Even as Republicans swept into power in Washington in last year’s elections, abortion rights supporters found success at the ballot box across the country. But that hasn’t deterred abortion opponents.
Republican lawmakers have moved forward this year with bills to restrict abortion in more than half of the states where voters passed constitutional amendments in November to protect or expand reproductive rights.
They’ve also advanced bills in a bevy of states that would make if more difficult for groups to place similar measures on the ballot in the future. Those efforts extend to three states where amendments to enshrine a constitutional right to an abortion fell short last November.
“The abortion industry’s attempts to completely deregulate their industry via ballot measures is putting women and girls in danger,” Kelsey Pritchard, the director of state public affairs for Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, said in an email. “Republican leaders in states with pro-abortion ballot measures should be doing all that they can to protect health and safety protections for women and girls.”
Reproductive rights groups say the actions — even if ultimately unsuccessful — amount to an overt rejection of the desires of voters on the issue of abortion.
“Even when their voters made their support of abortion access extremely clear with these ballot amendments, Republicans are still willing to trample them,” said Yari Aquino, who helps advise candidates for EMILY’s List, a national group that backs Democratic women who support abortion rights.
Aquino suggested that if conservatives’ efforts continue, Democrats would be wise to keep abortion rights at the center of their platform heading into next year’s midterms.
“This is why abortion rights and reproductive rights continue to be such a salient issue,” she said.
In Arizona, where voters overwhelmingly chose to enshrine abortion rights in their state constitution five months ago, Republicans in the state Legislature have advanced bills that would create new restrictions on the use of abortion-inducing drugs. Those include the requirement that a doctor must examine a patient before the patient can obtain the drugs. Another bill would ban doctors in the state from introducing abortion care to their patients as a prospective treatment option.
The bill proposes punishing doctors and practices who “promote” abort
