Alabama Senate passes the nation’s most restrictive abortion ban rejecting exemptions for cases of rape or incest. The state Senate approved the law by 25 votes to six and set to be the strictest such US law.
Alabama lawmakers voted Tuesday to ban virtually all abortions in the state including for victims of rape and incest sending the strictest law in the nation to the state’s Republican governor, who is expected to sign it.
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.
While no Republicans voted against passage of the bill, four voted for the amendment that would have made exceptions for rape and incest, including Sen. Del Marsh, the top Republican, and President pro tempore.
Sixteen states have passed or are working to pass bans on abortion after a doctor can detect what they call “a fetal heartbeat in the womb,” usually at about six weeks, before many women know they are pregnant. That includes Georgia, where Republican Gov. Brian Kemp signed a “heartbeat bill” into law on Tuesday.
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”.
Staci Fox of Planned Parenthood Southeast Advocates called the decision “a dark day for women in Alabama and across this country” and politicians would “forever live in infamy for this vote”.
Doctors could face 10 years in prison for attempting to terminate a pregnancy and 99 years for actually carrying out the procedure.
Lawmakers approved the legislation after a debate that stretched more than four hours, where minority Democrats introduced a slew of amendments in an attempt to block it.
“You don’t have to raise that child. You don’t have to carry that child. You don’t have to provide for that child. You don’t have to do anything for that child, but yet you want to make the decision for that woman,” the state senator Vivian Davis Figures told the bill’s proponents.
>Juthy Saha
