Fighting Anti-Choice Legislation in State Legislatures
Pro-Active Legislative Efforts: Ensuring Women's Access to Reproductive Health Services
INTRODUCTION
The State Legislative Program at the Center for Reproductive Rights works with state legislators, advocacy organizations and individuals throughout the nation to prevent the passage of legislation that will harm women's reproductive health. To this end, the Center for Reproductive Rights monitors activity in state legislatures around the nation -- and summarizes this activity in our Highlights section. The Center for Reproductive Rights also analyzes statutory trends, providing information about existing laws in key subject areas in all fifty states in our Laws Around the Country section.
In addition, the Center for Reproductive Rights provides technical and legal support on legislative and policy matters pertaining to reproductive rights (including legal analysis and strategic planning to combat "bad bills"), and provides model legislation and technical support for drafting pro-choice legislation. With these tools (and a strong team of litigators that has successfully challenged many laws harming reproductive rights), the Center for Reproductive Rights has been at the forefront of the struggle to safeguard women's rights to safe, legal and accessible reproductive health services, including abortion and contraception.
FIGHTING ANTI-CHOICE LEGISLATION IN STATE LEGISLATURES
Anti-Choice activists have been using state legislatures as a testing ground for bills aimed at restricting access to abortion and reproductive health services. These activists work to pass harmful legislation in individual states, then try to leverage their influence by pushing similar bills in neighboring states and on the national level. If successful, this strategy would erode reproductive rights and threaten women's health throughout the nation.
MANDATORY DELAY, BIASES COUNSELING AND SCARE TACTICS
In recent years, anti-choice legislative efforts have been quite varied in scope. One recent trend has been the creation of bills that place roadblocks in the path of women seeking to exercise their right to choose. For example, many state legislatures have considered bills that require a woman to delay her abortion a certain number of hours or days after receiving state mandated information designed to discourage abortion. The forced delay may require the woman to make several trips to the clinic and may increase medical risks. Furthermore, much of the state-mandated information is medically inaccurate - for example, some information contains false claims that abortions increase a woman's risk of breast cancer, or create other health risks. (See state-by-state information on these laws)
PARENTAL CONSENT
Anti-choice forces have also focused on burdening minors' access to abortion by encouraging legislatures to impose parental consent or notice requirements for abortion, and contraception. These laws harm young women in numerous ways, including increasing the risk of potential physical and emotional abuse, interfering with access to confidential medical care, creating delays in access to medical care, and imposing forced teen motherhood. (See state-by-state information on these laws)
FUNDING ROADBLOCKS
Other bills create roadblocks by prohibiting abortion funding for low income women, thereby reducing access to abortions, or by using the annual budget process to cut state funds for family planning services, thereby threatening women's access to safe and legal reproductive health care. (See state-by-state information on these laws)
TRAP
Other legislative trends include TRAP bills, or Targeted Regulations
Against Abortion Providers, which attempt to regulate the medical practices or facilities of doctors who provide abortions by imposing burdensome requirements that are different and more stringent than regulations applied to comparable medical practices. By burdening providers with increased costs and compliance requirements, TRAP laws threaten the livelihood of providers and pose another roadblock to access. (See Center for Reproductive Rights challenges to these laws)
ABORTION BANS AND RESTRICTING WOMEN'S OPTIONS
In addition to creating obstacles to access, state legislatures have also entertained bills that regulate abortion methods or provision of services. In the past few years, states have considered bills with broad restrictions on abortion techniques (for example, so called "partial-birth abortion" bans). (See Center for Reproductive Rights legal challenges to these bans and Congressional activity). Some states have also considered outright bans on abortion. States have also entertained bills that prohibit individuals other than doctors from performing abortions ("physician-only" laws).
BIASES STATE FUNDING AND "CHOOSE LIFE: LICENSE PLACES
"Choose life" license plate bills have also swept across the country. These bills require that funds raised by the sale of pro-life license plates be given to anti-choice crisis pregnancy centers (CPC's) that deceive women by refusing to offer information on abortion and often push a religious agenda. (See Center for Reproductive Rights challenges to "choose life" plates) Other state bills similarly direct state funds to religious organizations to promote "abstinence-only" education, thereby diverting money away from much needed sex-education programs and family planning centers.
PREGNANT WOMEN'S RIGHTS AND FETAL RIGHTS
Within state legislatures, recent bills have merged criminal justice elements with women's health. For example, some states have considered bills which criminalize actions taken against a pregnant woman and/or her fetus (called "fetal homicide" bills or "unborn victim of violence" acts). Other bills regulate pregnant women and create criminal penalties for certain behaviors during pregnancy. Many of these bills are especially troubling in that they vest certain rights in the fetus, often to the detriment of the pregnant woman's rights. (See Center for Reproductive Rights legal challenges)
PRO-ACTIVE LEGISLATIVE EFFORTS: ENSURING WOMEN'S ACCESS TO REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH SERVICES
In addition to defending against these attacks on reproductive rights, the Center for Reproductive Rights and other women's health advocates have also actively pushed for legislation that improves women's access to contraception and abortion.
EMERGENCY CONTRACEPTION (EC) EDUCATION
Many women are unaware that they can prevent pregnancy after intercourse. Studies show that the public lacks awareness about EC and that very women have ever used EC. In order to address this gap in information, bills are being introduced in state legislatures to create public education campaigns about EC and to encourage health care providers to tell their patients about EC.
EMERGENCY CONTRACEPTION (EC) ACCESS
Some state legislatures have considered bills that would increase access to emergency contraception ("EC" or "morning after pill") at pharmacies. The bills create mechanisms enabling a woman to go directly to the pharmacy to obtain EC without first having to obtain an EC prescription from her doctor. Since speedy access to EC is crucial, enabling women to bypass the doctor's visit and go directly to the pharmacy to get EC is highly desirable. (See state-by-state information on these laws) For more information, see State Trends in Emergency Contraception Legislation
EMERGENCY CONTRACEPTION (EC) IN THE ER
Many state legislatures have also recently considered bills that require emergency rooms in public hospitals to inform survivors of sexual assault about the availability of emergency contraception EC and to dispense the EC upon request. EC can be up to 95% effective in preventing pregnancy. The availability of EC in emergency rooms will significantly reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies resulting from sexual assault. (See state-by-state information on these laws)
CONTRACEPTIVE EQUITY
Many states have enacted legislation that mandates insurance coverage for contraception. Some of these laws also require insurance coverage for other women's health services like mammograms, hormone replacement therapy or bone density screenings. These laws reduce women's out-of-pocket costs and increase access to health services. (See state-by-state information on these laws and Congressional activity)
CLINIC SAFETY ZONES
Another legislative trend over the past few years is the enactment of bills that create safety zones around clinic entrances (known as "buffer zones") or around patients entering the clinic ("bubble zones"). These bills are important tools in curbing clinic violence and protecting women's access to reproductive health services. Some of these bills also create stiff criminal penalties for violent or threatening acts at the clinics. (See Center for Reproductive Rights legal activity pertaining to clinic violence)
Learn more about Center for Reproductive Rights actions to combat anti-choice efforts:
