Alabama has made abortion illegal

[StealthPolarBear]

Including in cases of rape and incest.
Bye bye women's rights.

Reading the NY Times article on this, it's just a list of "Mr" this and "Mr" that.
How fucking dare a group of overfed rich, pompous arseholes tell the women and girls of Alabama ( and soon Georgia, Kentucky and Ohio) that if they are raped they have to give birth!?
Or even that something growing inside their own body does not belong to them! These men will never BE in that position. And if one of them knocks up a mistress they have the wherewithal to ship them off to a private clinic in another state. Not something a pregnant 15 year old with no money can do.
Fucking men. Fucking hypocrites.

gamerwidow - do you visit/read the FWR boards?

Only a matter of time before all women at airports or at the US borders with Canada and Mexico will be forced to undergo pregnancy testing before being allowed to proceed

Don’t need to exaggerate the situation; it’s an oddity due to the separation of powers between the federal and state government. Federal law does not clearly supersede state law, although no federal laws have been made regarding abortion anyway (clearly because politicians are too cowardly to do so).

The federal government would never outlaw abortion in the current climate, but there are a bunch of states ready to do so if Roe falls. There’s the real danger that young girls/poor women in these conservative states will be affected.

Fucking men

Just to be clear, the politician who introduced this legislation is a woman (Terri Collins). It will only become law if it is signed by the governor, Kay Ivey, also a woman. It is, however, true that those who voted it through were overwhelmingly men. The proportion of women in the Alabama legislature is very low.

gamerwidow - do you visit/read the FWR boards?
Not specifically. I tend to loiter in Active threads.
If that’s a good place to look for activism re: abortion rights in NI I’ll take myself there though.
I’ve been guilty of not paying proper attention to the disparity of abortion rights in the UK. To be honest it’s taken the Alabama ruling and the outrage I felt to really hammer home the hypocrisy and make me think ‘actually why am I’m just accepting this?’

@gamerwidow I have to say, I've always been aware but this has really kicked me into action. You can email your MP via this link, it takes about 30 seconds. nowforni.uk/email/

tisonlymeagain thanks I’ve emailed my MP . Doesn’t feel like enough though ....

No @gamerwidow but it's a start!

gamerwidow - lots of info/discussions about women's rights, links to petitions, meet ups etc. It's literally the only place on the Internet where women can meet and do this.

The main difference between NI and the US at the moment seems to be that although NI laws are stricter, everyone turns a blind eye to women travelling to other parts of the UK for abortions. Some states in the US seem to be trying to introduce legislation that would make it illegal to help somebody to have an abortion out of state.

If a Georgia resident plans to travel elsewhere to obtain an abortion, she may be charged with conspiracy to commit murder, punishable by 10 years’ imprisonment. An individual who helps a woman plan her trip to get an out-of-state abortion, or transports her to the clinic, may also be charged with conspiracy. These individuals, after all, are “conspiring” to end of the life of a “person” with “full legal recognition” under Georgia law.

slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/05/hb-481-georgia-law-criminalizes-abortion-subjects-women-to-life-in-prison.html

Don’t need to exaggerate the situation; it’s an oddity due to the separation of powers between the federal and state government.

If you can't travel to a different state for an abortion, I think we are beyond the stage where this is really an exaggeration.

On a thread I started a couple of days ago, I was told that I was wrong, that women would be able to travel out of state.

My understanding is that women would be criminalised by traveling out of state for abortion.

Who is right?

I think that if the possibility to prosecute is in the law, at this point it is naive to assume that it will be ignored - why would anyone assume leniency? Why assume that a politician wouldn't enforce a crazy policy to appeal to their base? You don't even have to look at Trump to see how these things can go wrong - just think of Windrush.

Perhaps it would be possible to fight a sentence, but at what cost?

Who would be willing to test how far the state would be willing to go?

Who is right

It is unclear. Each state makes its own laws so a state could criminalise a woman travelling out of state for abortion. The Slate says Georgia has done so already but others disagree with that interpretation.

The other point to note is that none of these laws have actually taken effect as yet. Abortion is not yet illegal in Alabama. The Governor needs to sign the bill (she has not yet indicated whether or not she will do so, although it is thought she probably will). Abortion actually becomes illegal at least six months after the Governor signs.

I believe the intention of anti-abortion activists is not that these laws will actually come into effect, but that at least one of them will get to the Supreme Court where they hope to overturn Roe v Wade.

It is unclear.

Unfortunately women who need abortions can't wait around for case law to establish what is legal.

If it is assumed that it is illegal to help somebody travel out of state for an abortion, the social impact will be felt, regardless of what could be proved in court.

Just to clarify, right now it is clear. The new laws in Alabama and other states have not yet taken effect and won't do for some time. What is unclear is the situation when these laws do take effect. It may be that, by then, the situation regarding women getting abortions out of state will have been clarified.

I think we all realise none of the laws have come into effect yet. Sorry - don't mean that rudely, but we realise that.

But to say 'women won't be criminalised by traveling OOS for an abortion' is an untenable standpoint. Nobody can say that, with any certainty. That is certainly the intention of some politicians/lawmakers.

And the rolling back of hard-won rights by a highly influential country is of course going to be a point for discussion among women around the world - regardless of their own country's rules and regs.

I'm not in the UK, so is it OK for me to discuss it? British women must be silenced?

I know the poster who said this has apologised, but it's an infuriating position!

Yemen clearly some posters do not understand this point. Or that this happens quite often.

The danger is that it could go all the way up to an unfavorable Supreme Court, and Roe would be repealed, which would have repercussions all over the US.

Just not before.

Again, on the thread I started, I had people say that (Roe) won't happen.

Just like Trump 'winning' 2016 wouldn't happen.

I'm not in the UK, so is it OK for me to discuss it? British women must be silenced?
Of course it's OK for everyone and anyone to discuss and of course British women must not be silenced.
British women shouldn't forget we've got a lot of work to do in the UK too though.
It is possible to be outraged by the news from Alabama and want to raise awareness and action for NI too.

I agree gamer but I can't get being single issue focus. This was in the news on the day I started the thread. In the 'in the news' topic no less. I find it utterly mind blowing that someone should come on and ask why we're talking about it. Does she ever think about anything other than what is right in front of her nose at that moment? If not, I think her life must be very limited and her focus very narrow.

Oh yes I agree, I also hate the idea that because you talk about issue A you don’t care about issue B.
No objections to people being (rightly) outraged about Alabama at all.

Papergirl I've read that book. It is a stark reminder of how polarised the debate is there and how strong the pro life lobby is. I have also bought Red clocks mentioned by another poster. Will be reading that next.

Yes, women could travel out of state to another state with legalized abortion. Source: I live in Alabama, unfortunately.