Abortion

Is Your State The Worst For Women?

With so many states passing abortion restrictions, it's hard to decide which one is the worst.

Original image: Orst.edu. Edited by Fiona Carmody.

Heartbeat bans.  TRAP laws.  72 hour mandatory wait and counseling periods.  These days it’s hard to decide which state really is the worst for trying to get an abortion.  Over at Alternet, Sarah Seltzer tries to decide which state has hit the lowest of lows, and how the pro-choice community can win these states back and provide reproductive rights for all women, not just those lucky enough to have plenty of time, money and access to providers.

Seltzer concludes:

[T]he end-game has to be electoral: only changing the makeup of state legislatures, electing more Democrats and more importantly, more pro-choice women, will be able to effect a more widespread rollback of these restrictions.

Only a solidly pro-choice government can stop the endless competition between states to make themselves more and more inhospitable to women at a time when jobs, money, childcare and healthcare are already sparse.

2010 was a wave year for electing anti-choice legislators and governors at the state level.  Can 2012 make enough of a dent to get back some of the ground we lost, or at least not lose even more?