States Report
Our annual report, Who Decides? The Status of Women's Reproductive Rights in the United States, takes a look at choice-related laws in each state and the federal government.
- Read the report online
- Download the Who Decides? The Status of Women's Reproductive Rights in the United States (PDF)
Congressional Record on Choice
How did your members of Congress vote on choice-related issues in 2012?
The Powers of the President
In advance of the 2012 elections, this updated report documented the powers of the president over reproductive freedom and choice.
Fact Sheets
Our fact sheets are great resources for reporters, students, and academics. Anyone who needs detailed information on choice-related issues should check them out. All fact sheets are PDF files.
Abortion
Abortion Bans at 20 Weeks: A Dangerous Restriction for Women
In 2010, Nebraska passed a law banning abortion care after 20 weeks under the auspices of concern about fetal pain.1 In 2011 and 2012, a groundswell of eight additional states—Alabama, Arizona, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, and Oklahoma—enacted similar bans.2 None of these laws has an adequate health exception or an exception for cases of rape or incest. With a total of 21 states introducing 45 similar abortion-ban measures in the last two years and the D.C.-specific ban at the federal level, this type of proposal poses a new, nationwide threat to the health and wellbeing of American women.
Abortion Bans Without Exceptions Endanger Women’s Health
Despite the court’s clear rulings protecting women’s health, anti-choice activists, legislators, and jurists continue to attack its legal safeguards. Time after time, anti-choice lawmakers vote down proposed health exceptions to abortion restrictions, and prominent anti-choice leaders openly state their opposition to protecting women’s health as required by law.
Abortion Coverage for Women Enrolled in Federal Employees Health Benefits Program
The Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB) program is a network of private insurance plans that covers more than eight million federal employees, their dependents, and retirees. For nearly 30 years, anti-choice lawmakers have used the Financial Services and General Government Appropriations bill (or its predecessor appropriations legislation), which provides funding for the FEHB program, as an opportunity to deny access to abortion coverage to federal employees:
Abortion Funding Restrictions Threaten Women's Health
Anti‐choice legislators have continually used these “must‐pass” bills as vehicles to deny coverage for abortion services to millions of women whose health care is subject to federal control. Amendments to appropriations bills can restrict abortion coverage for: federal employees and their dependents; residents of the District of Columbia; low‐income women and some disabled women who rely on Medicaid and Medicare for their health‐care coverage; military personnel and their dependents; Peace Corps volunteers; Native‐American women; and women in federal prisons.
Affiliation Bans Would Devastate States’ Family-Planning Systems
Politicians in Congress and the states have attacked family-planning programs by aiming to restrict the flow of federal dollars to reproductive-health clinics if they, as part of the full menu of reproductive-health services they offer, provide abortion care or, in some cases, are simply affiliated with a provider that does offer abortion care.
Affiliation Bans Would Devastate the Country’s Family-Planning System
Politicians in Congress and the states have attacked family-planning programs by aiming to restrict the flow of federal dollars to reproductive-health clinics if they, as part of the full menu of reproductive-health services they offer, provide abortion care or, in some cases, are simply affiliated with a provider that does offer abortion care.
Anti-Choice Violence and Intimidation
A campaign of violence, vandalism, and intimidation is endangering providers and patients and curtailing the availability of abortion services.
Congress Should Not Legitimize the Mythical "Post-Abortion Syndrome"
Anti-choice activists have long hoped to find scientific support for their claims that abortion causes a range of negative effects on women who choose this reproductive option – from increased rates of breast cancer to higher rates of depression, even to a supposed “link” with alcoholism. In fact, these claims have been disproven by a long line of credible, scientific research.
Effects of the Global Gag Rule: Examples from Around the World
During the years that the global gag rule was in effect, it resulted in dramatic drops in funding to organizations worldwide that provide necessary family-planning services and other health-care services and an increase in abortion. Indeed, a 2011 Stanford University study found that abortion rates more than doubled in African countries that were most reliant on U.S. family-planning aid during the years that policy was in place.
Faith and Choice
For many Americans, religious and spiritual convictions contribute significantly to their view on reproductive rights. And while abortion is often discussed in terms of law, medicine, personal autonomy, public health, and the appropriate role of government in citizens’ lives, it is equally valid to consider the issue from a perspective of faith.
