Alabama has become the latest US state to move to restrict abortions. The bill which has passed the first stage is surprisingly draconian as it includes a ban on abortion in cases of rape or incest. This means it will likely be blocked from becoming law by the lower court but an appeal to the Supreme Court would be almost inevitable.
Supporters of the bill know that the Supreme Court now has a conservative majority, and may choose to overturn the 1973 ruling in Roe v. Wade which effectively legalised abortion on constitutional grounds quoting a fundamental “right to privacy” that protects a pregnant woman’s liberty to choose whether or not to have an abortion. The Bill would not stop a woman having an abortion but would make it a criminal offence for a Doctor to administer one (99-year jail term), which pretty much means no one would carry one out.
Whatever your views on the matter banning abortion in the case of rape or incest is wrong and if the majority of the Alabama Senate had been women this probably would have been a different story.
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) 15 May 2019
In the last 20 years or so America has become more anti-abortion and figures from the Guttmarcher Institute indicates that 21 US states are now hostile or very hostile towards abortion as opposed to four at the turn of the century.
More here
