Washington D.C., Jul 14, 2013 / 16:26 pm
The progress of pro-life legislation at the state level this year has made the 2013 the second-best year on record for the number of abortion-regulating laws that have passed by mid-year.
State legislators enacted 43 provisions restricting abortion in the first half of 2013, according to the Guttmacher Institute, which support legalized abortion. The group said in a July 8 analysis that this number is up slightly from the same period in 2012 when 39 provisions were enacted, but down from an all-time high of 80 recorded in 2011.
Debate over abortion regulation has made headlines in 2013 due partly to the trial of Philadelphia abortionist Kermit Gosnell, who was convicted on charges including malpractice and the murder of babies who were born alive following failed abortions in his clinic.
Arkansas legislators in March overrode a Democratic governor's veto of a bill that bars most abortion after 12 weeks into pregnancy, on the basis that that is the time when a fetal heartbeat can first be identified through an abdominal ultrasound.