Vol. 79/No. 21      June 8, 2015

Since the beginning of 2015, more than 300 new restrictions have been proposed in 45 states, and 37 of them enacted — including term limits, waiting periods, clinic regulations aimed at limiting access to abortion and bans on procedures. More than 200 such state laws have been adopted since 2011, making it much harder for many working-class women, especially in rural areas, to obtain an abortion.

At the same time, anti-woman forces have been unable to overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision decriminalizing abortion, nor reverse the majority public opinion in favor of keeping it legal.

Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin signed a bill May 6 tripling to 72 hours the waiting period before a woman can obtain an abortion. Legislatures in Florida and Tennessee also recently passed laws imposing waiting periods. In April state governments in Oklahoma and Kansas enacted laws that would effectively ban most abortions after 14 weeks of pregnancy.

More than half of states now have mandatory waiting periods. The bill passed by the Florida legislature, which the governor is likely to sign, and the Tennessee law are among several that require a woman to go to two separate doctor’s appointments before they could legally get an abortion.

Planned Parenthood chapters have been organizing weekly “Women’s Act Wednesdays” protests in Florida against the waiting period extension and other anti-abortion bills.

Planned Parenthood wants to keep the legislature out of medical decisions between women and their doctors, Anna Eskamani, a spokeswoman for the group in Orlando, told the press at a March 4 protest at Florida’s Capitol in Tallahassee.

“This law is particularly bad for rural women and for women who are economically challenged,” Barbara De-Vane from the National Organization for Women in Tallahassee, told the Militant by phone May 21. “You have to make at least two trips, which means double the gas, double the time off work, double the child care arrangements.”

When the bill was introduced, its sponsor, state Rep. Jennifer Sullivan, “started by saying it ‘empowers women,’” DeVane said. “But it takes away women’s control over their health care and well-being.”

The demagogically titled “dismemberment abortion” bans adopted in Oklahoma and Kansas target the procedure known as dilation and evacuation, or D&E, the most common method used for second-trimester abortions. Of the roughly 5,000 abortions performed in Oklahoma in 2013, about 5 percent used this method.

“This is about preventing women from having the health care and the medical attention they need,” Jennifer Dalven, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Reproductive Freedom Project, told Slate magazine.  
 
 
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