6 Pro-Choice Wins Where You Least Expected Them

So this is a little depressing – 21 states have an anti-choice government. *Sigh*. But that doesn’t mean that hope is lost if you’re pro-choice and live in one of these places. In fact, some amazingly awesome pro-choice things happened where you’d least expect them:

1) A federal judge blocked North Dakota’s ban on abortion after six weeks:

Anti-choice North Dakota Gov. Jake Dalrymple signed legislation that would ban abortion after six weeks – before many women even know they’re pregnant – but a federal judge struck it down. There was no reading between the lines when the judge, called the ban, “clearly unconstitutional under an unbroken stream of United States Supreme Court authority.”

2) Oklahoma school district ended “abstinence-only” programs:

Hello, Tulsa! When the Tulsa Public Schools said it would start teaching comprehensive sex education, they said they did it because teens that become pregnant are far less likely to graduate. While the state of Oklahoma still lacks a statewide requirement that schools teach sex ed, teens in Tulsa are learning what they need to stay safe, stay in school, and get set up to succeed.

3) Dane County, Wisconsin passed legislation that requires all relevant organizations contracting with the county to provide comprehensive and non-directive reproductive-health care information.

The ordinance is meant to prevent anti-choice “crisis pregnancy centers,” (CPCs) that lie to and shame women out of choosing abortion, from getting country contracts. That means that more women will learn their full range of reproductive options without fear of shame or lies from anti-choice fake clinics that will mislead them.

4) Michigan said "no" to forced transvaginal ultrasounds:

In response to outrage from pro-choice legislators in Michigan, anti-choice politicians decided to not pass a forced-ultrasound law that’s been ridiculed on The Daily Show and was so extreme that even Michigan’s anti-choice governor, Rick Snyder, denounced it.

5) A federal judge in Arkansas blocked an abortion ban after 12 weeks:

After the anti-choice House of Representatives in Arkansas bypassed Gov. Beebe’s signature to ban abortion after just 12 weeks of pregnancy, a federal judge blocked the ban calling it “more than likely unconstitutional” and stating that it could cause “irreparable harm” to abortion providers.

6) Oklahoma state Rep. Doug Cox laid down the pro-choice law for his anti-choice colleagues

Rep. Cox’s day job is actually as a practicing physician. So when his anti-choice colleagues kept trying to restrict women’s access to contraception, Rep. Cox decided he’d had enough. He wrote a scathing criticism, “What happened to the Republican Party that felt that the government has no business being in an exam room, standing between me and my patient? Where did the party go that felt some decisions in a woman's life should be made not by legislators and government, but rather by the women, her conscience, her doctor and her God?”

See, pro-choice change can happen even in the most anti-choice of states. So if you live in one of these states, keep fighting!

Check out our newest edition of Who Decides? The Status of Reproductive Rights in the United States to find out what anti-choice laws you must defeat in your state.