A year after the Supreme Court ended the federal constitutional right to abortion, individual states continue to grapple with ways to restrict abortion access, do away with it altogether — or in some cases, enshrine its protection in their own state constitutions.
Legislative methods to restrict abortion access have become increasingly draconian and creative; from Texas’ SB8 which requires vigilante enforcement against those suspected of providing abortions or aiding in their provision, to a South Carolina fetal personhood proposal that would allow for the death penalty for a person who obtains an abortion.
Though such laws face legal challenges, Republican lawmakers are attempting to enact them anyways. In Iowa, Gov. Kim Reynolds is calling for a special session of the Iowa legislature on Tuesday specifically to implement an anti-abortion law similar to a 2018 “fetal cardiac activity” ban. The 2018 law, which would have prohibited abortions after about six weeks of gestation, was recently struck down by the state Supreme Court.
On the Democratic side, abortion rights advocates have created a blueprint for protecting access to the procedure by using ballot measures. Putting the right to abortion on the ballot — whether it’s as a constitutional amendment codifying that right or giving the state courts the right to rule on the constitutional right to abortion have been successful, even in some states where Republicans have legislative power. Now, in Ohio, 700,000 voters have signed a petition to put abortion rights on the ballot in an August special election in an attempt to enshrine the right to abortion in that state’s constitution.
As the fight to protect abortion access moves into state courts, state constitutions are perhaps the most critical shield against abortion restrictions both now and in the future; just as Roe v. Wade prevented ultra-restrictive state abortion laws from coming into effect for decades, so can state-level…
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