US States pass record number of Pro-Life bills in 2021
by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent
(Worthy News) -States in the US have enacted a record total of 90 pro-life laws in the first half of this year alone, already more than the previous record of 89 in the whole of 2011, the Guttmacher Institute said in a July 1 report. The laws have been enacted in the face of US Supreme Court rulings that women can choose to have an abortion before fetal viability.
According to Guttmacher data, the legislation enacted this year includes near-total bans on abortion: Arkansas has prohibited abortion at any stage of the pregnancy unless the woman’s life is endangered. Oklahoma has banned abortion unless the woman’s life is in danger or she has a serious health condition.
Meanwhile, Idaho, South Carolina, and Texas have enacted ‘heart-beat’ laws, instituting bans from six weeks gestation except in very limited situations. In Texas, the six-week law also allows anyone, including a person who has no association with the pregnant woman, to sue anyone who helps a woman to get an abortion in any way.
South Dakota has banned abortion in cases where Down syndrome has been diagnosed; Arizona has banned abortion in cases of fetal abnormality. Montana has banned abortion starting at 20 weeks.
Moreover, later this year the US Supreme Court will hear a case on Mississippi’s 15-week ban, to determine whether pre-viability abortion is constitutional.