Fast Facts about the Federal Refusal Clause
The Federal Refusal Clause is a sweeping exemption from laws and regulations that ensure that women have access to abortion services.
Forced-Ultrasound Legislation is an Egregious Intrusion into Medical Care
The Ultrasound Informed Consent Act (H.R.3805 in the 112th Congress), sponsored by Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), effectively mandates that all women seeking abortion services undergo an ultrasound, even if not medically necessary, and even if it is against a woman’s will. At first, this proposal might sound innocuous, or even beneficial. However, a closer look reveals that the legislation is an egregious and unprecedented federal intrusion into medical care – and is, at its core, designed to intimidate, shame, and harass women who seek to exercise their constitutionally protected right to choose.
Global Gag Rule - A Flawed Policy That Sacrifices Women’s Lives
On January 23, 2009, during his first week in office, President Barack Obama repealed the global gag rule, a policy that prohibited the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) from granting family-planning funds to any overseas health center unless it agreed not to use its own, private, non-U.S. funds for: (1) abortion services, (2) abortion-related advocacy, or (3) abortion counseling or referrals. The policy effectively blocked funds from organizations that provide family-planning services, as well as other critical health services, to some of the poorest women in the world.
Health Groups Support Confidential Health Services for Young People
National medical and public health organizations support access to confidential health services for young people as a means to improve health outcomes.
Lift the Ban on Privately Funded Abortion Services for Military Women Overseas
Since 1979, the Department of Defense (DoD) appropriations bills have prohibited the use of federal funds for abortion services at overseas military hospitals in almost all cases. In 1988, DoD issued an administrative order – without congressional consultation – extending the funding ban to prohibit women from obtaining abortion care with their own funds at military facilities overseas.
Mandatory Parental-Involvement Laws Threaten Young Women’s Safety
Mandatory parental-involvement (consent and notice) laws do not solve the problem of inadequate family communication; they only exacerbate a potentially dangerous situation.
Mifepristone is a Safe Choice
Mifepristone (also known by its original name RU 486 and its trade name, Mifeprex®) is the first and only FDA-approved medication providing women with a safe and effective, nonsurgical option for early pregnancy termination. Mifepristone has been tested extensively and used safely and effectively worldwide since 1981, and in the United States since 2000.
Mifepristone: The Impact of Abortion Politics on Women’s Health and Scientific Research
Mifepristone is the first and only FDA-approved medication providing women with a safe and effective nonsurgical option for early pregnancy termination. Despite its proven safety and its promise for scientific research, continued political attacks on mifepristone provide a prime example of how opposition to a woman’s right to privacy and choice impairs medical advances and contradicts scientific research, compromising public health.
Polling Update: Americans Steadfastly Support Roe v. Wade and Legal Abortion
Public Opinion Update: A Look at America’s Pro-Choice Majority
Protect D.C. Residents’ Rights; Repeal the Ban on Local Abortion Funding
Barring the District from using its own locally raised revenues for abortion services usurps the prerogatives of the local D.C. government and tramples the rights of District residents. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, 64,500 nonelderly Medicaid-enrolled women whose access is affected by the ban resided in the city in 2009. No other jurisdiction or state is told how to use its locally raised revenue. In fact, 17 states currently choose to provide local funds for abortion services.
Refusal Laws: Dangerous for Women’s Health
Refusal laws (sometimes called “conscience” laws) permit a broad range of individuals and institutions—including hospitals, hospital employees, health-care providers, employers, and insurers—to refuse to provide, pay, counsel or even refer for medical treatment.
The Difference Between Emergency Contraception and Medical Abortion (Mifepristone/RU 486)
The line between contraception and abortion is often blurred, intentionally and unintentionally, in the course of policy discussions about emergency contraception (also known as the “morning-after” pill) and the early-abortion option, mifepristone (also known as RU 486). The distinction between the two is important, especially since anti-choice lawmakers are trying to restrict women’s access to these and other reproductive-health services.
The Federal Abortion Ban
In 2003, Congress passed the Federal Abortion Ban, and President Bush signed it into law. The ban outlaws certain second-trimester abortions that doctors have said are necessary to protect some women’s health. The law has no exception for cases when a woman’s health is in danger.
