Anti-abortion advocates are urgent for expanded abortion bans and tighter restrictions because the Supreme Court overturned the nationwide proper to abortion. But with the talk largely deadlocked in Washington, the main focus is shifting to states convening their first full legislative classes since Roe v. Wade was overturned.
Although some state GOP lawmakers have filed payments to ban abortion drugs or make it tougher for girls to journey out of state for an abortion, others appear cut up about what their subsequent steps must be. Some are even contemplating measures to ease their states’ present bans considerably, notably after Republicans’ less-than-stellar displaying within the 2022 midterm elections and voters’ widespread help for abortion on state poll measures.
Meanwhile, Democratic-led states need to shore up abortion protections, together with Minnesota and Michigan, the place Democrats sewed up legislative majorities within the November elections.
Anti-abortion teams stated their objective in overturning Roe v. Wade was to show the choice again to the states, however now they’re making clear that what they need is an encompassing nationwide abortion ban.
“Legislation at the state and federal levels should provide the most generous protections possible to life in the womb,” says the “Post-Roe Blueprint” of the anti-abortion group Students for Life.
The new Republican-led House confirmed its anti-abortion bona fides on its first day of formal legislating, Jan. 11, passing two items of anti-abortion laws which can be unlikely to turn out to be legislation with a Senate nonetheless managed by Democrats and President Joe Biden within the White House.
So on the federal stage, the struggle is taking form within the courts over the abortion capsule mifepristone, which has been used as a part of a two-drug routine for greater than 20 years, and lately grew to become the way in which a majority of abortions within the U.S. are performed.
The Biden administration has moved to make mifepristone extra extensively obtainable by permitting it to be distributed by pharmacies, in addition to clarifying that it’s authorized to distribute the drugs by way of the U.S. mail. But the conservative authorized group Alliance Defending Freedom, on behalf of a number of anti-abortion teams, filed a federal lawsuit in Texas in November, charging that the FDA by no means had the authority to approve the drug within the first place.
In Texas, some lawmakers are exploring new methods to chip away at Texans’ remaining sliver of entry to abortions. For instance, one proposal would forestall native governments from utilizing tax {dollars} to assist individuals entry abortion providers out of state, whereas one other would prohibit tax subsidies for companies that assist their native staff receive abortions out of state.
Those measures may get misplaced within the shuffle of the state’s frantic 140-day, every-other-year session, if legislative leaders do not take into account them a precedence. The state’s set off legislation banning nearly all abortions that went into impact final yr “appears to be working very well,” stated Joe Pojman, founder and govt director of Texas Alliance for Life, an anti-abortion group. In August 2022, three abortions have been documented within the state, down from extra 5,700 reported throughout the identical month a yr earlier, in keeping with the newest state information.
The high state House Republican stated his precedence is boosting help for brand spanking new mothers, for instance, by extending postpartum Medicaid protection to 12 months.
It’s “an opportunity for the Texas House to focus more than ever on supporting mothers and children,” stated Republican House Speaker Dade Phelan.
South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, a Republican, struck the same theme in a Jan. 10 speech, saying she’s going to introduce payments to broaden a program for nurses to go to new moms at residence and assist state staff pay for adoptions. Previously, Noem stated South Dakota must focus “on taking care of mothers in crisis and getting them the resources that they need for both them and their child to be successful.”
Some Texas GOP lawmakers indicated they might be open to carving out exceptions to the abortion ban in instances of rape and incest. And a Republican lawmaker plans to aim to change South Dakota’s ban, which permits abortions just for life-threatening pregnancies, to make clear when abortions are medically vital.
“Part of the issue right now is that doctors and providers just don’t know what that line is,” stated state Rep. Taylor Rehfeldt, a nurse who has skilled miscarriages and high-risk pregnancies herself.
Rehfeldt needs to reinstate a former legislation that enables abortions for pregnancies that would trigger severe, irreversible bodily hurt to a “major bodily function.” Rehfeldt stated she can be engaged on payments to permit abortions for individuals carrying non-viable fetuses, or who grew to become pregnant after rape or incest.
