The policy divide between blue and red states keeps widening

In New York, residents are able to access to abortion through the 24th week of pregnancy, are banned from carrying concealed firearms in sensitive places and can easily obtain the new Covid vaccines

In New York, residents are able to access to abortion through the 24th week of pregnancy, are banned from carrying concealed firearms in sensitive places and can easily obtain the new Covid vaccines.

In Florida, abortions are available only through the sixth week of pregnancy, people can now openly carry guns without permits in most places, and the state’s surgeon general is eliminating vaccine mandates while signaling he wants to ban the Covid shot.

Politically, these two states haven’t had much in common for decades. And in this polarized era, those differences are increasingly reflected in the laws and guidelines local leaders are enacting, resulting in wildly different policy realities for Americans depending solely on whether they live in a blue state or a red state.

Those realities have become especially stark over the past few years, with states responding to major U.S. Supreme Court rulings on abortion and gun rights, and most recently, the Trump administration’s skeptical attitude toward vaccines.

“There are two very different realities right now,” said Mandara Meyers, the executive director of The States Project, a Democratic-aligned group that works to build the party’s power in state legislatures.