Emboldened by Trump, Legislatures Move to Pass More Abortion Restrictions

New York Times (Dec. 11, 2016): Abortion Foes, Emboldened by Trump, Promise "Onslaught" of Tough Restrictions, by Sabrina Tavernise and Sheryl Gay Stolberg:

Ohio has new law that bans abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy.  There is no exception for rape or incest.  Ohio is the eighteenth state to adopt the 20-week ban.  Federal courts in Arizona and Idaho have struck down similar laws as unconstitutional.  The Supreme Court has refused to hear Arizona's appeal.    

A more restrictive measure, banning abortion after a fetus has a detectable heartbeat, was vetoed by Governor Kasich.  Many believe that the advent of Trump emboldened legislators to vote in favor of the heartbeat bill, despite it having been a perennial failure in the past.  

The effects of Mr. Trump’s victory are only beginning to be felt. But one of the biggest changes is playing out in abortion politics. From the composition of the Supreme Court (Mr. Trump has promised to nominate staunchly anti-abortion justices), to efforts on Capitol Hill to enact a permanent ban on taxpayer-financed abortions, to emboldened Republican statehouses like the one in Ohio, combatants on both sides see legalized abortion imperiled as it has not been for decades.

Trump's election follows on a decade of anti-abortion victories throughout the country.  Rights-preserving states like New York and California are becoming more the exception than the norm.  Anti-abortion groups are mobilizing to harness what they perceive to be an increasingly promising landscape for enacting abortion restrictions.  Americans United for Life, for example, recently released a report that purports to chronicle a raft of unsafe conditions in America's abortion clinics.  The group hopes the publication will inspire legislatures to pass abortion restrictions in the wake of Whole Woman's Health v. Hellerstedt.  In Texas specifically, conservative legislators have promised "'an absolute onslaught of pro-life legislation.'"  Four other states have enacted "trigger bans" on abortion that will take effect immediately if Roe v. Wade is overruled.    

Before his election, Trump committed in writing to four anti-abortion priorities:

Those priorities include putting anti-abortion justices on the Supreme Court; passing a national 20-week ban like Ohio’s; eliminating federal money for Planned Parenthood as long as its clinics perform abortions; and making permanent the Hyde Amendment, passed annually by Congress to ban taxpayer-funded abortions.