Houston Chronicle

New laws on abortion will begin nationwide

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New laws targeting abortion are set to take effect Friday in about onefifth of the states, initiating another wave of restrictio­ns just days after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a Texas measure that led several clinics to close.

Some of the laws limit when and how the procedure can be performed. Others restrict what can be done with tissue from aborted fetuses.

They are part of a raft of laws that are going on the books around the country with the start of the new fiscal year July 1. California, for example, will tighten its childhood vaccinatio­n requiremen­ts, narrowing the ability of parents to opt out. Vermont will become the first state to require labeling of geneticall­y modified ingredient­s in food. Idaho and Tennessee will expand the right to carry concealed guns.

Some of the laws face legal challenges, including a Mississipp­i measure protecting people who object to gay marriage on religious grounds. A federal judge this week struck down a part of the law that allowed county clerks to not issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

A look at some of the new measures:

Laws limiting what can be done with the remains of aborted fetuses are set to take effect in Alabama, Florida, Idaho, Indiana and South Dakota, though some are under legal attack.

In Florida, Mississipp­i and Missouri, new laws would stop tax dollars from going to Planned Parenthood.

Many of those funding and fetal-tissue laws came in response to undercover videos released last summer that alleged Planned Parenthood officials were selling fetal tissue for profit. Two anti-abortion activists who made the videos face felony charges in Texas.

A lawsuit already is challengin­g a new Indiana law banning abortions because of the fetus’ race, sex or genetic abnormalit­ies, such as Down syndrome.

Elsewhere, South Dakota will ban most abortions at 20 weeks of pregnancy, allowing misdemeano­r charges against providers but not pregnant women.

Mississipp­i will prohibit a commonly used secondtrim­ester abortion procedure, called dilation and evacuation, in which the fetus is dismembere­d.

And Florida will require abortion physicians to have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals or the clinic to have a patient transfer agreement. It is similar to the Texas law struck down Monday by the Supreme Court that required doctors to have privileges at nearby hospitals and clinics to meet hospital-like surgical standards.

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