|
 Fifty new abortion restrictions were passed last year in 18 of the
50 U.S. states, where legislators introduced more than 400 measures
aimed at limiting abortion access, according to The Century
Foundation, a U.S.-based public policy research group.
The study found that 32 states tried to ban all or some abortions.
Trump, who is to be sworn into office on Friday, opposes abortion
and says he wants the Supreme Court Roe v Wade decision legalizing
abortion overturned. He has promised to appoint an anti-abortion
justice to the nation's highest court.
He also wants to pull government funding from Planned Parenthood,
the nation's largest provider of women's health care, with more than
650 clinics.
Trump's positions are supported by many fellow members of the
Republican Party, which controls both houses of Congress.
"Looking ahead to the next administration, it is imperative to
understand just how limited access to reproductive care already is
for many American women, especially low-income women," said the
foundation in its reproductive health care report.
The foundation, which describes itself as a progressive, nonpartisan
think tank, called Trump's inauguration "the latest harrowing attack
on Americans' reproductive rights."
Abortion persists in being a contentious issue in the United States,
where it has been legal nationwide since 1973.
More than two-thirds of Americans oppose overturning Roe v Wade, and
a majority say abortion should be legal in all or most cases, the
Pew Research Center said this month.
Efforts to restrict abortion have been gaining momentum, the
foundation report said. The 334 restrictions passed by states in the
past five years account for a third of all restrictions enacted
since 1973.
[to top of second column] |
Facilities providing abortions numbered about 1,700 in 2011, down
from 2,900 three decades earlier, it said.
More than a third of U.S. women of reproductive age now live in
counties with no abortion clinic. In counties with abortion
services, Planned Parenthood clinics are the leading providers,
according to the findings.
In the midwestern state of Missouri, which has strict abortion
regulations, one licensed abortion provider remains open.
Half of all women nationwide getting abortions have incomes below
the federal poverty level, and roughly half paid out of their own
pocket.
Along with the Hyde Amendment that bans use of federal funds to pay
for abortions, 25 states ban coverage of abortions in private health
insurance plans.
(Reporting by Ellen Wulfhorst, editing by Belinda Goldsmith; Please
credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson
Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women's rights, trafficking,
property rights, climate change and resilience. Visit http://news.trust.org)
[© 2017 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2017 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
 |
