Record reproductive restrictions in 2011

• Tweet

NEW YORK, Jan. 22 (UPI) -- Reproductive issues at the state level received unprecedented attention in 2011, a U.S. non-profit group that works to advance reproductive health said.

A report by the Guttmacher Institute in New York said in the 50 states, legislators introduced more than 1,100 reproductive health and rights-related provisions, an increase from the 950 introduced in 2010. By the end of 2011, 135 of these provisions were enacted in 36 states, an increase from the 89 enacted in 2010 and the 77 enacted in 2009.

Almost 70 percent of these new provisions -- 92 in 24 states -- restrict access to abortion services. The 92 new abortion restrictions enacted in 2011 broke the previous record of 34 adopted in 2005, the report said.

"The most high-profile state-level abortion debate of 2011 took place in Mississippi, where voters rejected the ballot initiative that would have legally defined a human embryo as a person 'from the moment of fertilization,' setting the stage to ban all abortions and, potentially, most hormonal contraceptive methods in the state," the report said.

Five states -- Alabama, Indiana, Idaho, Kansas and Oklahoma -- enacted provisions to ban abortion at or beyond 20 weeks' gestation, based on the assertion a fetus can feel pain at that point. These five states joined Nebraska, which adopted a ban on abortions after 20 weeks in 2010. A similar limitation was vetoed by Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton, a Democrat, the report said.