As we’ve been seeing over the past several months, states are starting to rebel against the practice of abortion which has been the cause of so many horrific deaths of unborn children since Roe v. Wade legalized it across the nation.
Now, Alabama has passed the most strict abortion ban to be seen yet. It allows for abortions only in the case of danger to the mother or if the baby has a “lethal anomoly.” Those who perform abortions could face 99 years of jail time.
Take a look at Pro-Lifers’ reactions to the news which is rocking the nation on Twitter:
The state's hard ban on abortion is, of course, super controversial and divisive.
Many on both sides are wondering if Alabama's ban will lead to the complete overturning of Roe v. Wade if it ends up going to the Supreme Court.
Townhall had the following to say about the ban:
Alabama's mostly Republican lawmakers and governor passed a strong abortion ban this week, and liberals are fit to be tied.
"Today, I signed into law the Alabama Human Life Protection Act, a bill that was approved by overwhelming majorities in both chambers of the legislature," said Gov. Kay Ivey. "To the bill's many supporters, this legislation stands as a powerful testament to Alabamians' deeply held belief that every life is precious and that every life is a sacred gift from God."
In today's secular culture, the governor's invocation of God is almost as bold as signing the bill into law. But it's gratifying that some public officials are willing to observe that respect for life is fundamentally a spiritual issue.
I'm sure many leftists are horrified at the reference to God, but they have their hands full hyperventilating over the strictness of the law itself, and so, they will probably let this slide for now. The bill prohibits abortion except when the life of the mother is in jeopardy or the unborn child has a "lethal anomaly." The bill makes it a felony for doctors to perform or attempt to perform an abortion.
In her statement, Ivey acknowledged that the law might not be constitutional under the Supreme Court's notorious 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion in all 50 states. But she noted that the bill's sponsors hope the bill will prompt the court to revisit this issue.
Not to be unduly pessimistic, but frankly, I'm not sure why Democrats are so exercised. Justices Roberts and Kavanaugh have both expressed their abiding respect for longstanding Supreme Court precedent, apparently even if, like Roe, its rationale was manufactured out of whole cloth. The court's decision was not only egregious in substance -- inventing a constitutional right to abortion out of imaginary language in the Constitution creatively referred to as "emanations" and "penumbras"; its effect on society was just as bad.
Before the decision, the issue of abortion was the prerogative of the individual states, determined democratically by their duly elected representatives. The court's fiat was not only erroneous on its face; it tyrannically divested the authority of the states. This federal judicial travesty sparked national acrimony over abortion. Judicial tyranny, where it occurs, is just as bad as executive despotism.
The Hill has more:
On Tuesday, a Republican majority in the Alabama state legislature passed a bill that bans abortion, even in the case of rape and incest. Health-care practitioners would face 99 years in prison for performing abortions — unless the “unborn child has a lethal anomaly,” an abortion is needed to “to avoid a serious risk to the unborn child’s mother,” or in cases of ectopic pregnancies. The bill’s sponsor, state Rep. Terry Collins, characterized the measure as “about challenging Roe v. Wade.” Republican Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey signed it into law Wednesday.
Abortion rights advocates are understandably outraged — and terrified — that the Alabama bill marks the beginning of the end of Roe v. Wade, the first Supreme Court case that found a woman’s right to choose whether to have an abortion in the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution.
The Alabama law will be challenged in court. Lower courts will strike the law down, because Roe and later Supreme Court cases, including the 1992 decision in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, don’t allow states to pass laws that impose undue burdens on a woman’s ability to get an abortion. The Alabama ban would give a low-income 13-year old rape victim in Alabama no option but to carry her pregnancy to term. That’s an undue burden, full stop.
If the Supreme Court decides to hear an appeal from a lower court applying Roe, it would suggest that the court wants to consider changing Roe itself. There’s no tinkering around the edges of Roe with this law — it flies in the face of established Supreme Court precedent, so upholding the Alabama law likely requires striking down Roe.
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