More Than A Magazine, A Movement
On September 1, an unconscionably cruel abortion ban (S.B. 8) is set to go into effect in Texas.
This law is part of a three-pronged strategy by Texas lawmakers in relentless pursuit of banning abortion: ban abortion at six weeks of pregnancy and incentivize anti-abortion vigilantes; ban the most common method of abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy; and restrict medication abortion.
In Florida, policymakers are considering a bill that would ban abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy. This bill and the inflammatory rhetoric surrounding it are straight from the well-worn antiabortion playbook of vilifying abortion later in pregnancy, regardless of the real-world harms to pregnant people.
So far in 2021, anti-abortion lawmakers have been introducing new legislation in overwhelming numbers.
State policymakers are eager to test the limits of what the new anti-abortion majority on the Supreme Court might allow on abortion bans and restrictions, while laying the groundwork for constitutional protections for abortion to be weakened or eliminated entirely.
This year, 24 abortion restrictions were enacted, as were 16 provisions that protect and expand access to abortion services (including two identical sets of provisions in Virginia), and another 74 provisions that expand access to reproductive health services and education.
