Crowd protests Alabama abortion law

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Hundreds of demonstrators Sunday marched to the Alabama Capitol to protest the state’s newly approved abortion ban.

Protesters chanted “My body, my choice!” and “vote them out!” as they rallied Sunday evening, days after Gov. Kay Ivey signed the near total abortion ban into law.

The Alabama law, the nation’s most restrictive, is to take effect in six months. It bans abortion in almost all cases unless necessary because of a mother’s health. There are no exceptions for pregnancies involving rape and incest. The law would make it a felony, punishable by up to 99 years or life in prison, to perform an abortion. There would be no punishment for the woman receiving the abortion.

Planned Parenthood and the American Civil Liberties Union say they plan to sue the state to try to block the law’s implementation.

“Banning abortion does not stop abortion. It stops safe abortion,” said Staci Fox, chief executive officer and president of Planned Parenthood Southeast, addressing the cheering crowd outside the Alabama Capitol.

Alabama and other states are enacting abortion restrictions in hopes of getting a conservative-leaning U.S. Supreme Court to revisit the 1973 decision that legalized abortion nationwide.

Marchers on Sunday said the measures have energized supporters of legalized abortion, and they say they are digging in for a legal and political fight. Along the route they took, the protesters passed by scattered counterdemonstrators raising signs against abortion.

Similar demonstrations were held Sunday in Birmingham and Huntsville.