The Federal Refusal Clause: Endangering Women’s Health
The Federal Refusal Clause, also known as the Weldon amendment, is a wide-sweeping and controversial provision that threatens women’s access to reproductive-health care by blocking federal, state, and local governments from enforcing their own pro-choice laws and contracts.
The Safety of Legal Abortion and the Hazards of Illegal Abortion
As part of their strategy to make abortion illegal and unavailable, anti-choice forces make unsubstantiated claims that legal abortion is harmful to women’s health. The fact is that the decriminalization of abortion in the United States in 1973 has led to tremendous gains in protecting women’s health.
The Truth about Crisis Pregnancy Centers
Anyone seeking health-care services should receive comprehensive, unbiased, medically and factually accurate information. Women facing unintended pregnancy deserve no less. When women are fully informed, they are better able to make responsible and appropriate decisions about their reproductive health. Mindful of this, the anti-choice movement has for years tried to restrict, control, and manipulate the information doctors give women facing unplanned pregnancies. Unable to shut down legitimate public-health clinics, their most recent strategy is instead to build a network across the country of anti-choice organizations, some of them posing as comprehensive health-care clinics – so-called “crisis pregnancy centers” (CPCs).
U.S. Supreme Court Decisions Concerning Reproductive Rights 1965-2007
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled on many choice-related cases since 1965.
“Personhood” Measures: Extreme and Dangerous Attempts to Ban Abortion
The most strident anti-choice advocates are pushing for an all-out abortion ban, and have chosen among the most far-reaching approaches to reach their goal: so-called “personhood” measures.
Birth Control
Affiliation Bans Would Devastate States’ Family-Planning Systems
Politicians in Congress and the states have attacked family-planning programs by aiming to restrict the flow of federal dollars to reproductive-health clinics if they, as part of the full menu of reproductive-health services they offer, provide abortion care or, in some cases, are simply affiliated with a provider that does offer abortion care.
Affiliation Bans Would Devastate the Country’s Family-Planning System
Politicians in Congress and the states have attacked family-planning programs by aiming to restrict the flow of federal dollars to reproductive-health clinics if they, as part of the full menu of reproductive-health services they offer, provide abortion care or, in some cases, are simply affiliated with a provider that does offer abortion care.
Effects of the Global Gag Rule: Examples from Around the World
During the years that the global gag rule was in effect, it resulted in dramatic drops in funding to organizations worldwide that provide necessary family-planning services and other health-care services and an increase in abortion. Indeed, a 2011 Stanford University study found that abortion rates more than doubled in African countries that were most reliant on U.S. family-planning aid during the years that policy was in place.
Emergency Contraception (EC): An Important and Underutilized Contraceptive Option
Emergency contraception (EC), also known as the “morning-after” pill, can substantially reduce a woman’s chance of becoming pregnant when taken soon after sex.1 EC does not cause abortion; rather it prevents pregnancy.
Emergency Contraception Can Help Reduce the Teen-Pregnancy Rate
Emergency contraception (EC) holds tremendous potential for reducing the number of unintended pregnancies among young women. EC, also known as the “morning-after” pill, can substantially reduce a woman’s chance of becoming pregnant when taken soon after sex. EC does not cause abortion; rather it prevents pregnancy. Fewer unintended pregnancies mean a reduced need for abortion – a goal on which everyone should be able to agree.
Faith and Choice
For many Americans, religious and spiritual convictions contribute significantly to their view on reproductive rights. And while abortion is often discussed in terms of law, medicine, personal autonomy, public health, and the appropriate role of government in citizens’ lives, it is equally valid to consider the issue from a perspective of faith.
Fast Facts about the Federal Refusal Clause
The Federal Refusal Clause is a sweeping exemption from laws and regulations that ensure that women have access to abortion services.
Global Gag Rule - A Flawed Policy That Sacrifices Women’s Lives
On January 23, 2009, during his first week in office, President Barack Obama repealed the global gag rule, a policy that prohibited the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) from granting family-planning funds to any overseas health center unless it agreed not to use its own, private, non-U.S. funds for: (1) abortion services, (2) abortion-related advocacy, or (3) abortion counseling or referrals. The policy effectively blocked funds from organizations that provide family-planning services, as well as other critical health services, to some of the poorest women in the world.
