The Cincinnati Enquirer reports that the bill stems from a lawsuit in which a 14-year-old girl was impregnated by her 21-year-old soccer coach and had an abortion procedure at a Planned Parenthood facility in Ohio.

In the suit, the parents of the girl allege that Planned Parenthood failed to receive the girl’s consent before administering the abortion and are seeking hundreds of records of minors who received abortions at the group’s facilities over the last decade.

In addition to informing patients of their rights, the new Ohio law will give limited access to medical records of minors for use in civil lawsuits against alleged child abusers.

Earlier this month the Alaska state senate proposed legislation that would require the parents or guardians of minors under the age of 17 to receive notice of a girl’s abortion but the bill would not require consent. A bill passed in the state House does require parental or guardian consent.

The 103 bills were part of more than 450 bills passed by the state legislature during its recent session and included three related to abortion issues in the state including a bill which establishes a to assist in the legal costs when state abortion laws are challenged.

In addition, the governor signed a bill that requires physicians to inform women that fetal anesthesia is available and House bill 90 which modifies the definition of viability of a fetus.

Missy Bird, executive director of the Planned Parenthood Action Council, told the Salt Lake Tribune that her group is concerned about HB90, calling the bill “constitutionally suspect.”

“It’s dangerous ground,” she told the paper. “HB90 raises the possibility that a woman would not be able to make those decisions in conjunction with her medical provider.”

According to the Utah branch of the American Civil Liberties Union, HB90 defines viability as the stage in which a fetus has the potential to live outside the womb through either natural or artificial support.

Legislators in Kentucky failed to pass a bill that would have required women to have an ultrasound and view the images at least 24 hours prior to an abortion procedure.

Opponents of the bill noted that while women currently have the choice to view the images, ultrasounds are regularly performed prior to abortions. Under the new bill, a woman would have been required to enter an abortion clinic on two separate occasions and could have resulted in higher costs to patients.

Derek Selznick, director of the Reproductive Freedom Project of the American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky, said if the bill had passed, some women may have been forced to stay overnight in the clinics.

“Women could be spending anywhere from $230 to $600 out-of-pocket, depending on where they live and [based] on other costs,” he told The News Record.

Earlier this month the Kansas state House passed a bill that would require physicians to inform women that they have the option of seeing the images from a fetal sonogram prior to an abortion procedure. That bill must still pass through the state Senate before reaching the governor’s desk.

A new training manual from the DMV tells staff to treat prescriptions for marijuana just as they would other prescription drugs when considering the renewal of a California driver’s license.

The changes come after Americans for Safe Access (ASA), a marijuana advocacy group, sued the California DMV following its revocation of the license of a 53-year-old marijuana patient with a clean driving record.

Joe Elford, the attorney in the case, said the new policy is a victory for medical marijuana patients in the state.

“The new DMV policy is a significant departure from how the agency approached medical marijuana in the past,” he said. “Drivers will no longer have their licenses suspended or revoked simply because of their status as medical marijuana patients.”

The ASA has also recently filed a lawsuit against Solano County in California after the county refused to issue a medical marijuana ID card to a county resident.

One bill would require that physicians inform women who seek an abortion that they have the option of seeing a fetal sonogram prior to the procedure.

A second bill would force doctors to inform state officials of the diagnosis for late-term abortions and would make it easier for state officials to revoke the license of physicians convicted of a misdemeanor.

But opponents of the bill say that the new bills will do nothing to cut down on the number of abortions in the state and will instead add to the paperwork of the state.

Judith Loganbill, a democratic representative from Wichita said the new laws would take away from the judgment of doctors while increasing the state’s cost.

“We are asking all of the agencies in the state to make [budget] cuts, yet here we are asking another agency to add to its workload and add to the cost of doing business,” Loganbill said, according to the Kansas City Star.

Republican state representative Dan Ruby, who sponsored the bill said it is not meant to be a ban on abortion in the state.

“This is very simply defining when life begins, and giving that life some protections under our Constitution - the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” Ruby said on the house floor last week.

But opponents of the so-called “personhood law” say it would ban abortion in the state and could hinder the ability to obtain birth control.

The bill must still go before the state Senate before making its way to the governor’s desk.

Also last week, the North Dakota state senate passed a bill that would require abortion clinics to post signs telling women they cannot be forced to have an abortion. This measure must now make its way to the state’s House.

According to the abortionclinicdirectory.com, the state has only one abortion clinic in Fargo, North Dakota.

In an 84-6 vote yesterday the state legislature passed with no debate and no one speaking on the House floor about the bill.

“I was very excited and surprised,” representative Dawn Creekmore, author of the bill, told Arkansas News after the vote. “I didn’t think the number would be that high. I was expecting some debate.”

The bill does have a provision that allows the procedure to be performed if it would save the life of the mother. Under the proposed new law, a woman who had a late-term abortion would not face prosecution, but a physician could face civil action.

Arkansas governor Mike Beebe has said he would sign the bill but it must first past through the state Senate.

Last May a federal appeals court struck down a Virginia late-term abortion ban saying it was unconstitutional because it placed an undue burden on a woman attempting to have an abortion procedure.

According to the Indianapolis Star, the bills would add up to 55 years in prison to a person convicted of a crime which caused a pregnant woman to lose the fetus.

The bills stem from a bank robbery last year in which a teller survived being shot, but lost the unborn twins she had been carrying.

The legislators say they have worked closely with a prosecutor to make sure the bills do not draw the ire of abortion rights groups. Betty Cockrum, president of Planned Parenthood of Indiana told the paper that she is concerned of some unintended consequences from the bills, but supports them.

“We are supportive of it moving forward,” she told the Star, “and truly pleased that they have spent a fair amount of time having the right discussions.”

According to the National Conference of State Legislators, 36 states currently have some form of fetal homicide law on the books with 19 of those states having laws which apply to the earliest days of pregnancy.

Information on the abortion drop comes on the heels of the November vote which rejected an abortion ban in the state, the second rejection of a South Dakota abortion ban in the last two years.

A total of 707 abortions were performed in the state in 2007, a decrease from 748 the previous year.

Although the abortion bans did not pass this year or in 2006, some laws which did pass may have had a hand in decreasing the state’s number.

Leslee Unruh, who founded the Alpha Center pregnancy counseling center in Sioux Falls says that a new law, which took effect in July, requiring doctors to tell women seeking abortions that the procedure ends a human life played a part in reducing the abortion rate.

She also believes abstinence only education decreased the number of unwanted pregnancies, thereby reducing abortions.

“Our stats show that if you keep offering birth control, you keep having irresponsible sex,” she said “The sex seekers want to say the dip has to do with more condoms and birth control pills but that doesn’t work.”

A bill repealing the law, which dates to the 1800s, failed to pass last year, but with Democrats holding a majority in the state Legislature and the Governor’s office, Berceau hopes the legislation will go through when the assembly meets next year.

Berceau told the The Capitol Times of Madison, Wisconsin that reintroducing the bill is a top priority but said she expects the Democrats in the state legislature to be more bipartisan but will not accept proposals from “extreme” groups.

The Wisconsin law was made unenforceable by the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision but the law could come into play if the Supreme Court made a future ruling on abortion.

While the state law criminalizing abortion has not been enforced since 1973, late term or partial birth abortions are prohibited under Wisconsin law and are a Class A felony punishable by a life sentence. Except in some situations, parental consent is required before a minor can have an abortion in the state.