In a glimmer of good news, lawmakers across 18 states introduced legislation yesterday that work to counteract the executive orders that President Trump has instituted during his first week in office (see this, this, and this).
Representatives in Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Hawaii, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Mexico, Ohio, Oregon, Texas, Virginia, and Wisconsin banded together to propose laws that would increase access to emergency contraception for survivors of sexual assault, confirming abortion is a healthcare service that deserves public and private insurance coverage, and prevent companies from taking action against employees based on their reproductive healthcare choices. This all makes sense considering women should be able to make choices that aren’t based on anyone’s religious or personal beliefs but their own.
The interesting part about all of this is the fact that many of these states actually voted for Trump–which proves that healthcare should remain a non-partisan issue, and religious beliefs should remain out of the picture.
So how did this come about? The Public Leadership Institute (PLI), a non-partisan think tank, worked with lawmakers to write these bills based on existing models, which would be individualized for each state.
According to PLI, a poll revealed that nearly 60% of Americans believe abortion should be legal in all or most cases. Moreover, a Gallup poll from May 2016 found that 79% of Americans believe the procedure should be legal in all or most situations. These statistics are fascinating, since they illustrate that even among conservative Americans, many of them don’t have as strict abortion beliefs as Trump’s administration does. Go figure.
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