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Vol. 78/No. 3      January 27, 2014

 
State gov’ts chip away at
women’s right to abortion
 
BY JOHN STUDER  
Since the U.S. Supreme Court Roe v. Wade decision decriminalized abortion in 1973, opponents of women’s rights have chipped away at access to the procedure. In 1976, Congress passed the Hyde Amendment, which barred use of federal funds for abortion under Medicaid. This law has been renewed repeatedly and was recently extended to private insurance plans women can purchase under Obamacare.

State legislatures have imposed waiting periods, mandatory ultrasound exams, parental notification for young women, requirements that abortion providers have admitting privileges in nearby hospitals and that their clinics meet all the standards of ambulatory surgical facilities, shortened the time period in which abortion is legal, restricted medication abortion, and more.

Over the past three years, such efforts have increased. From 2011 to 2013, state legislatures passed 205 new restrictions on access to abortion rights, as opposed to 189 enacted in the decade before.

These attacks have especially restricted access for working-class women and those in rural areas. Some 87 percent of all counties, and 97 percent of those in rural areas, have no abortion facilities.

There have been few mass street mobilizations against these attacks, leaving opponents of women’s rights with the initiative. At the same time, recent polls show around 70 percent continue to back the right.

Some of the most onerous restrictions have been struck down. On Jan. 13 the Supreme Court let stand an appeals court ruling overturning an Arizona state law that criminalized virtually all abortions after 20 weeks of gestation, which the lower court said violated Roe v. Wade’s “unalterably clear” language.
 
 
Related articles:
Kenneth Edelin: Champion of rights of women, Blacks
Doctor defended right to abortion, beat back frame-up
 
 
 
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