Republican state lawmakers passed more anti-abortion legislation in a four-day span this week than they had passed in the last decade, according to an analysis by the reproductive health nonprofit Guttmacher Institute.
Seven states enacted 28 restrictions between Monday and Thursday, accounting for 46% of all restrictions passed this year, according to the report, representing the most abortion restrictions signed in a single week in at least one decade.
“That count includes multiple abortion bans that directly challenge Roe: a near-total ban on abortion in Oklahoma, six-week abortion bans in Idaho and Oklahoma, a 20-week ban in Montana, and a ban on abortion for non-lethal genetic anomalies in Arizona,” the report said.
New laws in Montana, Arizona, and Indiana also restrict medication abortion.
Arizona, Arkansas, Indiana, Kentucky, and Oklahoma also imposed new restrictions on abortion clinics.
Arkansas alone has implemented 20 new abortion restrictions this year.
Staggering numbers:
All told, there have been 536 abortion restrictions introduced this year in 46 states, including 146 bills that would ban abortion after a certain date or entirely.
Of those, 61 have already been enacted in 13 states, including eight that include bans.
“To put those figures in context, by this time in 2011—the year previously regarded as the most hostile to abortion rights since Roe was decided—42 restrictions had been enacted, including six bans,” the report said.
In many cases, lawmakers are seeking to challenge the limits of Roe v. Wade before the newly uber-conservative Supreme Court.
It’s unclear how many of these restrictions will withstand legal challenges. Though it is unlikely the Supreme Court will overturn Roe, the court may allow more restrictions than it has in the past.
More on the way;
The report warned of additional anti-abortion legislation that is pending in state legislatures.
Texas alone has already seen at least 17 abortion restrictions pass at least one chamber of the legislature.
An Oklahoma legislative committee is also considering a bill that would restrict medication abortion.
“The current barrage of coordinated attacks must be taken seriously as the unprecedented threat to reproductive health care and rights that it is,” the report said. “The year 2021 is well on its way to being a defining one in abortion rights history.”
