Before the 1973 Supreme Court decision that guaranteed women’s right to legal abortion services — a decision that was handed down 40 years ago this Tuesday — reproductive freedom was sharply divided along racial and socioeconomic lines. And as anti-choice politicians slowly chip away at women’s abortion rights at a state level, some areas of the country aren’t too far away from returning women to that era of inequality.

By the early 1970s, about 20 states had passed state laws regarding abortion, and the procedure was legal in a handful of states. If a woman was lucky enough to be born privileged, she had a better chance of having the resources to travel to one of the areas of the country where she could safely obtain an abortion — if not, she was forced to join the estimated 1.2 million women who resorted to illegal abortion each year. And since women of color were more likely to be economically disadvantaged four decades ago, they were also much more likely to turn to illegal abortion procedures than their white counterparts. In the South, black women’s mortality rate from illegal abortions was fourteen times higher than white women’s. In New York City, more than 90 percent of the women who died from illegal abortions were black and Latina.

Today, abortion remains inextricably linked to issues of race and class. Blacks and Latinas have the highest rates of unintended pregnancy and, subsequently, the highest rates of abortions — 40 percent for African-American women and 29 percent for Hispanic women. Forty two percent of the women who have abortions fall below the federal poverty line, partly because poorer women still struggle to access affordable and reliable contraception. And denying women the opportunity to have a legal abortion greatly increases their risk of falling into poverty.

But that doesn’t stop anti-choice lawmakers from attempting to roll back abortion rights state by state, slowly bringing the country back to the time when legal reproductive services varied widely across regions, and ultimately exacerbating racial and economic inequality. According to nationwide abortion data extrapolated by researchers at Yale, allowing states to eliminate access to legal abortion still disproportionately hurts the low-income, non-white women who are forced to struggle — just as they did in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s — to get the resources they need to safely terminate a pregnancy.

In states like Mississippi and North Dakota, where the sole remaining abortion clinics are on the brink of being shut down, GOP lawmakers are threatening to transport women back to a time when reproductive freedom was reserved for the privileged, just as it was before Roe v. Wade. In the 20 states where employers and insurers are permitted to deny women access to affordable contraception by refusing to comply with Obamacare’s birth control provision, low-income women may be left with few preventative options, just as they were before the Supreme Court legalized the use of birth control for unmarried women in 1972. In states across the country, lawmakers hostile to reproductive rights are slowly passing abortion restrictions, shutting down women’s health clinics, targeting abortion providers, and inching the country backwards — erasing some of the progress that Roe made, all while the court’s decision technically still stands.

In a speech on the Virginia Senate floor on Tuesday, Sen. Dick Black (R-VA) blasted the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling, comparing the decision to the Holocaust.

Attacking the 1973 Supreme Court ruling that gave women the right to safe and legal abortions if they so choose, Black told his colleagues:

BLACK: When I hear discussions about this, I hear very mild comments about choice and reproductive rights and things of this sort. But I recall back to the days of Nazi Germany, there was a place called Auschwitz. And over the gates of Auschwitz was a sign, and the sign said “arbeit macht frei,” which means roughly “your labors will make you free.” People who went behind those doors never returned. Their labors didn’t make them free. And I’m reminded that we refer to our clinics as “women’s health clinics” and we talk about women’s reproductive rights and so forth. And somehow in all of our discussion, we forget the fact that in each of these decisions lies the life of a little boy or a little girl. You know it’s quite easy –and from where we look back on history, we say “Why didn’t the Germans do something? Why didn’t they rise up? Why didn’t they take action?” But they were helpless before their government just as we are helpless before our government. And beyond that, the things that were taking place, the horrors that took place were taking place behind closed doors,

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Black, who as a member of the Virginia House of Delegates passed out plastic fetuses to colleagues before an abortion vote, has been among the state’s strongest opponents of a woman’s right to choose. Over the years, he has sought to ban abortion in all cases, called emergency contraception “baby pesticides,” and opposed making contraception accessible.

There is perhaps no greater symbol of the devastating effects of anti-abortion harassment than Dr. George Tiller, the Kansas-area abortion doctor who was gunned down in 2009. His clinic has been closed ever since his murder — and now that a women’s health group has purchased the building with the intent of re-opening it to the public, they have struggled every step of the way.

Even though the landmark Roe v. Wade decision has guaranteed legal abortion services for the past four decades, increasing levels of anti-abortion harassment have continued to plague the health clinics that serve women across the country. And Wichita — which hasn’t had another abortion clinic since Dr. Tiller’s closed, forcing women in the area to travel at least 150 miles to the nearest clinic — is no exception, as the anti-choice community does everything in its power to prevent Dr. Tiller’s legacy from living on:

Anti-abortion groups are trying to block or delay the reopening of the clinic through a rezoning petition and complaints to the city that permits haven’t been issued as required for the clinic’s indoor remodeling.

