State Campaigns to Outlaw Abortion Barely Mentioned by Major Outlets

MAY 19, 2021
JULIE HOLLAR

The Guttmacher Institute warned at the beginning of March that “states will be the main abortion battleground in 2021,” as legislators had already passed eight restrictions and bans. Two and a half months later, the number of restrictions signed into law has risen to 69 (including 9 bans), across 14 states, with a total of 549 restrictions introduced in 47 states.

Oklahoma, for instance, passed a near-total ban on abortion in April, under which doctors who fail to check for a fetal heartbeat before performing an abortion would be charged with murder. In March, the Texas Senate passed a bill (signed into law today) to ban abortions at six weeks—when most people don’t know they are pregnant—and give literally anyone the right to sue a doctor they believe has violated the ban or any individual who “aids or abets” an abortion. As the Intercept (4/16/21) reported, it’s a strategy designed to stop abortion providers from suing to block the law from taking effect, since they can’t just sue the state as the enforcer of the law. Several states are moving to restrict medication abortion and impose further burdensome restrictions on abortion providers (Guttmacher, 4/30/21).

This campaign should surprise no one: With the confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett in October, the right immediately recognized an opening to push their agenda as far as possible, in the hope that a 6–3 conservative majority on the Supreme Court would soon make previously unthinkable laws a reality. And indeed, the court has just announced it will review a Mississippi law that directly challenges Roe v. Wade.

But you’d be forgiven if you didn’t have a clue this was all brewing—that is, if you rely on some of the nation’s biggest news outlets for your information.

More:
https://fair.org/home/state-campaigns-to-outlaw-abortion-barely-mentioned-by-major-outlets/