Guarantee Women’s Access to Birth Control
In theory, the concept is simple: a woman walks into a pharmacy with a birth-control prescription from her doctor and should walk out with the medication – without intimidation, without delay, without a run-around. But in reality, some pharmacists refuse to fill women’s legally prescribed birth-control prescriptions. Some even go so far as to lecture women, humiliate them in public, or refuse to hand back the prescription after they refuse to fill it.
Health Groups Support Confidential Health Services for Young People
National medical and public health organizations support access to confidential health services for young people as a means to improve health outcomes.
Health-Care Law Holds Tremendous Promise for Women's Reproductive-Health Care
In March 2010, Congress passed landmark health-reform legislation known as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (the Affordable Care Act). The new law presents an historic opportunity to improve America’s health-care system, which is woefully inadequate from a reproductive-health perspective.
Teen Pregnancy: A Preventable Epidemic
Our nation is facing an adolescent reproductive-health crisis, with one in four teenage girls having a sexually transmitted disease, and one in three becoming pregnant before the age of 20.
The Difference Between Emergency Contraception and Medical Abortion (Mifepristone/RU 486)
The line between contraception and abortion is often blurred, intentionally and unintentionally, in the course of policy discussions about emergency contraception (also known as the “morning-after” pill) and the early-abortion option, mifepristone (also known as RU 486). The distinction between the two is important, especially since anti-choice lawmakers are trying to restrict women’s access to these and other reproductive-health services.
Title X Family-Planning Services: Fast Facts
Title X (ten) of the Public Health Service Act is the cornerstone of the federal domestic family-planning program: it is the only federal program exclusively dedicated to family planning and reproductive-health services.
United Nations Population Fund
Founded in 1969, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) is the largest internationally funded source of population assistance to developing countries. For more than 40 years, UNFPA – which is funded entirely from voluntary contributions from participating nations – has provided more than $6 billion in aid to about 150 countries for voluntary family planning and maternal and child health care. The UNFPA provides crucial funding for family-planning services, as well as other essential health services, for some of the poorest women in the world..
Sex Education
"Abstinence-Only" Programs: Ideology Over Science
“Abstinence-only” programs are not proven effective and may in fact result in riskier behavior by teenagers. Responsible sex-education programs, on the other hand, have demonstrated positive results such as delayed initiation of sex, reduced frequency of sex, and increased contraceptive use.
Americans Support Responsible Sex Education
The public overwhelmingly supports age-appropriate, comprehensive sex education, yet anti-choice policymakers have increasingly promoted restrictive abstinence-only programs that censor information about contraception and STD/HIV prevention strategies.
Faith and Choice
For many Americans, religious and spiritual convictions contribute significantly to their view on reproductive rights. And while abortion is often discussed in terms of law, medicine, personal autonomy, public health, and the appropriate role of government in citizens’ lives, it is equally valid to consider the issue from a perspective of faith.
Teen Pregnancy: A Preventable Epidemic
Our nation is facing an adolescent reproductive-health crisis, with one in four teenage girls having a sexually transmitted disease, and one in three becoming pregnant before the age of 20.
Healthy Pregnancies
Affiliation Bans Would Devastate States’ Family-Planning Systems
Politicians in Congress and the states have attacked family-planning programs by aiming to restrict the flow of federal dollars to reproductive-health clinics if they, as part of the full menu of reproductive-health services they offer, provide abortion care or, in some cases, are simply affiliated with a provider that does offer abortion care.
Affiliation Bans Would Devastate the Country’s Family-Planning System
Politicians in Congress and the states have attacked family-planning programs by aiming to restrict the flow of federal dollars to reproductive-health clinics if they, as part of the full menu of reproductive-health services they offer, provide abortion care or, in some cases, are simply affiliated with a provider that does offer abortion care.
Health-Care Law Holds Tremendous Promise for Women's Reproductive-Health Care
In March 2010, Congress passed landmark health-reform legislation known as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (the Affordable Care Act). The new law presents an historic opportunity to improve America’s health-care system, which is woefully inadequate from a reproductive-health perspective.
Title X Family-Planning Services: Fast Facts
Title X (ten) of the Public Health Service Act is the cornerstone of the federal domestic family-planning program: it is the only federal program exclusively dedicated to family planning and reproductive-health services.
