Inspired by a contentious Nebraska law, abortion opponents in five other states have won passage of measures banning virtually all abortions after five months of pregnancy.
The late-term bans — based on the premise that fetuses at that stage can feel pain, a view that has been disputed — are among a record wave of more than 80 restrictions aimed at reducing access to abortion, all of them approved so far this year in state legislatures. Other measures expand pre-abortion counseling requirements, ban abortion coverage in new insurance exchanges, and subject abortion clinics to tough new regulations....