NARAL Pro-Choice America Foundation yesterday released their yearly report Who Decides: The Status of Reproductive Rights in the United States, its annual report that grades each state on women’s reproductive rights, summarizes related laws, and outlines legislative trends. (H/t Molly, who kinda/sorta has my old job there, and definitely has my sympathy. *wink*)
Some highlights/lowlights from the report:
Pro-choice progress:
- In 2008, 23 states enacted 39 pro-choice measures – four of these were Prevention First measures, or policies that help prevent unintended pregnancy.
- Colorado, Indiana, Minnesota, and Wisconsin enacted Prevention First measures in 2008 that are aimed at improving birth-control access or teaching teens accurate sex education all toward the goal of preventing unintended pregnancy.
- In Wisconsin, Gov. Jim Doyle signed into law a bill ensuring that sexual-assault survivors receive information about and have access to emergency contraception (EC) in emergency rooms, making Wisconsin the 14th state to enact such policies.
Anti-choice attacks:
- In 2008, 16 states enacted 24 anti-choice measures.
- Oklahoma passed an omnibus bill that allows certain individuals and entities to refuse to provide abortion services, requires women to view ultrasound images before providing abortion care, and prohibits certain health-care professionals from providing abortion services. This was just one of six anti-choice measures Oklahoma enacted in 2008.
A PDF of the full report is available here: http://www.prochoiceamerica.org/choice-action-center/in_your_state/who-decides/introduction/whodecides2009.pdf