The leaked draft of a majority Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade caught most of the nation by surprise, but anti-abortion legislation at the state level has been growing steadily over the past decade.
Since 2009, nearly 400 abortion-related laws were passed and 85% of them were aimed at restricting, regulating or opposing access to the practice, according to a Bloomberg News analysis using data from LegiScan, a legislative tracking service. The bills included everything from sweeping abortion policy shortening the amount of time to get the procedure to more symbolic resolutions, like memorials to fetal remains.
Many of them weren’t enforceable while Roe was the law of the land and were designed to signal anti-abortion leanings or directly challenge the Supreme Court ruling with the hopes of getting it overturned. As the Supreme Court shifted right, that emboldened state legislators who calculated the high court would be more favorable to unconstitutional laws. Supporters of abortion rights, meanwhile, are playing catch up.
