Demonstrators rally outside of the Texas State Capitol in Austin to protest legislation restricting abortion rights throughout the state on July 15. | AP Photo In The Arena The Tea Party's Attack on Women's Rights

Two week ago, about a third of women in Texas saw their access to safe and legal abortion eliminated—overnight—when a court ruling put one of the harshest anti-abortion laws in the country into immediate effect, a move the Supreme Court reaffirmed on Tuesday.

The truth is, what’s happening in Texas is happening all across the United States. Women in this country have had a constitutional right to abortion for more than 40 years. But over the last three, a small but vocal group of extreme politicians and conservative special interest groups has helped introduce, pass and sign a record number of bills to cut off women’s access to safe and legal abortion. Since 2010, more than 160 restrictions on abortion access have become law in 30 states—and more than 40 of these new restrictions have passed this year alone. The result: More than half of American women of reproductive age now live in states where access to abortion is being restricted by their state legislatures.


This story is unfolding from Iowa, where Planned Parenthood is fighting an administrative rule that would cut in half the number of communities where safe and legal abortion is available; to Alabama, where we’re taking on laws that would force doctors’ offices to close their doors; to Wisconsin, where Gov. Scott Walker has signed into law nine restrictions on women’s health since he took office in 2011.

In these states and many more, the historic rise of these attacks on women’s health can be traced back to the 2010, when out-of-touch Tea Party politicians picked up key seats in legislatures across the country, promising to create jobs and boost our economy—but immediately focused on ending access to safe and legal abortion and limiting women’s health care options. Because we have strong champions of women’s health at the federal level—in the Senate, House of Representatives and White House—opponents have quickly learned that their attacks against access to safe and legal abortion, birth control and women’s preventive care are nonstarters. Instead, this narrow group of extreme politicians and their allies has turned to the states.

Their attacks, cloaked in bogus claims of “women’s health and safety,” are part of a concerted effort to eliminate all access to safe and legal abortion, state by state. They are opposed by doctors and medical experts—the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists released a strong statement of opposition earlier this year—and they are deeply unpopular with Americans of all stripes. That’s why they’ve had to employ every underhanded trick in the book—including special legislative sessions, shutting down public debate and tacking restrictions onto unrelated legislation—to get these bills passed, often quite literally in the dark of night.

Organizations opposed to safe and legal abortion have proudly claimed credit for laws restricting women’s health care and are holding them up as “model legislation.” Legislators can even visit the website of one national organization and build their own custom law from a laundry list of anti-women’s health restrictions. No knowledge of reproductive health—or the basic reality of women’s lives—required! These restrictions, of course, have nothing to do with protecting women’s health and safety; as we’re seeing all over the country, they put women’s health in danger by wiping out access to safe, legal medical care.

The good news is that the more these restrictions take effect, the more folks fight back. In Virginia, voters earlier this month elected a new governor, Terry McAuliffe, who pledged to stand like a “ brick wall” against attacks on women’s health and rights. And in Texas, State Sen. Wendy Davis has launched her gubernatorial campaign, backed by an outpouring of support from across the state.

Most importantly for the entire country, just last week Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), along with Reps. Judy Chu (D-Calif.), Lois Frankel (D-Fla.) and Marcia Fudge (D-Ohio), introduced the Women’s Health Protection Act—a much-needed federal law that would block state restrictions on access to abortion and ensure that women and their doctors, not politicians, are the ones making personal health decisions. Introducing this bill is an important first step toward ensuring that women have equal access to health care, no matter where they live.

Along with women’s health champions like McAuliffe, Davis and millions of supporters across the country, Planned Parenthood Action Fund will continue to fight these attacks wherever we can—from the state house to the court house to Capitol Hill. Enough is enough: It’s time to pass a federal law that will end state restrictions on access to abortion, protect a woman’s right to make her own personal health decisions and allow doctors to do the jobs they were trained to do. Unrelenting attacks have left women in some parts of the country with little to no access to reproductive health care. But the right to get an abortion shouldn’t depend on a woman’s zip code.

Cecile Richards is president of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund.