Are Plains and Southern sections heading into scientific irrelevance on stem cell research bans?

Are some states, some sections of the country, casting themselves into scientific irrelevance, in their rejection of stem cell research?
This is the case in legislative initiatives in Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina and Texas in the Southeast and in Montana and North Dakota in the Plains/Mountains West. (To be sure, this list of states also includes Maryland in the Mid-Atlantic section.) Click to this March 11, 2009 article in "USA Today," "Some states push back against stem cell research." Here, a March 31, 2009 "Houston Chronicle" reference to stem cell research resistance in Texas.

Bucking the above cited southeastern trend is North Carolina. Major efforts have been underway at Wake Forest University in the state's Research Triangle. Click to this archived 2006 installment of Terri Gross' "Fresh Air" on public radio, "Stem Cell Research: Science and the Future."