States Chip Away at Abortion

9-10-2007

States Chip Away at Abortion

from staff reports

Incremental steps have tangible results.

State lawmakers will begin pre-filing bills in the next couple of weeks for legislative sessions that open in January, and in most states, pro-life lawmakers will file parental-notification, clinic-regulation and informed-consent legislation.

In South Carolina, senators soon will consider a bill requiring that women seeking an abortion be given and allowed to see ultrasounds of their preborn babies. Oran Smith, president of the Palmetto Family Council, said the bill has bipartisan support.

"We have a Legislature that's relatively conservative," he told Family News in Focus, "The vote that was taken by the South Carolina House on the measure back in the spring was overwhelmingly in favor of the bill."

Because of South Carolina's efforts to restrict and regulate abortion, the state now has only three abortion clinics. The news is even better in Mississippi, where Forest Thigpen of the Mississippi Center for Public Policy said the state's last abortion clinic is hanging by a thread.

"We've required minors to get permission from their parents; we've required the clinics to have strong regulations, strong protections for the women who come in," he said. "All of that together has, I think, had a tremendous impact on the number of clinics and the number of abortions."

Denise Burke, an attorney with Americans United for Life, said there's a virtual avalanche of incremental abortion restrictions descending on state houses.

"With the United States Supreme Court saying that incremental laws are important and are constitutional," she said, "you're going to see a flurry of activity in about 45 states next year."