Pro-Choice Progress
- Six states enacted 10 pro-choice measures in 2011.
- California enacted the most pro-choice legislation in 2011, with four measures, including a law to protect the confidentiality of reproductive-health professionals and patients.
- Colorado enacted a law that improves sex education for young people, marking the seventh year in a row that the state has enacted a pro-choice law.
- California and Colorado joined Idaho and Oregon in enacting laws that promote healthy childbearing.
- Maryland and Washington improved low-income women’s access to reproductive-health services by expanding eligibility for their state Medicaid family-planning programs.
- In November, Mississippi voters rejected a so-called “personhood” ballot measure that would have outlawed abortion and potentially banned common forms of birth control, in vitro fertilization, and stem-cell research.
Anti-Choice Attacks
- 26 states have enacted 69 anti-choice measures in 2011.
- Arizona, Florida, and Kansas enacted the most anti-choice legislation in 2011, with five measures each.
- Alabama, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, and Oklahoma enacted pre-viability bans on abortion care after 20 weeks.
- Nine states – Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, Utah, and Virginia – passed bans on insurance coverage of abortion.
- Kansas and Virginia imposed onerous regulations on abortion providers that are intended to shut down all clinics that offer abortion care.
- Arizona passed a law that denies charitable tax status to any organization that provides, refers for, or provides coverage of abortion.
- Arizona also became the first state in the nation to enact a criminal ban on abortion if the doctor fails to determine that the race or sex of the pregnancy is a factor in the woman’s decision.
