By JOHN HANNA
Associated Press
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) - Abortion opponents marked the
40th anniversary of Roe v. Wade on Tuesday with workshops, prayers and
calls for more legislation chipping away at the abortion rights the U.S.
Supreme Court decision seemed to guarantee.
Many looked to Kansas, where Republican Gov. Sam
Brownback has signed a series of tough, anti-abortion measures during
his first two years in office. Much to the dismay of abortion-rights
advocates, Kansas has been part of a wave in which states with
Republican governors and GOP-controlled Legislatures enacted new
restrictions on abortion providers.
Hundreds of abortion opponents gathered in Topeka
for a rally with Brownback, who has called on lawmakers to create "a
culture of life" and is expected to support whatever further
restrictions they approve.
Abortion rights advocates have celebrated the Jan.
22, 1973, Roe v. Wade decision because it declared women have a
constitutional right to abortions in some circumstances and prevented
states from banning it. They observed a quieter anniversary - a
reflection of the reality that it's far rarer for lawmakers to expand
access to abortion.
Across the nation, many events were scheduled
Tuesday by advocacy groups on the two sides of the debate. The National
Organization for Women, for example, planned a candlelight vigil at the
Supreme Court to commemorate the Roe ruling, which it supports. The
annual March for Life, which traditionally draws several hundred
thousand abortion opponents to Washington, D.C., is scheduled for
Friday.
"It should be honored - not trying to find
loopholes," said Rep. Emily Perry, a lawyer and Democrat from the Kansas
City suburb of Mission, Kan., who supports abortion rights. "I wish the
amount of energy put into narrowing Roe v. Wade would be put into
school funding or our budget."
Kansans for Life, the most influential of the
state's anti-abortion groups, plans to ask lawmakers to enact
legislation ensuring that the state doesn't finance abortions even
indirectly, such as through tax breaks or allowing doctors-in-training
at the University of Kansas Medical Center in Kansas City, Kan., to
perform them on the center's time. The group also wants to strengthen a
state law dictating what information must be provided to abortion
patients, ban abortions because of the fetus' gender and allow wrongful
death lawsuits when a fetus dies because of an accident.
Republican lawmakers in North Dakota are pursuing a
measure to ban "sex selection" abortions, while Alabama's GOP
legislative majorities are looking to impose new health and safety
regulations for abortion providers. Arkansas' new Republican legislative
majorities want to ban abortions after the 20th week of pregnancy.
"I think more of America is becoming more
pro-life," said Dr. Melissa Colbern, who started a crisis pregnancy
center in Topeka near the state Capitol last year. "I think maybe the
culture is changing."
In the four decades since Roe v. Wade, a series of
court decisions have narrowed its scope. With each decision, lawmakers
in multiple states have followed up by making abortions more difficult
to obtain or imposing restrictions on providers.
According to the New York-based Guttmacher
Institute, a reproductive-rights think tank, 135 laws aimed in some way
at restricting access to abortion were enacted in 30 states - most of
them with Republican-controlled legislatures - in 2011 and 2012. More
such measures already have been proposed in several states this year.
In Wyoming, for example, a pending bill would
prohibit abortions after a fetal heartbeat is audible. A similar
"heartbeat" bill is pending in Mississippi and one was debated but later
sidetracked in Ohio last year.
In Texas, Republican Gov. Rick Perry has told
lawmakers that he expects more anti-abortion laws during the 2013
session to work toward his goal "to make abortion at any stage a thing
of the past." Anti-abortion activists have pledged to use every legal
means possible to make obtaining abortions difficult, if not impossible,
to obtain.
But Kansans for Life, the most influential abortion
group lobbying state lawmakers in Topeka, eschews proposals designed to
set up a head-on legal challenge to the Roe v. Wade decision, fearing
the U.S. Supreme Court might wipe out some of the gains seen by abortion
opponents in recent years.
"We' like to continue on our successful strategy,"
Kathy Ostrowski, the group's legislative director, said during a
pre-rally news conference. "We feel that we're making better strides
that way."
It's far rarer for bills strengthening access to
abortion to be enacted these days, but there are some pending proposals.
In their state of the state speeches this month, New York Gov. Andrew
Cuomo endorsed a bill that would further entrench the right to abortion
in state laws, while Washington state's new governor, Jay Inslee, said
he wants to enact a measure that would require insurers who cover
maternity care - which Washington insurers are mandated to provide - to
also pay for abortions. Both Inslee and Cuomo are Democrats.
"Forty years ago, the United States stood as an
example to the rest of the world in recognizing a woman's right to a
safe and legal abortion as a constitutionally protected right," said
Nancy Northup, president of CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights.
"But the women in this country shouldn't have to rely on the courts to
right the wrongs of their elected officials."
___
AP National Writer David Crary in New York and
Associated Press Writers Bob Johnson in Montgomery, Ala., and Andrew
DeMillo in Little Rock, Ark., contributed to this report.
Copyright 2013 The
Associated Press modified.
