Sunday marked the 39th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s landmark Roe vs Wade decision, which legalized abortion. A recent report by the NARAL Pro-Choice America Foundation found that more pro-life laws were enacted in 2011 than in the past 16 years, when they began tracking. Their “Who Decides” report found that 67 (2 added after print) states enacted anti-choice laws, including laws forbidding private insurers to cover the cost of abortions and denying state funding to organizations that counsel or refer women for abortions.

Among the report’s findings:

  • Three states passed laws that deny state funding for organizations that counsel or refer women for abortions.
  • Six states passed laws forcing women to undergo blatantly biased and very often misleading counseling before having an abortion.
  • Three enacted laws that forbid private insurers to cover abortions, which cost about $350 to $500 within six to 10 weeks of gestation.
  • Eight blocked abortion coverage in state insurance exchanges and four prohibited coverage for state employees.

Writer Akiba Solomon states, “Arizona which earned a D grade from NARAL for its record on choice, also has the dubious distinction of being the first state in the nation to criminalize doctors who perform an abortion with the knowledge that a patient wants the procedure because of the race or gender of the fetus…Coming from a state that literally requires law enforcement to practice racial profiling via SB 1070, this is hypocritical as hell.”

Considering that most Americans support a woman’s right to choose, why has the number of anti-choice laws have risen in the past ten years?