On this, the 40th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, Time magazine’s perspective is that legalized abortion is on a losing path. And I haven’t found anyone on the other side who disagrees. Quick example, NARAL’s email heading this morning:
What makes abortion proponents think this gloom and doom, despite their hard-fought presidential victory?
In a nutshell: federalism, the growing pile of state anti-abortion laws….
From Planned Parenthood.
Here is Guttmacher updated chart highlighting the stark reality…
From Guttmacher:
[N]ew provisions, 43 in 19 states, sought to restrict access to abortion services. Although this is a sharp decrease from the record-breaking 92 abortion restrictions enacted in 2011, it is the second highest annual number of new abortion restrictions.
Against the backdrop of a contentious presidential campaign in which abortion and even contraception were front-burner issues – to a degree unprecedented in recent memory – supporters of reproductive health and rights were able to block high-profile attacks on access to abortion in states as diverse as Alabama, Idaho, Minnesota, Pennsylvania and Virginia. Similarly, the number of attacks on state family planning funding was down sharply, and only two states disqualified family planning providers from funding in 2012, compared with seven in 2011. That said, no laws were enacted this year to facilitate or improve access to abortion, family planning or comprehensive sex education.
Altogether, 30 states passed 135 new abortion restrictions in 2011 and 2012.
In 2012 this came despite, as Guttmacher noted, a presidential election cycle while the other side, with MSM’s help, piled on Republicans with their “war on women” rhetoric; while the Republican presidential candidate played rope-a-dope on abortion while Obama kept on punching, and while two Republican U.S. Senate candidates handed abortion proponents tinder.
If, in that tough environment, pro-lifers could enact the second highest number of anti-abortion laws ever, what might 2013 bring? Particularly since, as ABC News reported the morning after the 2012 election:
It was a major milestone for the Republican party. Not only was it the first time North Carolina had elected a Republican governor since 1988, it also gave the GOP 30 statehouse seats, the highest number for either party in 12 years.
Republicans also increased their majority from 24 controlled state government in 2010 to 27 in 2012.
Fighting state pro-life efforts for the other side is like trying to put out hundreds of brush fires, because hundreds of pieces of pro-life legislation are introduced every year. Here’s another interesting chart created by Guttmacher. Click to enlarge…
The other side’s power is centralized in Washington, D.C. For many years they were able to hold their own in the states, and they still can count on the courts, but momentum has shifted.
Here’s to another “unmitigated disaster for abortion rights” in 2013.
Reprinted with permission from JillStanek.com