Evaluating Priorities: Measuring Women’s and Children’s Health and Well-being against Abortion Restrictions in the States

09.30.14 - In recent years, abortion restrictions have begun passing at an alarming rate; from 2011 to 2013 states enacted 205 new restrictions on abortion, more than were enacted in the entire previous decade. Why? Anti-choice policymakers claim they are necessary to protect the health and well-being of women, their pregnancies, and their children.

Ibis Reproductive Health and the Center for Reproductive Rights collaborated to evaluate these claims. We found that the more abortion restrictions present, the worse a state performed overall on indicators of women’s and children’s well-being. This report strongly indicates that legislators must focus on policies that are proven to enhance and improve the lives of women and children.