Last Wednesday, Alabama Governor Kay Ivey signed into law the strictest anti-abortion law in the country—banning abortions at any point in a pregnancy, even in cases of rape or incest, and criminalizing abortion providers. And last Friday, the Missouri Legislature sent an extreme, eight-week abortion ban to Gov. Mike Parson’s (R) desk. These bills, and others coming out of Georgia, Ohio, and Mississippi, all have one thing in common: to gut or overturn Roe v. Wade.
With the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh and a now solidly conservative majority in the court, conservative activists see an opportunity to successfully challenge Roe v. Wade—in the first three months of 2019 alone, state lawmakers introduced over 300 abortion restrictions and passed or enacted nearly 30 of these laws. While abortion care remains legal in all 50 states, the threat these bans pose to the future of Roe v. Wade is real.
However, we know that overturning Roe v. Wade is out of sync with the beliefs and values of the American people. Over 70 percent of Americans believe abortion should be safe and legal and that women should be free to make decisions about when, how and if to start a family.
Let’s be clear: outlawing abortion doesn’t mean that abortions will cease to occur, it will just change the way women obtain them. It will cause women to turn to desperate measures—some of which may be unsafe—in order to terminate an unintended pregnancy. Criminalizing abortion care will also have a disproportionate impact on low-income women and women of color, who already face significant barriers to accessing abortion care and who will be harmed most if Roe v. Wade were gutted or overturned.
On this day of action, members and activists will host and attend actions outside of state capitals, in town squares and courthouses, and elsewhere to highlight the importance of abortion access to women’s lives and the threat posed by anti-choice politicians and the Trump administration.
Please visit stopabortionbans.org for more information and to find a local event near you.
Original post by Center for American Progress
