Parents could be charged with child abuse if they prevent their minor daughter from getting an abortion, according to an Illinois law proposed by Democrat state Rep. Anne Stava-Murray.
In South Carolina, a new bill would require taxpayers to pay all childhood expenses—up to age 18—for babies born to mothers who were unable to get an abortion.
And the New Hampshire Legislature is wrestling with a proposal to ban abortion at 15 days of gestation, effectively banning abortion in the state, where it is currently allowed up to 24 weeks.
These recently introduced measures are just a few among a flood of proposals and changes triggered by the 2022 overturning of Roe v. Wade, which sent abortion regulation back to the states.
In November, voters in at least seven states will see abortion proposals on their ballots. Even in states where access to abortion isn’t on the ballot, voters may still cast votes for candidates who align with their beliefs on the issue.
Immediately after the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, trigger laws in 13 states went into effect, completely banning or limiting abortions to very early pregnancy, with few exceptions. Last year, states without trigger laws, including Florida, North Carolina, and South Carolina, enacted similar pro-life laws.
Many states also enacted or proposed “safety net” legislation to help new and expectant mothers meet the demands of motherhood.
Ohio state Sen. Sandra O'Brien, a Republican, introduced SB 159, a tax credit for donations to pregnancy centers.
In Indiana, SB 98 identifies an unborn child as a dependent for tax purposes. The bill was sponsored by Republican state Sen. Andy Zay. Another Indiana safety-net bill would increase the Medicaid reimbursement rates for prenatal and postnatal care services.
Then there’s Kentucky’s bipartisan “Momnibus” legislation, an omnibus bill offering tax credits for adoption, and tax credits and grants for pregnancy help centers. It includes provisions for mental health service, parenting classes, and online and home visits for new mothers without transportation.
The pro-abortion movement is working hard to counter these actions and is striving for legislation and ballot measures that allow for abortion up to birth in many cases.
“You’re seeing a direct reaction from the other side that is panicking, based on the Dobbs decision,” Kelsey Pritchard, director of state public affairs at Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, told The Epoch Times.
“They are running as fast as they can to unlimited abortion funded by the taxpayer. And they’ve gotten so extreme on the issue.”
Womb for Rent
Seemingly every state has some movement in its legislature regarding abortion policy.The bill compares a woman’s womb to rental property and reasons that in the surrogacy market, “a woman’s uterus is not unlike rental property, as a commissioning couple agrees to pay a gestational surrogate certain compensation for carrying a fetus to term and giving birth to a child.” It continues to say that since South Carolina may not constitutionally use a citizen’s rental property without just compensation, “it may not constitutionally require a woman to incubate a child without appropriate compensation.”
The bill stipulates that after a baby’s heartbeat is detected, the mother would be automatically enrolled in public assistance programs, including Temporary Assistance for Needy Families and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, and that those benefits could not be withdrawn until the child is 18.
The bill would pay a nurse to provide home visits from early pregnancy through the child’s second birthday; costs associated with health, dental, and vision insurance for the child until the age of 18; and a fully funded South Carolina 529 College Savings Plan for the benefit of the child. If the woman has a miscarriage, she may sue the state for compensation and damages.
In the case of an unmarried woman, the bill stipulates that if the biological father accrues more than $5,000 in child-support arrearage, he would be charged with a misdemeanor and, if convicted, could serve up to three years in prison.
“The court may suspend any portion of the prison sentence if the man consents to a voluntary vasectomy and to payment of restitution to the woman in the amount of the child-support arrearages owed,” the bill reads.
“I just want to make sure that those of us who call ourselves pro-life, that we are doing something to help the living, and my bill does that,” Ms. McLeod said in a February video posted on social media.
“It also gives my colleagues who refer to themselves as pro-life an opportunity to prove it by investing in South Carolina’s women and girls, and making sure that they have the resources and support that they need.”
Pro-life group South Carolina Citizens for Life opposes the legislation.
“Comparing a woman’s uterus to rental property and incentivizing men to have a vasectomy is really disturbing and vile language, and it’s intended to devalue members of our human family—born and waiting to be born,” Holly Gatling, the group’s executive director, told The Epoch Times.
“The intent of this bill is to obfuscate the fact that we have a vast network of pregnancy-care centers in South Carolina. ... where women are given free health care ... and diapers, formulas, job training, parenting classes, and assistance with getting back into a regular workforce and lifestyle by the time this baby is 2 years old,” she said. “So the bill is based on a false premise that we don’t do anything for mothers and babies after the child is born.”
