Women’s Rights Set Back Decades As Alabama Abortion Law Is Signed

On Wednesday, Alabama Governor Kay Ivey signed a near-total abortion ban law called the Alabama Human Life Protection Act that threatens not just womens’ rights, but their lives.

The new law restricts all abortion except for when “abortion is necessary in order to prevent a serious health risk” to the woman. There are no exceptions for women impregnated from rape or incest.

Not since Roe v. Wade passed in 1973, has the U.S. seen such an anti-abortion measure. The new Alabama anti-abortion law criminalizes abortion, making it a Class A felony. Doctors who perform the procedure could face up to 99 years in prison. Attempted abortion attempts are a Class C penalty.

The goal of these state driven protests against abortion is get the case in front of the Supreme Court in an attempt to overthrow Roe v. Wade.

Roe v. Wade was a court case where the Supreme Court decided that the “Due Process Clause” under the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution, gave women had a fundamental “right to privacy” and protected a pregnant woman’s liberty to choose whether she wants an abortion or not.

Conservative lawmakers have seen Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s appointment to the Supreme Court as their opportunity to overturn Roe v. Wade. So far four states have passed anti-abortion bills just this year.

Anti-abortion supporters are counting on groups like the ACLU and Planned Parenthood to challenge the new law in the hopes that the case makes it way up to the Supreme Court.

Some of the most extreme anti-abortion groups are likening abortion to the holocaust, deeply offending Jewish groups.

Taking away a woman’s right to chose takes away her body autonomy, which has been considered a basic human right. Body autonomy lets people choose whether or not they want to be an organ donor. It’s the reason no one can force you to be an organ donor. Everyone, not just women, should be concerned if body-autonomy is taken away.

Anti-abortion laws take away a women’s control over her own body, family planning and life decisions. The only birth control method that is 100% effective is abstinence.

Abortion should be a private decision between a woman and her doctor.