That's not 'overreach.' That's just the Republican Party.

For Democrats, progressives, labor activists and anyone who thinks that a murder charge is perhaps too heavy a consequence for curing a life-threatening condition such as an ectopic pregnancy, this past Tuesday night was a good night. Issue 2 in Ohio, the popular referendum on whether to enact S. B. 5 and essentially destroy the financial and political power of public employee unions, was crushed, losing in all but six of Ohio's counties. In deep-red Mississippi, voters soundly defeated a vague, extremist piece of legislation that would have defined a fertilized egg as a person—not just banning abortion, but fertility clinics, morning-after pills, perhaps even regular birth control and life-saving medical procedures. In Arizona and Michigan, extremist legislators Russell Pearce and Paul Scott, known for their respective fanaticism against immigrants and teachers' unions, were recalled from office. Democrats had a dominating day in statewide races in Kentucky, had good turnout in the primary in Oregon's First District to determine David Wu's successor, and kept the Iowa Senate in Democratic hands.

The news wasn't all positive; voting rights had a mixed day, as a victory for same-day registration in Maine was tempered by the passage of further restrictions in Mississippi. In addition, it looks like Democrats have lost control of the Virginia House of Delegates.

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