Alabama has become the latest US state to restrict abortions by passing a bill to outlaw the procedure in almost all cases. The law includes the ban on abortion in cases of incest or rape. The abortion ban now only allows a woman to have an abortion if her health is at serious risk.
Alabama’s 35 seat Senate was all by men and none of its four female senators supported the ban, it was signed by the Alabama Republican governor.
22 Senators voted against including an exception for rape or incest in Alabama’s new draconian abortion law.
Notice any similarities? pic.twitter.com/QNxFC1JU2u
— Simran Jeet Singh (@SikhProf) May 15, 2019
Sixteen other states are seeking to impose new restrictions on abortion. Earlier this year the governors from four states – Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi and Ohio – signed bills banning abortion if a heartbeat can be found.
Democratic leaders have reacted with outrage and have vowed to fight for abortion rights.
Elizabeth Warren, the Massachusetts senator and 2020 contender, tweeted: “This ban is dangerous and exceptionally cruel – and the bill’s authors want to use it to overturn Roe v Wade. I’ve lived in that America and let me tell you: we are not going back – not now, not ever. We will fight this. And we will win.”
The Alabama legislation makes it a crime for a doctor to perform an abortion in the state, it is punishable by 10 to 99 years in prison. Women would not face criminal penalties for getting an abortion.
Hillary Clinton tweeted: “The abortion bans in Alabama, Georgia, Ohio, Kentucky, and Mississippi are appalling attacks on women’s lives and fundamental freedoms. Women’s rights are human rights. We will not go back.”
State senator Vivian Davis Figures told the bill’s proponents: “You don’t have to raise that child. You don’t have to carry that child. You don’t have to provide for that child. You don’t have to do anything for that child, but yet you want to make the decision for that woman.”
Republican state senator Clyde Chambliss said: “Human life has rights, and when someone takes those rights, that’s when we as government have to step in. When God creates that life, that miracle of life inside the woman’s womb, it’s not our place as humans to extinguish that life. That’s what I believe.”
There are currently three abortion clinics in Alabama down from more than 20 in the 1990s. Other states in the US have similar falls.
The hashtag #youknowme has begun on social media following a plea from an actress.
1 in 4 women have had an abortion. Many people think they don’t know someone who has, but #youknowme. So let’s do this: if you are also the 1 in 4, let’s share it and start to end the shame. Use #youknowme and share your truth.
— Busy Philipps (@BusyPhilipps) May 15, 2019
Busy Phillips asked social media users to share their abortion stories. She told her followers how in 4 women have had an abortion and how many people will think they don’t know someone who has.
