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RELEASE: GOP Celebrates Women’s History Month with Extreme Attacks on Women
GOP state legislatures continue to pursue cruel legislation to prosecute and punish women
WASHINGTON — As Women’s History Month comes to a close, GOP leaders in state legislatures continue to escalate their attacks on women’s health and rights. Hundreds of anti-abortion bills have been introduced across 29 states so far this year alone. As budgets are squeezed and families can’t afford household necessities, Republicans are instead worsening the health care crisis facing women. From charging women seeking abortion care with homicide to attacking access to birth control and IVF treatment, the GOP is doing anything but celebrating women’s health and rights this month.
The DLCC’s 2026 Target Map represents a once-in-a-generation opportunity to flip key seats, secure new Democratic majorities, and build long-term governing power nationwide. The stakes for this map include the ability to achieve and defend progress for the nearly 150 million women living in these states.
Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee President Heather Williams issued the following statement:
“Instead of addressing soaring costs hurting families, Republicans are launching unprecedented attacks on women as we round out Women’s History Month. What started as deadly abortion bans has now evolved into sophisticated, dangerous policies to track, surveil, and criminalize women’s health across the board. The only path to stopping Republicans’ crusade against women is to elect more Democrats to state legislatures, where these policies are being made. The DLCC is building strong campaigns across every corner of the country to transform the landscape of reproductive freedoms and rights for millions of Americans.”
Here’s a breakdown of some of the most egregious attacks on women that Republicans have advanced this year:
- Mississippi Republicans passed a bill to define mailing abortion drugs to patients as drug trafficking. Doctors and providers who distribute mifepristone or misoprostol without an in-person visit could face imprisonment.
- Indiana and West Virginia Republicans have advanced legislation to criminalize the mailing of abortion medication to women in their states.
- Republicans in Ohio and Missouri are pushing new abortion restrictions while ignoring the will of voters in their states. In Ohio, they have introduced multiple bills that could expose women who seek abortions to homicide charges, despite voters enshrining abortion rights in the state constitution in November 2023. In Missouri, a Republican lawmaker has revived a proposed constitutional amendment to establish fetal personhood, which could expose patients and providers to murder charges and eliminate rape and incest exceptions, even after voters overturned the state’s abortion ban in 2024.
- The GOP-controlled legislature in South Dakota is moving closer to passing legislation that would ban the sale or advertisement of abortion-related medication and make violations punishable by prison time.
- South Carolina House Republicans passed a bill to further restrict telehealth abortion, making mifepristone and misoprostol Schedule IV drugs.
- Tennessee Republicans put forward a bill that would have criminalized women for seeking an abortion, allowing them to be charged with homicide and be subject to the death penalty. The bill failed in a House subcommittee.
- Florida Senate Republicans introduced legislation to require parental consent for minors to receive contraceptive services. The bill failed in committee.
- Arizona Republicans have introduced more than a dozen anti-abortion measures this session, despite voters approving Proposition 139 by a landslide in 2024 to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution. These proposals include making it a Class 5 felony to mail abortion pills, establishing fetal personhood, and allowing judges to order retroactive child support payments for “preborn” children.
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