Some anti-abortion activists in Georgia are pushing lawmakers to go additional than the state’s ban on most abortions at about six weeks of being pregnant. They need a legislation to ban telehealth prescriptions of abortion drugs and a state constitutional modification declaring that an embryo or a fetus has all of the authorized rights of an individual at any stage of growth.
“Roe is out of the way,” stated Zemmie Fleck, govt director of Georgia Right to Life. “There’s no more roadblock to what we can do in our state.”
Republican leaders, nevertheless, are biding their time whereas Georgia’s excessive courtroom weighs a authorized problem of the six-week ban. “Our focus remains on the case before the Georgia Supreme Court and seeing it across the finish line,” stated Andrew Isenhour, spokesperson for Republican Gov. Brian Kemp.
Abortion rights lawmakers and advocates have few choices to advance their initiatives in these Republican-controlled statehouses.
A Georgia Democrat filed a invoice that might make the state compensate ladies who’re unable to terminate pregnancies due to the state’s abortion ban. State Rep. Dar’shun Kendrick acknowledged her invoice seemingly will not go far, however she stated she hopes it retains consideration on the difficulty and forces GOP lawmakers to “put their money where their mouth is” in supporting households.
In Missouri, the place practically all abortions are actually banned, abortion rights advocates are mulling the concept of circumventing the state’s Republican-dominated legislature by asking voters in 2024 to enshrine the best to an abortion within the state’s structure.
But these efforts may very well be upended by a slew of payments filed by Republican lawmakers in search of to make it tougher to position constitutional initiatives on the poll, and for these measures that do make it on the poll, by requiring the approval of at the very least 60% of voters for passage.
Democrats in Michigan and Minnesota are seemingly to make use of their newfound management of each legislative chambers and the governors’ workplace to guard abortion entry. While Michigan voters already handed a poll measure in November that enshrines the best to abortions within the state structure, Democrats are attempting to repeal a 1931 abortion legislation from the books.
In Illinois, Democrats accountable for the legislature lately bolstered abortion protections amid elevated demand from out-of-state residents. New York lawmakers this yr might ship voters a proposed state constitutional modification to guard abortion, whereas New Jersey lawmakers determined in opposition to the same proposal.
The November elections introduced divided authorities to Arizona and Nevada, with Arizona now having a Democratic governor and Nevada having a Republican one. Any abortion-related payments that go the legislatures in these states may very well be vetoed.
Some Republican-controlled legislatures, together with these in Montana, Florida, and Alaska, are also restricted in passing sweeping abortion bans due to courtroom rulings that tie abortion entry to right-to-privacy provisions in these states’ constitutions.
In Montana, a state decide blocked three anti-abortion legal guidelines handed in 2021 on that foundation. State authorities attorneys have requested the Montana Supreme Court to reverse the precedent, and a choice is pending.
In the meantime, Republican state Sen. Keith Regier has filed a invoice there in search of to exclude abortion from the state’s definition of a proper to privateness. Regier stated he believes a person’s proper to privateness mustn’t apply to abortion as a result of an unborn youngster is also concerned.
Democratic leaders stated Republicans are out of sync with the individuals they signify on this difficulty. In November, Montana voters rejected a “born alive” poll initiative that might have required medical doctors to use medical care to newborns who draw breath or have a heartbeat after a failed abortion or some other beginning.
“Montanans said so clearly that they do not want government overreach in their health care decisions,” stated Democratic state Rep. Alice Buckley.
KHN correspondents Renuka Rayasam and Sam Whitehead in Atlanta; Arielle Zionts in Rapid City, South Dakota; Bram Sable-Smith in St. Louis; and Katheryn Houghton in Missoula, Montana, contributed to this report.
KHN (Kaiser Health News) is a nationwide newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about well being points. Together with Policy Analysis and Polling, KHN is without doubt one of the three main working packages at KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation). KFF is an endowed nonprofit group offering info on well being points to the nation.