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Pro-lifers “flood the zone” in anticipation of a good outcome on Mississippi’s Gestational Age Act

Mar 7, 2022

By Dave Andrusko

What a great headline—“States aren’t Waiting for the Supreme Court to Tighten Abortion Laws”—and subhead—“In anticipation of the court’s decision, a frenzy of legislative activity to shut down access to abortion forms a picture of a post-Roe America.”

The story by Kate Zernike appeared in yesterday’s New York Times, which ordinarily means a ridiculously pro-abortion slant.

Not so. The story is actually quite factual. In fact Zernike interviews a number of pro-life leaders.

All of this is set against the backdrop of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the Mississippi law the High Court heard on December 1 that prohibits abortion in most cases after the 15th week. She is accepting what has become conventional wisdom: Judging by their questions (always a dubious proposition) the Court will take a chunk out of Roe/Casey, perhaps overturn them.

She writes, ”[F]rom Florida to Idaho, Republican-led state legislatures are not waiting: They are operating as if Roe has already been struck down, advancing new restrictions that aim to make abortion illegal in as many circumstances as possible.”

Zernike adds, “Still, anti-abortion legislators are taking a belt-and-suspenders approach, in the hopes that one or another of many laws they pass will effectively ban abortion as soon as the court rules.”

And NRLC affiliates are wasting no time and leaving nothing to chance: “The Guttmacher Institute, which supports abortion rights, counts at least 531 anti-abortion restrictions introduced in 40 states this year; last year, states passed more than 100 laws restricting abortion, the most of any year since the court’s landmark Roe decision in 1973.”

In other words, prolifers are flooding the zone, coming after the abortion “liberty” with ingenuity and determination.

Zernike talks about most of the relevant legislation. For example, chemical abortions (“medication abortions”) and so called “trigger bans, which would outlaw abortion if the court overturned or struck the central ruling of Roe.”

She observes that even states with trigger bans “are still passing laws to make it harder to get abortions if the court declines to overturn Roe,” Zernike writes. “An omnibus bill heading toward passage in Kentucky would require abortion clinics to individually cremate the remains of each fetus, which costs thousands of dollars. Planned Parenthood, which runs one of two remaining abortion clinics in the state, has said that the expense will force it to stop providing the procedure.”

A truly useful overview, well worth your time.

Categories: Pro-Lifers
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