ALABAMA BILL LATEST CHALLENGE TO LEGAL ABORTION.
MDs could face 99 years, even in rape, incest cases
Washington • Alabama’s passing of a bill banning almost all abortions in the state sets up a direct challenge to the U.S. Supreme Court Roe v. Wade ruling that gave women a constitutional right to end a pregnancy.
The legislation would make abortion illegal at every stage of pregnancy, including in cases involving rape or incest, unless a woman’s life is at risk.
Doctors who defy the ban would face prosecution and up to 99 years in prison if convicted. However, women who receive abortions would not be held criminally liable.
The bill was approved by Alabama’s state senate on Tuesday night and passed to the Republican governor, Kay Ivey. She signed the bill on Wednesday making it America’s strictest abortion law.
It is part of a growing push by Republican-controlled states to trigger legal challenges that could lead to the Supreme Court reconsidering Roe v. Wade, the 1973 ruling that legalized abortion nationwide.
Since the start of this year, 16 states have introduced legislation to curb abortion rights. Four have passed laws banning abortion if an embryonic heartbeat can be detected.
In Georgia, Brian Kemp, the Republican governor, signed a controversial heartbeat bill into law on Tuesday. Opponents call it a virtual ban because embryonic cardiac activity can be detected as early as six weeks, before a woman may be aware she is pregnant.
Kentucky, Mississippi, and Ohio have similar bills.
The Alabama bill goes further by banning abortions altogether, except when necessary to save a woman’s life.
Its authors do not expect it to pass unchallenged, but introduced the legislation as part of a broader strategy by “pro-life” activists to push the issue before America’s highest court, which now has a conservative majority.
Abortion opponents believe the Supreme Court is more open to banning abortion than it has been in decades after U.S. President Donald Trump, who has vowed to only appoint pro-life justices, nominated Brett Kavanaugh last year.
Terri Collins, the representative who sponsored the Alabama bill, said after Tuesday’s vote, “This bill is about challenging Roe v. Wade and protecting the lives of the unborn, because an unborn baby is a person who deserves love and protection.”
But Alabama Democratic Senate Minority Leader Bobby Singleton denounced the bill declaring in a thunderous speech. “This is a shame! This is a disgrace and a travesty,” he said.
The legal battle also appears to have begun, with the American Civil Liberties Union, a not-for-profit organization, on Wednesday promising to file a lawsuit “to stop this unconstitutional ban and protect every woman’s right to make her own choice about her health care.”
“Today is a dark day for women in Alabama,” said Staci Fox, the president of Planned Parenthood Southeast. “This is the most egregious attack on access to safe and legal abortion since Roe and we will fight back.”
With the case unlikely to be heard by the Supreme Court before 2020, it will be a key issue in the presidential race.
The debate quickly took over on the Democratic campaign trail. Rallying supporters in New Hampshire, Kamala Harris said she would back a legal challenge to Alabama and Georgia laws.
“I respect every woman’s right to make a decision about what’s in the best interest of herself and her family,” Harris said.
Sen. Cory Booker said the backers of the Alabama measure are “saying that they designed this bill with certain provisions — like not having any exceptions for rape or incest — specifically designed so that they can lead a fight to the Supreme Court” to “undermine other freedoms and liberties of women to control their own bodies.”
He said it’s not enough to hope that the Supreme Court will uphold Roe v. Wade, adding, “We should not wait. We cannot wait to see if this gets worse.”
Among the other Democratic candidates who took to Twitter to blast Alabama’s law and other statelevel restrictions were Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, as well as former vice-president Joe Biden and former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke.
The Democratic pushback comes as Trump makes his selection of conservative judges a centrepiece of his political stump speech, part of a long-running courtship of social conservatives whose support he needs to win re-election next year.
But the near-absolutist nature of the most recent bills has sparked some concern among the president’s team that it could energize Trump critics and female voters, with whom the president has long struggled.