NARAL Legislative Report: State Laws Are Limiting Abortions Nationwide

National   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Jan 20, 2006   |   9:00AM   |   WASHINGTON, DC

NARAL Legislative Report: State Laws Are Limiting Abortions Nationwide Email this article
Printer friendly page

by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
January 20, 2006

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — Leading pro-abortion group NARAL has released its annual report on the state of abortion laws across the nation. The organization gave each state a grade depending on how much pro-life legislation it has adopted and whether it has approved pro-abortion measures like mandating coverage of the morning after pill.

According to NARAL, state legislatures enacted 58 varying measures to limit abortions. That’s twice the number of pro-life bills that were approved and signed into law in 2004.

Those measured covered the spectrum of abortion-related legislation.

Some included bills to require abortion centers to give women information about abortion’s risks and alternatives, waiting periods before an abortion can be performed, parental notification and consent laws, and safety regulations of abortion businesses.

Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL, said state lawmakers are "emboldened by an anti-choice president, an anti-choice Congress and anti-choice appointments to the courts."

Keenan said the strategy of limiting abortions state by state until Roe can be overturned is working.

"It’s a picking away at our freedom and privacy, legislature by legislature, law by law, with the ultimate goal of overturning Roe v. Wade," she told AP.

Responding to the report, Mary Spaulding Balch, director of state legislation for National Right to Life, told the Associated Press, "We would hope there will be incremental gains that will take us closer and closer to the point where the unborn child will be protected."

In 2006, states show no sign of slowing down as pro-life measures have been introduced in statehouses across the country. States such as Utah and Arizona have already begun advancing new bills.

The pro-abortion group gave failing grades to 19 states and those included: Alabama, Arkansas, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Virginia and Wisconsin.

Meanwhile, eleven states received A’s, including Alaska, California, Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, Montana, Nevada, New York, Oregon, Vermont and Washington.