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PDFFrom New American Media:
2011 saw a record number of laws restricting abortion in U.S. states. It also saw a record number of state anti-immigrant laws. Coincidence?
Maybe not.
In 2011, U.S. states enacted 135 new reproductive health provisions, 92 of them seeking to restrict abortion.
In 2000, 13 states were considered “hostile” to reproductive rights; by 2011, that number had doubled to 26 states, according to the Guttmacher Institute. Last year, more than half of women of reproductive age (15-44) were living in states that were hostile to abortion, up from less than one-third in 2000.
This map shows the trend toward restricting reproductive rights, primarily in the Midwest and the South. Of the 13 states in the South, half were considered hostile to reproductive rights in 2000; all had become hostile by 2011.
But 2011 was also a record year for anti-immigrant legislation. Five states (Alabama, Georgia, Indiana, South Carolina, and Utah) passed anti-immigrant bills modeled after Arizona’s 2010 law, SB 1070. An analysis by Mother Jones found that 164 anti-immigration laws were passed by state legislatures in 2010 and 2011. The map can be viewed here.
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