
The anti-abortion rights movement last year found itself in a set of circumstances that have all worked to advance their agenda. Most importantly, states across the country elected new, emboldened conservative politicians. Hundreds of anti-abortion rights legislators and a net of 12 new anti-abortion rights governors were elected, according to Americans United for Life.
Meanwhile, a set of news-making events in the past year -- such as the passage of health care reform and video of the conservative "sting" on Planned Parenthood -- galvanized conservative activists. National leaders are more vocal than ever on the issue. And a possibly sympathetic swing vote now sits in the Supreme Court.
Debates about abortion rights often take place on the national political stage, but the bulk of the work happens in Columbus, Des Moines, Topeka and other state capitals across the country. "Ninety-five percent of what happens in any sort of laws or regulations on abortion happens at the state level," McConchie said.
Several of the state bills currently pending can be judged in the context of the 1992 Supreme Court decision Planned Parenthood v. Casey, which established that a state has an interest in the life of a fetus. Under that premise, the state can, for the most part, ban abortion at the point a fetus becomes "viable" (meaning it could survive outside of the womb). Many states now prohibit abortion, with certain exceptions, at the point of "viability," and several specifically ban abortion at either 24 weeks or the third trimester, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a reproductive health research center.
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
Click headlines below for related articles:
Louisiana: Restricting Abortion After 20 Weeks
First Abortion-free State May Be Mississippi
Arizona Outlaws Abortion after 20 Weeks, Cutting Time to Kill Disabled Unborn
Virginia Law Requires Ultrasound Before Abortion
Michigan to Ban Partial-birth Abortion
New Ohio Law Bans Late-term Abortions
Missouri Dem. Gov. Restricts Abortion after 20 Weeks
Abortions Restricted via Texas Sonogram Law
Abortion Viability Restriction Likely in Ohio
Most Abortion Clinics to Close in Virginia
South Dakota Law Mandates Pro-life Counseling Pre-Abortion
Arizona Abortion Ban for Race/Gender Selection
'Late-Term' Abortion Redefined: Fetal Pain
Abortion Fetal Pain Bill Passes Iowa House
Abortion 'Heartbeat' Bill Moves in Ohio House
Tea Party Christians Dominate Florida, Target Abortion
Ohio GOP (with Tea Party Power) Challenge Roe v. Wade
Several Pro-life Bills Considered in Texas
Illinois Abortion Safety Law Moves in House
Abortion Eliminated in Georgia: Senate Bill
Outlawing On-line Abortion: Nebraska, Iowa
Defund Abortionists, Say All Pres. Candidates
UPDATE graph 2012:
