Nearly 70 cities and counties across rural America have banned abortion in the past few years as part of a slow-burning conservative campaign to outlaw the procedure everywhere.
The ordinances, debated in states from California to Ohio, aim to prevent health clinics from offering abortions or allow private civilians to sue providers. Most of the bans have had no practical impact, passing in tiny towns without abortion providers such as Willey, Iowa — population 73 — or in states such as Louisiana and Texas, which already ban abortion.
But the movement’s architects, a pair of conservative activists best known for their work on the Texas Heartbeat Act — the first state abortion ban to rely on private lawsuits for enforcement — have recently expanded into states that allow abortion, including Montana, Nebraska and New Mexico.