In Pennsylvania, Democrat lawmakers say they want to “facilitate safe abortion access,” by reversing a 2011 state law requiring abortion businesses to meet all the same regulations as ambulatory surgical facilities, including submitting to unannounced inspections. It means abortion clinics, which sometimes fail health inspections, would no longer have to be inspected.
“Here in Pennsylvania, the pro-abortion extremism starts at the top with Gov. Josh Shapiro unilaterally eliminating the state contract for alternatives to abortion funding—a program that had bipartisan support and operated for 30 years under Republican and Democrat governors alike,” Michael Geer, president of Pennsylvania Family Institute, told The Epoch Times in an email.
Mr. Shapiro often expresses support for abortions in social media posts.
“Mifepristone will be available on the shelves in Pennsylvania,” he posted on March 1. “I'll continue working to protect women’s access to abortion across this Commonwealth.”
Mifepristone is a progesterone-blocking drug that causes a woman’s body to abort her baby outside a doctor’s office.
“As long as I’m Governor, abortion will be safe, legal, and accessible here in Pennsylvania,” Mr. Shapiro posted on March 4.
The Shapiro administration made available online a form solely for complaints against pregnancy resource centers.
Other Bills
In West Virginia, the state Senate has approved a measure requiring students in eighth and 10th grades to watch “Baby Olivia,” a video on fetal development. The video already is shown in North Dakota classrooms, and it could be legislatively required in Iowa, Kentucky, and Missouri. Pro-abortion activists oppose the short film, calling it medically inaccurate.House Bill 2749 in Kansas would require abortionists to ask women why they are terminating their pregnancies and to rank their top reasons for seeking an abortion, including financial or health concerns, or that the pregnancy is a result of rape or incest.
In Oklahoma, where abortion is almost completely banned, House Bill 3013 would make trafficking abortion pills a felony, punishable by a $100,000 fine, 10 years in prison, or both.
State Ballot Measures
In some states, voters may collect signatures to get an item on the state ballot. In other states, the legislature must vote to add an initiative to the ballot.
In November 2023, nearly 58 percent of Ohio voters chose to write abortion into the state’s constitution. The measure allows women to make and carry out their own reproductive decisions, including but not limited to decisions about abortion, contraception, fertility treatment, miscarriage care, and continuing pregnancy. It allows the state to restrict abortion after fetal viability, except when necessary to protect the pregnant woman’s life or health.
Voter turnout was high in Ohio for an off-year election, with many turning out specifically for this issue.
More ballot measures related to when women can or cannot get an abortion are set to appear in upcoming elections.
States considering changes to their laws often take an all-or-nothing approach, either largely banning abortion or greatly expanding it.
For example, in Arizona, abortion is banned after 15 weeks, parental consent is required for a minor’s abortion, and abortions must be performed by doctors.
But the “Arizona Right to Abortion Initiative” may appear on the state ballot, potentially adding to the state constitution the right to unlimited abortion up to the point of birth, removing safety standards at abortion clinics, eliminating the requirement that a medical doctor perform the abortion, and excluding parents of minors from the decision-making process.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Arizona, Affirm Sexual and Reproductive Health, Arizona List, Healthcare Rising Arizona, Reproductive Freedom for All, and Planned Parenthood Advocates of Arizona are behind the initiative. The groups aim to collect signatures from 384,000 registered voters to get the initiative on the 2024 ballot.
Several pro-life coalitions, including the Arizona Right to Life’s “It Goes Too Far” campaign, Moms for Arizona, the Center for Arizona Policy, and Students for Life of America, are pushing back, trying to keep the measure off the ballot by encouraging people not to sign.
The Catholic Church also is opposed to the initiative.
“Millions of dollars from the pro-abortion industry are flooding into Arizona from out of state,“ a letter signed by four Arizona Catholic bishops reads. ”This includes paying workers to collect signatures in front of grocery stores and other public locations for an amendment to our State Constitution. We urge the citizens of Arizona not to sign or endorse this signature campaign.”
The letter calls the measure’s language vague and contends that even those who support abortion in limited instances may find the proposed constitutional amendment extreme. It was signed by Bishops John Dolan, Eduardo Nevares, James Wall, and Edward Weisenburger.
“Younger women are fed all this propaganda. We are trying to lovingly engage in conversation, one person at a time,” Susan Haugland, a volunteer with Arizona Right to Life told The Epoch Times.
“I just feel a strong moral responsibility to communicate the truth about the violent nature and abhorrence of abortion. Women need to know all the facts.”
She said unborn babies feel pain and that women suffer emotionally after abortion.