“Once they get the permits we’ll be off to the next thing — we will try to persuade contractors not to work there,” said Cheryl Sullenger of the Wichita chapter of Operation Rescue.

The attempted roadblocks cast in front of the clinic before it even opens are not discouraging leaders of the organization that bought the building, where abortions, family planning and other gynecological care would be offered.

“We will continue to move forward to see that women have their rights,” said Julie Burkhart, who worked with Tiller’s clinic for eight years on political and legislative issues. “It’s incredibly important because women in this region need access to good medical care.”

Burkhart, who describes her quest to re-open the clinic as “absolutely one of the most difficult things I have had to do in my life,” is gearing up for a long fight. The site of the clinic and her own home have both been picketed, and anti-abortion brochures have referred to her as a “killer.”

Wichita residents on both sides of the debate agree that Dr. Tiller’s prominent history has made the fight over the new clinic especially contentious. The fact that Kansas is particularly hostile to abortion rights may also be a factor. Research has linked anti-abortion legislation to violent anti-abortion harassment, pointing out that anti-choice legislators may indirectly sanction protests that target abortion providers by allowing attacks on reproductive freedom to become law.

Football safety has come under increased scrutiny over the past several years, as mounting scientific research suggests that NFL players who have sustained repeated head trauma are more likely to develop fatal brain diseases. And new research adds yet another dimension to the debate: concussions could be linked to depression, putting former NFL players at risk for developing mental health issues.

Two recent studies on head injuries and mental health examined a group of 34 retired NFL players between the ages of 40 and 80 years old — and both found a potential link between brain damage and depression. The first study found that the former professional football players who are depressed or cognitively impaired tend to have abnormalities in their brains’ white matter. The second study, which is still preliminary and will be presented to the American Academy of Neurology this spring, found that players who had sustained a higher number of concussions during their NFL careers tended to exhibit more symptoms of depression once they retired.

As TIME reports, researchers believe the evidence is strong enough to compel medical professionals to change the way they approach patients with a history of concussions:

Neurologist Dr. John Hart, medical science director Center for BrainHealth who was involved in both studies, says the findings may have implications not just for current and former NFL players, but also for anyone with a history of concussion. That includes military veterans, victims of car crashes, or other athletes, both professional or amateur, who hit their head.

Depression is manageable, he says, but only if doctors know to diagnose and treat it properly, and the results suggest that anyone with a history of concussion should be monitored for signs of depression. Left untreated, the mood disorder can lead to suicide — as was the case with linebacker Junior Seau, who played in the NFL for 20 seasons and took his own life in 2012. An autopsy report revealed his brain showed signs of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a degenerative brain disorder linked to concussions.

Researchers also noted that the NFL players who participated in their studies were less likely to understand how depression manifests itself — and even if they were experiencing a lack of motivation, mood swings, or anxiety, they didn’t realize that might mean they were struggling with their mental health. “A lot of these players didn’t even recognize that the symptoms that they had were depression because they weren’t crying,” Hart told TIME.

In September, the NFL donated $30 million to concussion research following allegations that the league was intentionally obscuring the medical consequences of repeated concussions on the field. Research already estimates that retired football players are four times more likely than the general population to die of brain diseases.

Tuesday is the 40th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the landmark Supreme Court decision that ensures legal access to abortion services. But four decades after Roe gave women the freedom to make their own reproductive choices, the reality for women in the U.S. isn’t so clear cut — even though more Americans now support legal abortion than ever before, abortion rights are under serious attack across the country. Here’s the current state of abortion rights in the U.S., by the numbers:

• 70: Percentage of Americans who now oppose overturning Roe, the highest number since 1989. Most religious groups also want to leave Roe in place.
• 135: Number of new state-level abortion restrictions enacted over the past two years. 2011 and 2012 represented the worst years for reproductive freedom since the 1973 Supreme Court decision.
• 87: Percentage of U.S. counties that don’t have an abortion clinic. At least four states — North Dakota, South Dakota, Arkansas, Mississippi — only have a single abortion clinic left.
• 45: By the time American women reach this age, nearly half of them will have had an unintended pregnancy at some point in their lives. About one in three will have had an abortion.
• 20: Number of states that allow insurers or employers to deny women affordable contraception by refusing to comply with Obamacare’s birth control mandate. Studies have shown that Obamacare’s contraception provision will help reduce the national abortion rate.
• $470: Average cost of a first-trimester abortion. Even though most of the women who have abortions have health insurance, the majority of women pay out of pocket to have an abortion.
• 42: Percentage of women who have abortions whose income levels fall below the federal poverty line. Seven out of ten women who have had an abortion would have preferred to have the procedure sooner, but many of them were forced to delay because they needed more time to raise the money for it.
• 0.3: Even fewer than this percentage of abortion patients experience complications from their procedure that require hospitalization. Studies have repeatedly shown that having an abortion is far safer than giving birth.

