New Report Shows Harmful Restrictions on Women's Reproductive Freedom

(Washington, DC) – NARAL Pro-Choice America, the nation's leading advocate of personal privacy and a woman's right to choose, released the 15th annual edition of its publication Who Decides? The Status of Women's Reproductive Rights in the United States. This comprehensive report summarizes the status of women's access to reproductive healthcare nationwide, and exposes the unfortunate reality that many American women lack meaningful access to the full range of reproductive health services.

The report's release coincides with the Supreme Court's ruling today in Ayotte v. Planned Parenthood of Northern New England in which the Justices sent a case back to a lower federal court to reconsider whether the challenged New Hampshire law, which does not include an exception to protect women's health, is unconstitutional.

The Supreme Court's decision comes as the Senate is considering Samuel Alito's nomination to the Supreme Court.

"As a lawyer at the Justice Department in 1985, Samuel Alito was an architect of the far right's strategy to use the states as laboratories to enact measures that would chip away at women's reproductive freedom and undermine the core principles of Roe v. Wade," said Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America. "This report shows how Alito's strategy of dismantling Roe state by state is coming to fruition."

Among the findings, the report specifically points to indications that pharmacist refusals and restrictions on access to birth control are on the rise. In 2005, 15 states considered legislation that would allow pharmacists to refuse to fill women's birth control prescriptions, 40 years after a landmark Supreme Court decision struck down a state law prohibiting birth control used by married couples.

In addition to evaluating key freedom and privacy issues nationally, the report grades each state and the District of Columbia on women's reproductive health and summarizes related state laws. It includes new sections on prevention and other areas, citing key findings and political trends, including the following items:

• 19 states have an anti-choice legislature and governor, and would likely ban abortion if Roe is overturned.
• There are only four states, and the District of Columbia, where both the majority of the legislature and the governor are pro-choice: Connecticut, DC, Maine, New Jersey, and Washington.
• Illinois made permanent an emergency rule that Governor Rod Blagojevich (D) put in place, requiring pharmacies that sell contraceptives to dispense contraceptives without delay. Anti-choice groups have launched legal challenges to the Governor's order.

The report is made available through NARAL Pro-Choice America. The report and additional up-to-the minute information can be found here.

Contact:
Ted Miller, 202.973.3032