In the latest episode of Boom! Lawyered, Rewire #TeamLegal experts Imani Gandy and Jessica Mason Pieklo delve into the laundry list of state abortion restrictions already introduced in 2018. Spoiler alert: not only are anti-choice legislators drafting many different kinds of restrictions, they are also employing new legal strategies to try and undo Roe v. Wade one bad bill at a time. Listen and subscribe to learn more.

An edited excerpt:

Jess: There’s active litigation in the federal courts around both the Texas and Arkansas D&E bans. Federal courts have blocked those laws from taking effect, but the very conservative Fifth and Eighth Circuit Courts of Appeals will hear arguments later this year. Meanwhile, the Kansas Supreme Court could rule literally any day now on the constitutionality of that state’s ban.

Imani: There’s also a 20-week abortion ban challenge pending in federal court in North Carolina. North Carolina passed a 20-week abortion ban in 1973, decades before the National Right to Life drafted its first model 20-week abortion ban which was based on junk science that claims a fetus can feel pain at 20 weeks. Nebraska passed a 20-week ban in 2011. It was the first to pass the National Right to Life’s model bill, which they called “The Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act.”

Jess: That bill name is ridiculous.

Recommended Reading:

• Rewire False Witnesses project
• Rewire Legislative Tracker
• Texas Used Junk Science to Restrict Abortion, by Kathryn Kolbert for Slate, January 2015

Transcript (PDF)