America’s restrictions on abortions

ON JUNE 26th Wendy Davis, a state senator from Texas, prevented the passage of what would have been America's most restrictive anti-abortion measure by filibustering for nearly 11 hours. Roe v Wade, a Supreme Court case decided in 1973, held that constitutional privacy rights protect a woman's right to terminate her pregnancy (at least in the first two trimesters). But in practice, access to abortion providers is limited for many Americans, according to the Guttmacher Institute. In 2008, over a third of women aged 15-44 lived in a county without an abortion provider. That share may well have risen: in recent years a number of restrictive measures—parental-consent rules, expensive regulations on clinics, bills outlawing abortion after fewer weeks—have passed into law. So far this year 19 states have enacted 54 new restrictions. Four states (Alabama, Arizona, Kansas and North Dakota) account for half of these. Several states have passed bills similar to the failed measure in Texas, which would have banned abortions after 20 weeks, among other things. Roe was supposed to settle the question of abortion's legality in America. It has done anything but.