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Pulling back the curtains on wage-theft enforcement in MN; Trump's latest attack is on RFK, Jr; NM LGBTQ+ equality group endorses 2024 'Rock Star' candidates; Michigan's youth justice reforms: Expanded diversion, no fees.

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Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says rebuilding Baltimore's Key Bridge will be challenging and expensive. An Alabama Democrat flips a state legislature seat and former Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman dies at 82.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

39 Years Later, Abortion Restrictions Hit Record High

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Friday, January 20, 2012   

PHOENIX – This weekend marks the 39th anniversary of Roe vs. Wade, the U.S. Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion. However, after 39 years, it's becoming more and more difficult for women – in Arizona and the rest of the nation – to get an abortion.

According to research from the Guttmacher Institute, the number of states' newly-enacted abortion restrictions reached a record high in 2011. The study found 24 states, including Arizona, passed a total of 92 restrictions.

While anti-abortion groups consider this good news, the Reverend Rebecca Turner with Faith Aloud sees it as an effort to take the United States back to the days when abortion was a crime.

"Wherever abortion is illegal, women die from illegal abortions, and we don't want to see that return to the United States. That's taking us to the status of a third-world nation."

While very few women die from abortions in the United States, the report says every year, 70,000 women around the world die from unsafe abortions. Pro-life groups say they are protecting the lives of unborn children and plan rallies this weekend to call for an end to legal abortion.

There are conflicting reports on the number of abortions performed in the U.S., but most experts believe they have leveled off, or are decreasing. Rev. Turner says lower rates of abortion may not necessarily be the result of stricter laws. She points to findings from the Guttmacher Institute and the World Health Organization.

"In the countries where abortion is the most strictly regulated, there are actually the most abortions. And in the countries where it's the most loosely regulated, there are actually the fewest number of abortions."

For example, the report found abortion rates are low throughout Western Europe, where the procedure is legal and widely available. Turner says it makes sense because, where abortions are legal, contraceptives are also readily available - and when pregnancies are prevented, abortions aren't in demand.

While many pro-life groups say they are following the dictates of their faith, Rev. Turner says that many women who choose abortion are also women of faith.

"We simply make the very best decisions we can within our own spiritual teachings, within our own understanding of where God is in our life."

Turner says women have been making these decisions for thousands of years, with differing views on abortion dating as far back as ancient Egypt.



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