NARAL Pro-Choice America supports a wide range of pro-choice policies that help protect every woman's right to make the full range of reproductive choices, including preventing unintended pregnancy, bearing healthy children, and choosing safe, legal abortion.

In 2008, our nationwide Prevention First initiative continued to gain support, and helped create new laws aimed at making abortion less necessary by preventing unintended pregnancies. Pro-choice advocates challenged lawmakers to stand with us and unify behind commonsense prevention policies that would guarantee women's access to birth control at pharmacies, require equitable insurance coverage for contraception, prevent teen pregnancy, ensure age-appropriate and medically accurate sex education in schools, expand low-income women's access to family planning services, and increase women's awareness of and ability to obtain emergency contraception, also known as the "morning-after" pill. In 2008, lawmakers across the country put prevention first and prioritized women's health over politics.

In addition to being an important year for prevention efforts, 2008 saw states focus on expanding access to health care services for women who choose to become parents. Nine states enacted laws to help women have healthier pregnancies. This includes measures that expand coverage for Medicaid-funded services for lowincome pregnant women and establish programs for engaging at-risk pregnant women in early and continuous prenatal care.

In 2009, when anti-choice advocates likely will try to enact new restrictions on abortion that could test the Court's interpretation of the constitutional right to choose, NARAL Pro-Choice America, our affiliates, and our allies will work to defeat those divisive measures that pose such serious threats to women's health. We will also demonstrate that we have the commonsense position on not only abortion, but on a whole range of other issues—including preventing unintended pregnancies and expanding access to reproductive health care for all women.

PRO-CHOICE STATE LEGISLATIVE MEASURES¹ CONSIDERED & ENACTED IN 2008²

Measures considered:

• States considered 459 pro-choice measures in 2008; 175 of these were Prevention First measures.
• The number of pro-choice measures considered in 2008 increased 6.5 percent from 2007, when states considered 431 pro-choice measures.
• Every state with a regular legislative session considered pro-choice legislation in 2008, except for Idaho, Maine, Nebraska, and Wyoming.
• New York considered the most pro-choice legislation in 2008 with 59 measures; 15 of these were Prevention First measures.
• The most popular non-Prevention First pro-choice legislation is that related to improving healthy childbearing; 22 states considered 61 healthy childbearing measures.

Measures enacted:

• 23 states enacted 39 pro-choice measures in 2008; four of these were Prevention First measures.
• California enacted the most pro-choice legislation in 2008, with six measures.
• Colorado, Indiana, Minnesota, and Wisconsin enacted Prevention First measures in 2008.

KEY PREVENTION FIRST AND OTHER PRO-CHOICE VICTORIES IN 2008

• Wisconsin enacted a law that ensures that sexual assault survivors receive information about and access to emergency contraception in emergency rooms.
• New Hampshire enacted a law to improve sex education in schools by making HIV/AIDS education a more integral part of the basic health education and physical health education curricula.
• Kansas, Maryland, Minnesota, New York, Oklahoma, Utah, Vermont, and West Virginia enacted laws that promote healthy childbearing.
• California enacted a law that protects women's access to reproductive-health facilities by extending the repeal date of the California "Reproductive Rights Law Enforcement Act" to 2014. The law was due to expire January 1, 2009.

1 This report uses the term "legislative measures" to refer to bills, independently operative sections of bills, and resolutions (resolutions frequently express the sentiment of the legislature but do not create new legal requirements). The term "considered" refers to bills that were introduced in a legislative session, as well as those carried over from a previous legislative session. "Laws" refers to constitutional provisions, statutes, regulations, court decisions, and opinions of state attorneys general.

2 NARAL Pro-Choice America tracks many different types of pro-choice legislation that fully encompass a woman's right to choose, including measures that promote healthy childbearing and expand insurance coverage for women's reproductive health services. Our Prevention First initiative focuses on those particular areas that are key to preventing unintended pregnancies, which include measures that promote: comprehensive sex education, young women's access to confidential health care services, teen pregnancy prevention, insurance coverage for contraception, access to family planning services and supplies, guaranteed access to prescriptions, and emergency contraception (EC pharmacy access, EC in the ER, and EC public education).