“In our society, we yell and scream if an animal is abused, and we do so much to protect the environment, but here we have a living, breathing, unique human being,” Ms. Haugland said. “While a woman may become pregnant—and it’s untimely, or she doesn’t have support—it’s a big fallacy that people are doomed if they’re pregnant, and there’s no other way. That’s not true anymore. Women are more powerful and more capable than they’ve ever been. ... and there are people like me and many, many others all over the country, stepping up willing to help.”
Arizona and other states are considering allowing non-physicians, such as nurse practitioners, to perform certain abortions; California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Montana, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Virginia, and the District of Columbia are considering the same, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL).
Changing State Constitutions
Many pro-abortion activists are attempting to make getting an abortion a right in their states.Abortion activists in Arkansas seek to enshrine abortion in the state constitution, but state Attorney General Tim Griffin has twice rejected their wording on the ballot question, including the name of the measure, the “Arkansas Reproductive Healthcare Amendment.”
In a November 2023 letter, Mr. Griffin said the name is tinged with partisan coloring and is misleading because the proposal is solely related to abortion, not “reproductive healthcare” generally. He also took issue with using the term “access” instead of “abortion services.”
If Mr. Griffin approves the wording of the proposed state constitutional amendment, supporters must collect 90,700 signatures from registered voters by July 5 to qualify the initiative for the November ballot.
A coalition of pro-abortion groups in Florida is seeking a constitutional amendment allowing elective abortions until birth.
This would be a drastic change from Florida’s current law banning abortion at 15 weeks and requiring women who want to get an abortion to go to the abortion clinic twice, once for in-person counseling and a second time at least 24 hours later for the abortion.
The new measure in Florida would cut counseling out of the equation.
The new ballot measure, Amendment 4, is being driven by “Floridians Protecting Freedom,” which is a cooperative effort including the ACLU of Florida, Florida Rising, Planned Parenthood, Florida Women’s Freedom Coalition, Women’s Voices of Southwest Florida, and the union 1199 SEIU (United Healthcare Workers East).
The language of the proposed ballot measure is being challenged.
Abortion activists seem to oppose pre-abortion counseling and aim to cut it out of proposed legislation.
In Missouri, there is also controversy around the language of a potential state constitutional amendment. Some proposals would allow abortion up to when the baby is viable outside the womb, while others would allow abortion up until the moment of birth.
“Out-of-state extremists pushing Big Abortion’s agenda are intent on using the initiative petition process to reverse all of the pro-life work our state has undertaken to protect the dignity of life, safety of women, and parental rights.” Stephanie Bell, a spokeswoman for Missouri Stands With Women, said in a statement.
“We are united in our efforts to ensure these out-of-state extremists are not allowed to tear the fabric of our constitution by placing [sic] unregulated, taxpayer-funded abortions up to the moment of birth, effectively overriding all Missouri’s pro-life laws.”
Since the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, states have enacted more than 1,000 bills related to abortion, according to the NCSL.
Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen blocked abortion activists’ efforts to put unlimited abortion on the ballot.
In a Jan. 16 memo, Mr. Knudsen said the proposed ballot measure from Planned Parenthood Advocates of Montana violates the Montana Constitution by adding multiple choices into one initiative.
Nebraska’s law currently allows abortion throughout the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, but Planned Parenthood Advocates of Nebraska wants abortion to be legal up to 23 weeks, or when a baby is viable outside the womb. It is being argued in the state Supreme Court.
A South Dakota ballot measure known as “Restore Roe v. Wade” would amend the state constitution to prevent the state from regulating abortion up to 13 weeks of pregnancy, then would allow the state to regulate abortion thereafter “only in ways that are reasonably related to the physical health of the pregnant woman.”
But the pro-abortion movement in South Dakota is contentious. Some say it does not go far enough, and the largely Republican legislature is not in favor of the proposal, which requires 35,000 signatures to get on the ballot. Organizers have said in recent media reports that they have 50,000 signatures.
Similar ballot measures have been discussed in Idaho, Oklahoma, North Dakota, and Maine, but have yet to materialize, Ms. Pritchard said.
“In Idaho specifically, abortion activists are engaged in a PR campaign to mislead Idahoans, attempting to pin rural health care access problems on the state’s pro-life law and imply women cannot receive emergency care when pregnant,” she said.
A ballot measure to change the South Carolina Constitution has been floated, but it has not gained traction, Ms. Gatling said.
“[South Carolina] can expect to see efforts by the abortion industry, and their collaborators in our government, attempt again next year to get a ballot measure,“ she said. ”But right now, with the rules that we have, it’s certainly not going anywhere this year.”
