State legislation on reproductive health in 1990: What was proposed and enacted. (Special Report).

Introduction

In 1990, state legislatures across the United States considered more than 1,500 measures related to abortion, family planning, sterilization, teenage pregnancy, infertility, new reproductive technologies, maternal and child health care, sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), and AIDS. (*) Legislation carried over from 1989 comprised one-quarter of all bills up for consideration in 1990. Despite the large number of measures relating to reproductive health that were introduced, there was a general lack of action in the state legislatures in 1990, primarily a result of election-year distractions coupled with budgetary constraints. Only 120 bills actually were approved, and 20 of these were later vetoed. What follows is a summary of state legislative activity--and inactivity--in 1990.

Abortion

Abortion was one of the most important topics for proposed legislative action; 465 abortion-related bills were introduced by state legislators, three times as many as in 1989. The profusion undoubtedly stemmed from the 1989 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Webster v. Reproductive Health Services, which gave states more authority to restrict access to abortion services.

Although sweeping antiabortion proposals aimed at prohibiting most abortions were introduced in several legislatures for the first time in a dozen years, only a handful were seriously considered in 1990, and none became operational. Most legislatures that dealt with abortion at all chose to act in a now-familiar pattern, chipping away at the edges of abortion rights instead of attempting to ban abortion outright.

The anticipated effect of the Webster decision may have been dampened by election-year realities. Although some lawmakers wanted to act on Webster (or go even further, to provoke another Supreme Court review of legal abortion), others took heed of the November 1989 gubernatorial elections in New Jersey and Virginia, which were won by vocally prochoice candidates. In the end, state lawmakers generally kept to the familiar middle ground.

Most of the abortion-related bills received little floor action, and many legislatures adjourned without even taking them up at the committee level Nine antiabortion bills were passed--about the same number as in previous years--but only two of these became law, with five others vetoed, one enjoined by a federal court and another not enforced. In addition, three abortion rights bills were approved; two became law and one was vetoed.