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Arkansas lawmakers on Wednesday sent the governor legislation banning most abortions 18 weeks into a woman's pregnancy, a prohibition that could be the strictest in the country. The House gave final approval by an 86-1 vote to the bill, which Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson has said he supports. Arkansas already bans abortion 20 weeks into a woman's pregnancy. Hutchinson told reporters he believed the restriction would likely survive a court challenge. (3/13)

The conservatives who dominate the Kansas Legislature voted Wednesday to tell New York's leaders just how much they hate the Empire State's new law expanding abortion rights, ignoring Democrats who called the endeavor a toothless waste of time and money. The Kansas House voted 85-38 on Wednesday to approve the resolution, which declares that the New York law offends Kansas' and the nation's values and incites "abuse and violence toward women and their unborn children." (3/13)

Kentucky’s Republican-led legislature on Wednesday passed its latest measure to put more restrictions on abortion, setting up another legal fight with abortion-rights defenders. The legislation would ban abortion for women seeking to end their pregnancies because of the gender, race or disability of the fetus. The GOP-dominated Senate voted 32-4 to send the bill to the state’s anti-abortion governor, Republican Matt Bevin. Soon after the vote, the American Civil Liberties of Kentucky tweeted: “We will see the state of Kentucky in court (again).” (Schreiner, 3/13)

Gov. John Bel Edwards went through a laundry list of his achievements as he accepted the Louisiana Democratic Party’s endorsement for his 2019 reelection campaign Saturday (March 9). Standing before dozens of members of his own party, Edwards highlighted what he considered his first-term successes: Medicaid expansion, state budget stabilization, economic projects, coastal restoration projects, higher education scholarships and lowering Louisiana’s sky-high incarceration rate. (O'Donoghue, 3/13)

By a six-vote margin, the controversial “Heartbeat Bill” passed the Ohio Senate on Wednesday, moving another step closer to becoming law after several attempts in recent years fell short. Senate Bill 23, which would prohibit abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected, with exceptions for cases in which the mother’s life is at risk — was debated vociferously on the Senate floor before passing 19-13. (Prosser, 3/13)

HB 23 now heads to the House. Reogner, in her remarks to Senate colleagues, alluded to the goal of abortion opponents to overturn the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case of Roe v. Wade. Reogner said that courts, guided by standards created in Roe v. Wade, restrict abortion based on the viability of a fetus. But she said viability is a “moving target” because it varies based on the part of the world where a pregnant woman lives or the point in time when advancements in medical technology occurred. (Hancock, 3/13)