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State legislatures have been back in session a little more than a week and lawmakers are already going after abortion rights. At least 46 anti-abortion bills have been introduced or are pending in 14 states as of Thursday morning—15 in Missouri alone, according to research compiled by the Guttmacher Institute, a nonprofit group that supports abortion rights, and additional reporting by VICE News. Many of these measures are nearly identical and fit distinct patterns, such as "personhood" bills in Missouri, Texas, and Florida that aim to grant fetuses a right to life from the moment of conception.
Lawmakers in five states (Kentucky, New Jersey, Virginia, Texas, and Florida) introduced bills to ban abortion after 20 weeks of fertilization, when, they argue, fetuses can feel pain. These bills are modeled after legislation drafted by the anti-abortion organization National Right to Life, which has made passing the "Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act" in states around the country a priority in recent years. Nebraska was the first state to adopt this law, in 2010, and now at least 14 other states have 20-week bans in place, according to Guttmacher. Ohio Republican Gov. John Kasich signed a 20-week ban into law late last year after months of controversy surrounding a different bill that would have banned abortions at six weeks.
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