Alabama abortion bill is a step backward

Having had a legal abortion in the 1970s at University Hospital in Birmingham, I see the nation returning to the back alley butcher shops of our ignorant past. The Alabama Senate voted to forbid abortion in all but a narrow set of circumstances. Our Supreme Court now has at least two accused sexual predators on it who will obey Donald Trump, our misogynist president.

Now we women who marched before must march again with purpose against the legislators who are bringing this burden upon us.

For those of you who have been in the civil rights battle for years, I must remind you of Howard Zinn’s words, as he led us in protesting the actions of former Vice President Dick Cheney and former President George W. Bush, who sent us to war based on lies: These battles must never stop because as soon as we have ended one incursion into human liberty, another battle will break out.

To paraphrase a great old hymn: When roll is called up yonder, will you be there? For an agnostic, that means a lot to me.

For our lives to have any meaning at all, our actions must be a guiding light to those who come after. Just hitting the streets won’t do this time.

The London suffragettes were forcefed in prison. We are simply following in the footsteps of other brave people. Alice Copeland Brown

Calabash, N.C.

Columnist Kirsten Powers has it wrong in her piece “‘Heartbeat bills’ reveal extremist anti-abortion view that values unborn over women.”

The bill in Alabama does not view the unborn as more important than women. It takes the view that they are equally as important as women.

John Prickitt

Laguna Woods, Calif.