State Policy Trends at Midyear 2021: Already the Worst Legislative Year Ever for U.S. Abortion Rights

Elizabeth Nash, Guttmacher Institute
Sophia Naide, Guttmacher Institute
First published online: July 1, 2021

In the first six months of the year, many state legislatures engaged in an assault on many civil rights, including abortion, voting and transgender rights. More abortion restrictions—90—have already been enacted in 2021 than in any year since the Roe v. Wade decision was handed down in 1973. Many of these actions took place in the beginning of the year, despite the need for state legislatures to address critical issues ranging from racial equity to the COVID-19 response and pandemic-related health care.

In addition to their relentless attacks on abortion, several state legislatures have focused on measures that target transgender youth by banning gender-affirming care or restricting their participation in sports. These laws are part of a new wave of restrictions that build on transphobic legislation from previous years, including “bathroom bills” that require individuals to use the bathroom that corresponds to their sex as assigned at birth and bills to ban puberty blockers, which give young people time to make a decision about transitioning.

Continued: https://www.guttmacher.org/article/2021/07/state-policy-trends-midyear-2021-already-worst-legislative-year-ever-us-abortion

USA – Gestational Age Bans: Harmful at Any Stage of Pregnancy

Gestational Age Bans: Harmful at Any Stage of Pregnancy

Megan K. Donovan, Guttmacher Institute
First published online: January 9, 2020

HIGHLIGHTS

Efforts to ban abortion by gestational age surged in 2019, helping to expose antiabortion lawmakers’ true agenda to eliminate abortion rights entirely.
Using gestational age as a legal cutoff for abortion care is harmful at any point in pregnancy.
States such as Oregon and Vermont are leading the way in enacting laws that prohibit government interference in abortion care throughout pregnancy.

Continued: https://www.guttmacher.org/gpr/2020/01/gestational-age-bans-harmful-any-stage-pregnancy

USA – 21 Abortion Restrictions Have Already Been Enacted in 2019. More Are Coming

21 Abortion Restrictions Have Already Been Enacted in 2019. More Are Coming

By Erin Corbett
April 23, 2019

State legislatures across the country are planning to completely restrict abortion access.

Twenty-one abortion restrictions have been enacted across the U.S. this year, according to the Guttmacher Institute, which tracks data for research and policy analysis on abortion in the U.S. And with another eight months left, lawmakers in 28 state legislatures have introduced bills that seek to add even more restrictions.

Continued: http://fortune.com/2019/04/23/new-abortion-laws-2019/

USA – Radical Attempts to Ban Abortion Dominate State Policy Trends in the First Quarter of 2019

Radical Attempts to Ban Abortion Dominate State Policy Trends in the First Quarter of 2019

Guttmacher Institute
First published online: April 3, 2019

Abortion rights took center stage in state legislatures during the first three months of 2019. While a number of states took steps to protect abortion access, these efforts were overshadowed by attempts to restrict abortion access. Indeed, antiabortion policymakers wasted no time revealing their true agenda: banning abortion.

Although the overall number of abortion restrictions introduced so far in 2019 was essentially the same as in the first quarter of 2018, the extreme nature of this year’s bills is unprecedented. In particular, conservative state legislatures are looking to enact abortion bans in the hopes of kick-starting litigation that will give the U.S. Supreme Court, and its majority of conservative justices, ample opportunity to undermine or eliminate abortion rights. Legislation under consideration in 28 states would ban abortion in a variety of ways:

Continued: https://www.guttmacher.org/article/2019/04/radical-attempts-ban-abortion-dominate-state-policy-trends-first-quarter-2019