Washington, DC – NARAL Pro-Choice America, the nation’s leading advocate of personal privacy and a woman’s right to choose, today released the NARAL Pro-Choice America Foundation’s annual comprehensive state by state review of reproductive rights laws, “Who Decides? A State-by-State Report on the Status of Women’s Reproductive Rights.” The report shows the most hostile political environment to women’s reproductive liberty since Roe v. Wade. As a result of increased state restrictions and the first-ever federal ban on abortion procedures which was signed by President Bush, the nation’s grade on reproductive freedom was reduced to its lowest ever, a “D.”

“Anti-choice lawmakers and judges are attacking the fundamental right to choose from every angle,” said NARAL Pro-Choice America President Kate Michelman. “State governments are intruding further than they have in years into women’s private lives and decisions. We now have a patchwork of restrictions reminiscent of pre-Roe days. The surge of anti-choice activity at the state level highlights very real concerns about what could happen if the Supreme Court further guts the protections of Roe v. Wade thanks to new justices nominated by President Bush.”

The report finds that:

• States enacted 45 anti-choice measures – a 32.4% increase from 2002, when 34 anti-choice measures were enacted - bringing the total number of anti-choice measures enacted since 1995 to 380;
• Anti-choice policymakers not only continued their incremental attack on a woman’s right to choose, but also attempted to pass outright bans on abortion;
• and Virginia and the federal government enacted unconstitutional laws criminalizing abortion procedures – without any exception to protect a woman’s health.

One example of the ferocity with which anti-choice legislators pursued their agenda this year is that states often had several nearly identical bills pending at the same time. For example, 14 bills were introduced concurrently in Minnesota to impose biased counseling requirements and mandatory delays on women seeking abortion services. Minnesota, along with Texas, enacted laws requiring that women seeking abortion services be given information linking abortion to breast cancer – a link discredited by leading health and cancer organizations and intended by anti-choice forces to frighten women away from exercising their right to choose.

“This report clearly documents the importance of NARAL Pro-Choice America’s mobilization to protect the right to choose, and reinforces the fact that America’s pro-choice majority must act immediately and powerfully to safeguard our liberty or lose it,” said Michelman.