Report: Texas, Kansas, Lead Nation On Abortion Restrictions

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WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A research group that supports abortion rights says more than half of women of reproductive age live in states with unneeded restrictions on abortion facilities.

The analysis released Tuesday by the Guttmacher Institute comes after a U.S. Supreme Court decision last year striking down a widely replicated Texas law on abortion clinics. The court held the regulations were medically unnecessary and unconstitutionally limit a woman's right to an abortion.

That ruling prompted Guttmacher to look at laws it says are not based in science.

Abortion opponents say such restrictions protect women's health.

Guttmacher analyzed laws that mandate standards for abortion providers, require waiting periods and ban abortions after 20 weeks.

It found Texas and Kansas have the most such restrictions, followed by Louisiana, Oklahoma and South Dakota.

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