Alabama State passes the strictest Law outlawing abortion procurement

Alabama lawmakers in have passed a bill waiting to be signed to outlaw abortion outright in the state which is set to be the strictest such US law.

The state Senate approved the law, rejecting an amendment to allow exemptions for cases of rape or incest.

It will now go to Republican Governor Kay Ivey. She has not said whether she will sign it, but she is seen as a strong opponent of abortion.

Demonstrators dressed as handmaids protested at the Alabama State House in April against the proposed abortion ban.

Activists hope it will challenge a landmark 1973 Supreme Court ruling that legalised abortion in the US after it had been passed 74-3 earlier this month in Alabama’s House of Representatives.

Abortion would only be allowed in certain circumstances to safeguard the mother’s health.

The National Organization for Women called the ban “unconstitutional” and said it was “a transparent effort to drum up political support for anti-abortion candidates in upcoming elections”.

anti-abortion activist in Philadelphia

Staci Fox of Planned Parenthood Southeast Advocates called the decision “a dark day for women in Alabama and across this country”.

In a statement, she said Alabama politicians would “forever live in infamy for this vote and we will make sure that every woman knows who to hold accountable”.

The bill goes further than legislation passed recently elsewhere in the US to ban abortion after a foetal heartbeat can be detected, usually around six weeks into a pregnancy.

Pro-choice supporters rally outside Alabama's state capital in Montgomery, 14 May 2019

Under the Alabama measure, provision of abortion at any stage in pregnancy would be a class A felony with abortion procurements practitioners threatened to face 10 years in prison for attempting to terminate a pregnancy and 99 years for actually carrying out the procedure.

A woman who has an abortion would not be held criminally liable although the bill would allow abortion in cases where the mother’s life is at serious risk.

Its text says more foetuses have been aborted than people killed in “Stalin’s gulags, Cambodian killing fields”.

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