NARAL Pro-Choice America supports a wide range of pro-choice policies that help protect every woman's right to make the full range of reproductive choices, including preventing unintended pregnancy, bearing healthy children, and choosing legal abortion.

In 2007, our nationwide Prevention First initiative continued to gain support, and helped create new laws aimed at making abortion less necessary by preventing unintended pregnancies. Pro-choice advocates challenged lawmakers to stand with us and unify behind commonsense prevention policies that would guarantee women's access to birth control at pharmacies, require equitable insurance coverage for contraception, prevent teen pregnancy, ensure age-appropriate and medically accurate sex education in schools, expand low-income women's access to family planning services, and increase women's awareness of and ability to obtain emergency contraception, also known as the "morning after" pill. In 2007, lawmakers across the country—in states as diverse as Arkansas, Connecticut, Minnesota, and Oregon—put prevention first and prioritized women's health over politics.

In addition to being a banner year for prevention efforts, 2007 saw states focus on expanding access to health care services for women who choose to become parents. Six states enacted laws to help women have healthier pregnancies. This includes measures that expand coverage f or Medicaid-funded services for low-income pregnant women and examine ways to improve treatment of postpartum depression.

In 2008, when anti-choice advocates likely will try to capitalize on a changing U.S. Supreme Court by enacting new restrictions on abortion that could test the Court's interpretation of the constitutional right to choose, NARAL Pro-Choice America, our affiliates, and our allies will work to defeat those divisive measures that pose such serious threats to women's health. We will also demonstrate that we have the commonsense position on not only abortion, but on a whole range of other issues—including preventing unintended pregnancies and expanding access to reproductive health care for all women.

• States considered 431 pro-choice measures in 2007; 171 of these were Prevention First measures.
• The number of pro-choice measures considered in 2007 decreased 8 percent from 2006, when states considered 470 pro-choice measures.
• Every state with a regular legislative session considered pro-choice legislation in 2007, except for Alabama, Idaho, Nebraska, and North Dakota.
• New York considered the most pro-choice legislation in 2007 with 45 measures; 15 of these were Prevention First measures.
• The most popular non-Prevention First pro-choice legislation is that related to improving healthy childbearing; 19 states considered 51 healthy childbearing measures.

Measures enacted:

• 28 states enacted 80 pro-choice measures in 2007; 17 of these were Prevention First measures.
• Hawaii and Illinois enacted the most pro-choice legislation in 2007, with seven measures each.
• Minnesota and Oregon enacted the most Prevention First measures in 2007, with three measures each.
• The number of pro-choice measures enacted in 2007 increased 43 percent from 2006, when states enacted 56 pro-choice measures. The number of Prevention First measures enacted in 2007 increased 89 percent from 2006, when states enacted nine Prevention First measures.

Key Prevention First and Other Pro-Choice Victories in 2007

• Connecticut, Minnesota, and Oregon enacted laws that ensure that sexual assault survivors receive information about and access to emergency contraception in emergency rooms.
• Arkansas and Colorado enacted laws that help to ensure that sexual assault survivors receive information about emergency contraception in emergency rooms.
• Oregon enacted a law ensuring that health insurance plans that cover prescription drugs also cover prescription birth control.
• Several states improved their sex education laws:
  • Colorado's law requires sex education programs to be medically accurate and based on scientific research.
  • Iowa's law requires sex education programs to be age-appropriate, medically accurate, and research-based.
  • Washington's law requires sex education programs to be medically and scientifically accurate, age-appropriate, non-discriminatory, and include information on both abstinence and prevention of pregnancy and STDs.
• Colorado, Connecticut, and Indiana enacted laws that improve healthy childbearing by expanding low-income women's eligibility for Medicaid's prenatal care coverage.
• Massachusetts enacted a law expanding the buffer zone that protects patients and clinic personnel from harassment.
• New Hampshire repealed the parental notification law at issue in Ayotte v. Planned Parenthood of Northern New England. The Supreme Court sent the case back to the trial court to consider whether adding a health exception into the law would be at odds with legislators' intent when they enacted the law. Pro-choice lawmakers' repeal of the law made the issue moot, and the case was therefore dismissed.
• New Jersey enacted a law that requires pharmacies to fill lawful prescriptions for drugs or devices without undue delay.

² NARAL Pro-Choice America tracks many different types of pro-choice legislation that fully encompass a woman's right to choose, including measures that promote healthy childbearing and expand insurance coverage for women's reproductive health services. Our Prevention First initiative focuses on those particular areas that are key to preventing unintended pregnancies, which include measures that promote: comprehensive sex education, young women's access to confidential health care services, teen pregnancy prevention, insurance coverage for contraception, access to family planning services and supplies, guaranteed access to prescriptions, and emergency contraception (EC pharmacy access, EC in the ER, and EC public education).