In 1973, the Supreme Court guaranteed American women the right to choose abortion in its landmark decision Roe v. Wade. In Roe, the Court issued a compromise between the state's ability to restrict abortion and a woman's right to choose.
Since that time, the anti-choice movement has worked furiously to dismantle it – with the ultimate goal of overturning the decision altogether.
Anti-choice activists are working hard in state legislatures, the courts, and Congress to take away our rights. The primary goal of those who oppose abortion is to overturn
Roe v. Wade. However, without control of the Supreme Court and unable to muster support for a constitutional ban on abortion, anti-choice forces have resorted to an incremental strategy. Instead of a broad assault on the right to choose, they come at Roe from the fringes, enacting an ever-increasing number of state restrictions on a woman's right to choose and blocking access to abortion wherever and however they can.
Waiting periods, informed consent requirements, bans on public funding, insurance prohibitions, unnecessary clinic regulations — these laws are not designed to protect women. Instead, they are designed to deter women from choosing abortion and to make it more difficult and burdensome to obtain for those that do.
