In advance of this year’s state legislative sessions, lawmakers are filing more than a dozen bills to expand abortion access in at least seven states.
Some were filed in response to ProPublica’s reporting on the fatal consequences of such laws. Others were submitted for a second year in a row with optimism they will gain traction this time.
The difference now is the unavoidable reality ProPublica exposed: Multiple women, in multiple states with abortion bans, have died because they couldn’t get lifesaving care.
Texas state Rep. Donna Howard, who is pushing to expand medical exceptions, said she’s had encouraging conversations with Republican colleagues about her bill. The revelations that miscarrying women had died helped “move the needle here in Texas,” Howard said. “I do believe there’s more bipartisan appetite.”
ProPublica spoke to Republican state lawmakers who feel the same way.
Among them is Kentucky state Rep. Jim Gooch Jr., who is trying for the second time to expand exceptions. He thinks the bill might get a better reception now that his colleagues know women have lost their lives. “We don’t want that in Kentucky,” he said. “I would hope that my colleagues would agree.”
