Toting Up Pro-Life Successes in the States

By Dave Andrusko

The headline was actually rather clever: "Abortion Bills by the Numbers." Written by Jessica Arons and Alexandra Cawthorne for the pro-abortion Center for American Progress, the essay totes up pro-life measures introduced and (in some cases) passed in state legislatures this last session. Needless to say protective measures that give women a chance to consider what they are doing--and ensure that abortion clinics meet some sort of medical standard--are by turns dismissed as "biased," "burdensome," and/or "costly and unnecessary."

The difference this year? It's not that you have suddenly became active. "[A]bortion opponents have once again introduced a multitude of bills to restrict abortion." (My emphasis.) No, "What has changed is that, on the heels of the fight over abortion in federal health insurance reform legislation, antiabortion activists have gained renewed momentum."

Well, no and yes. Our "renewed momentum" preceded passage of the ghastly ObamaCare. For example, Nebraska's trend-setting "Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act" has long been in the works. Other measures, particularly passage of laws making ultrasounds available to women before they abort, have become a staple of pro-life legislative initiatives.

Likewise, Oklahoma passed a law against sex-selection abortions while Georgia offered SB 529, a bill that would have prevented abortions discriminatorily based on the race or sex of the unborn child. These are wholly independent of the health care "reform" that passed in Congress.

But the specter of ObamaCare has resulted in states taking advantage of a provision in the health care "reform" bill that explicitly says that states can pass laws that exclude abortion coverage from plans within the exchanges.

Of course this doesn't mean we have neglected Congress--NRLC is fighting the confirmation of Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court, the grotesquely misnamed "DISCLOSE Act," and the nomination of rationing advocate Dr. Donald Berwick, to name just three. It does mean that pro-lifers are on the march in states across the country.

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