Tuesday marks the 40th anniversary of the landmark Roe v. Wade decision, which guaranteed women’s constitutional right to legal abortion services. But even though Roe has been in place for four decades, women’s reproductive rights aren’t safe. In fact, over the past two years, anti-choice legislators passed an overwhelming 135 new abortion restrictions in 30 different states — making 2011 and 2012 the worst years for women’s reproductive freedom since abortion first became legal in 1973.

Rather than attempting to throw out Roe altogether, abortion opponents often limit reproductive rights indirectly. Even though abortion is already an incredibly safe medical procedure, the lawmakers pushing for new state-level restrictions claim they want to protect women by making abortion safer. Here are five tactics that GOP lawmakers are currently employing to circumvent Roe v. Wade and undermine reproductive rights across the country:

1. Over-regulating abortion clinics. Under the guise of ensuring that women’s health clinics are up to code, anti-choice lawmakers are subjecting abortion clinics and doctors to burdensome restrictions that aren’t placed on other medical professionals — a method called the “Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers.” Clinics are often forced to close when they can’t afford to make the expensive, unnecessary updates that TRAP laws require. In Mississippi, where TRAP laws threaten to shut down the state’s last remaining abortion clinic, the Republican governor has even admitted his motives aren’t rooted in a concern for women’s safety — he told a group of anti-abortion activists earlier this month that his real goal is to shut down the only reproductive health resource available to women seeking abortions.

2. Imposing mandatory waiting periods for women seeking abortions. It’s much harder to get an abortion than it is to get a gun in several states, largely thanks to mandatory waiting periods that require women to make multiple trips to a clinic to receive the voluntary medical procedure. Thirty five states currently require women seeking abortions to undergo counseling — which is often simply an attempt to shame women out of having the procedure — and 24 of those states require women to wait a full 24 hours after receiving the counseling to actually have an abortion. Utah goes even further and imposes a 72-hour waiting period on women seeking abortions. Studies have shown that nearly 90 percent of women are “confident in their decision” to have an abortion, and counseling and waiting periods don’t do anything to change their minds.

3. Restricting late-term abortions. The Supreme Court granted legal abortion rights until the point of fetal viability, generally considered to occur around week 23 or 24 of pregnancy. But some anti-choice lawmakers are attempting to move the goal posts with “fetal pain” measures that would ban abortion at just 20 weeks, based on the scientifically-disputed theory that fetuses can feel pain at that point. Seven states currently have 20-week bans in place, and three more — Arizona, Georgia, and Louisiana — enacted unconstitutional bans on late-term abortions last year that don’t include exceptions for the health of the woman. The fetal pain laws in Georgia and Arizona are currently being blocked from taking effect while they’re under consideration in court.

4. Pushing the myth of “coerced abortion.” Just like TRAP laws that restrict abortion clinics aren’t actually intended to safeguard women’s health, regulations that prevent women from being “coerced” into having an abortion aren’t actually enacted for women’s benefit. In order to justify additional imposing additional road blocks to reproductive services, anti-abortion activists cite the high numbers of women being forced into having abortions against their will — but there isn’t any scientific evidence to back up those claims. In fact, anti-coercion policies simply make abortion more difficult to access without actually addressing real issues of domestic and sexual violence, which are typically what causes women to be forced into reproductive decisions against their will. Nonetheless, at least 11 states considered “coerced abortion” laws in 2012.

5. Redefining the medical terms of pregnancy. In order to place additional abortion restrictions on women while Roe still stands, the most extreme anti-choice advocates are trying to redefine pregnancy. Lawmakers in Ohio and Wyoming have proposed radical “heartbeat” initiatives that would redefine the point of viability to ban abortion as soon as a fetal heartbeat can be detected — which typically occurs around 6 weeks of pregnancy, before some women even realize they’re pregnant and at least 17 weeks before the medically accepted definition of viability. Likewise, far-right “personhood” proponents want to redefine embryos as full U.S. citizens, which would result in banning all abortions, some forms of contraception, and potentially even invitro fertilization. Heartbeat and personhood measures are so extreme that they haven’t found much success even among the anti-choice community, but that hasn’t stopped Republican members of the 113th Congress from introducing a personhood bill already.