On May 15 this year, Alabama passed the most restrictive abortion legislation in the United States, criminalising abortion in almost all circumstances – including cases of rape and incest- and punishing doctors with up to 99 years in prison.
The law sent shockwaves around the world, and for some women in Alabama, it caused panic.
Thirty-two-year-old waitress Elizabeth discovered she was pregnant shortly before the ban was announced. With little clarity on the immediate impact of the bill’s passing, she was terrified that she would be forced to continue the pregnancy, and give birth to an unwanted child.
“It was an awful lot of emotions thinking that I had no choice in the matter,” she told Dateline. “I think what it boils down to is that I don’t get to decide my future.”
Elizabeth learned the laws aren’t due to come in to effect until November, and may never be enforced, due to a legal challenge filed by Planned Parenthood and the Alabama Women’s Centre in the US District Court in Alabama.
However, those working in reproductive health in Alabama are concerned about the future of abortion in Alabama and how the larger impact of the anti-abortion push could play out.
“I do believe that abortion… will be illegal in my lifetime,” Gloria Gray, director of the West Alabama Women’s Centre tells Dateline.
Elizabeth was left confused by proposed changes to Alabama's abortion law. Source: SBS Dateline
The clinic, situated in Tuscaloosa, is one of just three in the state, servicing a population of 2.4 million women. Around 250 women per month visit the practice seeking abortion.
Gray says she’s worried about where these women will go in the future if Alabama eventually succeeds in outlawing the procedure, fearing the state will see a rise in unsafe abortions, and pregnancy-related deaths. The United States already has the highest rate of pregnancy- related deaths in the developed world, and in Alabama, that rate almost doubles.
“The end goal is to make abortion illegal,” she adds. “They don't care that that's not going to stop abortions; it's going to stop safe abortions.
“Women will die.”
Gloria Gray, director of the West Alabama Women’s Centre. Source: SBS Dateline
Abortion bans splitting America
This abortion issue is dividing America right down the middle. A Gallup poll in 2018 found 48 per cent of Americans consider themselves pro-life, and an equal 48 per cent believe women have a right to choose.
Alabama’s law is the most extreme example of US states passing restrictive abortion bills this year. So far, nine states have passed laws to outlaw abortion or forbid it past a certain point in pregnancy (usually between six-to-eight weeks), but none of the bans are currently in effect.
On the other side of the debate, several states including New York, Vermont and Illinois, are moving to pass laws that affirm the legal right to abortion.
According to Dell Marsh, a senator in Alabama, the end goal is to overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling in the US Supreme Court that protects abortion rights at a federal level, therefore allowing each state to determine its own abortion laws.
Marsh was one of the 25 male senators who voted for the ban. While he is against some of the more hardline aspects of the ban, such as the lack of exceptions for incest or rape, he voted for the bill anyway.
“I do believe that the majority of people in America frown on abortion in most cases,” he tells Dateline. “I definitely know that's the case in Alabama.
A protester outside an abortion clinic in Alabama. Source: SBS Dateline
“There's a point when you decide, when does life begin? And once that begins, then the choices are over.”
Beyond the individual states, President Donald Trump declared himself a pro-life supporter in the days after the Alabama ruling.
“As most people know, and for those who would like to know, I am strongly Pro-Life, with the three exceptions - Rape, Incest and protecting the Life of the mother - the same position taken by Ronald Reagan,” he tweeted.
Under his Presidency, Trump has appointed two conservatives to the Supreme Court – Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh – shifting the balance of the nine-person bench ahead of the battle to overturn or uphold Roe v. Wade.
“The Radical Left, with late term abortion (and worse), is imploding on this issue,” he tweeted. “We must stick together and Win for Life in 2020.”
