ZitatU.S. states may have passed a flood of abortion restrictions over the past two years, but North Dakota is showing “a whole new level of extremism” right now, Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards said on Friday.
In just two months, North Dakota lawmakers have voted for a 20-week ban on abortions, a 6-week ban on abortions and a ban on abortions in cases of genetic disorders, and on Friday, the state House of Representatives voted to send to the voters a fetal personhood amendment, which would ban abortion entirely. Richards said she is shocked that the state went this far after voters nationwide seemed to reject anti-abortion policy in the 2012 elections.
“It’s almost like the November elections didn’t happen,” she told HuffPost in a phone interview. “Getting rid of women’s health care access is bad policy and bad politics. But we’re seeing, unfortunately, in some of these state legislatures what is the residual impact of the tea party sweep in 2010. These politicians don’t care about women or whether these matters are on the minds of the American people.”