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Abortion restrictions set to begin
By David A. Lieb
Associated Press

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

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 showed Planned Parenthood officials discussing selling fetal tissue. The organization denied it.

A lawsuit already is challenging a new Indiana law banning abortions because of the fetus’s 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 against pregnant women.

Mississippi will prohibit a 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.

Associated Press