The three years following the 2010 elections would result in 205 anti-abortion laws across the country, more than in the entire previous decade. In legislative sessions starting the following January, Republican-led states passed a record number of restrictions: 92, or nearly three times as many as the previous high, set in 2005. And a well-established network was waiting with model anti-abortion laws. While Tea Party-backed candidates had campaigned on fiscal discipline and promised indifference to social issues, once in office they found it difficult to cut state budgets. But 2010 swept in a different breed of Republican, powered by Tea Party supporters, that locked in a new conservatism. There had been a time, in the 15 years after Roe, when Republicans were as likely as Democrats to support an absolute right to legal abortion, and sometimes even more so. By the time the votes had been counted, they held their biggest margin since the Great Depression. Republicans swept not only the South but Democratic strongholds in the Midwest, picking up more seats nationwide than either party had in four decades. That night, control of state houses across the country flipped from Democrat to Republican, almost to the number: Democrats had controlled 27 state legislatures going in and ended up with 16 Republicans started with 14 and ended up controlling 25. Wade arrived on election night in November 2010.
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