Abortion, the expulsion of a fetus from the uterus before it has reached the stage of viability (in human beings, usually about the 20th week of gestation). An abortion may occur spontaneously, in which case it is also called a miscarriage, or it may be brought on purposefully, in which case it is often called an induced abortion.
Whether and to what extent abortion should be permitted, severely repressed, or encouraged is a social issue that has divided the philosophers, theologians, and legislators for centuries. Abortion was a common and socially accepted way of family limitation in the Greco-Roman world. Though Christian theologians vehemently condemned abortion, the application of severe criminal approvals to deter its practice became common only in the 19th century. In the 20th century such sanctions were changed in one way or another in various countries, beginning with the Soviet Union in 1920, with Scandinavian countries in the 1930s, and with Japan and numerous eastern European countries in the 1950s. In some countries the inaccessibility of birth-control devices was an aspect in the acceptance of abortion. In the late 20th century China used abortion as part of its population-control policy. In the early 21st century some jurisdictions with large Roman Catholic populations, such as Portugal and Mexico City, decriminalized abortion in spite of strong opposition from the church, while others, such as Nicaragua, increased restrictions on it.
A wide-ranging social movement for the elimination or relaxation of restrictions on the performance of abortions lead to the passing of liberalized legislation in numerous states in the United States during the 1960s.
On 14th May 2019, the Alabama Senate passed and on 15th May 2019 Gov. Kay Ivey signed the state’s controversial – a near-total abortion ban, which is the most restrictive abortion bill in the country and prohibits abortion in almost every circumstance. According to the president of the Alabama Pro-Life Coalition, Eric Johnston, who also helped craft the legislation, the bill was specifically designed to go to the Supreme Court and challenge Roe v. Wade.
Lawmakers in Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Georgia, Mississippi, Ohio, Missouri, and Utah have passed this new antiabortion bills, and similar measures are pending in other states.
Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973),was a landmark judgment of the U.S. Supreme Court. The ruling effectively legalized abortion across the United States. However, there were certain exceptions.
In 1969, a young Texan woman named Norma McCorvey sought to terminate an unwanted pregnancy. At the time, abortion was legal in Texas but only for the purpose of saving a woman’s life. After trying unsuccessfully to get an illegal abortion, McCorvey was referred to two Texas attorneys who were interested in challenging anti-abortion laws. She became known as “Jane Roe” in Court documents to hide her identity. The attorneys filed a lawsuit against Henry Wade, the district attorney of Dallas County, where McCorvey lived. The case eventually went all the way to the Supreme Court. On Jan, 22, 1973, the court held that a set of Texas statutes banning abortion violated woman’s right to privacy protected by the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
Repeated challenges since then have narrowed the scope of Roe v. Wade but have not overturned it.
The new legislation – House Bill 314, “Human Life Protection Act” – bans all abortion in state and makes exception only for health of the mother and foetuses with “fatal anomalies” that makes them unlikely to survive outside the womb. But the legislation makes no exceptions for Rape or Incest. It criminalizes the procedure and would carry rigid penalties for those caught violating the law, doctors could face 99 years in prison for an abortion or 10 years in prison for an attempted abortion.
Gov. Kay Ivey wrote in a statement, “To the bill’s many supporters, this legislation stands as a powerful testament to Alabamians’ deeply held belief that every life is precious & that every life is a sacred gift from God.”
On 7 May 2019, Gov. Brian Kemp of Georgia signed into law the state’s “fetal heartbeat” bill, banning abortion after six weeks of pregnancy, when doctors can usually detect a heartbeat in an embryo and before most women know they are pregnant. Georgia is the sixth state to enact such law and fourth this year alone.
Abortion rights advocates have vowed to challenge Alabama’s controversial measure in federal court long before November, when the law is scheduled to be implemented. The Planned Parenthood and the American Civil Liberties Union have already announced plan to file lawsuits against the measure, arguing it’s unconstitutional. These organizations, will probably ask federal district courts for a temporary restraining order or preliminary injunction to avert the law from coming into effect, while arguments over the constitutionality of the law work their way through the courts.
Staci Fox, president and chief executive officer of Planned Parenthood Southeast, in a statement said that, “We vowed to fight this dangerous abortion ban every step of the way and we meant what we said”. She also added, “We haven’t lost a case in Alabama yet and we don’t plan to start now.”
What UN has to say about it?
The United Nation has decided that abortion is a right to life issue. The UN human rights committee adopted general comment number 36 a document expounding on article 6 of international covenant on civil and political rights. It states that every human being has the inherent right to life and that this right shall be protected by law. The UN document makes it clear that this is a supreme right whose effective protection is the prerequisite for the enjoyment of all other human rights and whose content can be informed by other human rights although states parties adopt measures designed to regulate voluntary termination, restrictions on the ability of women or girl to seek abortion must not inter alia, jeopardize their lives subject to physical or mental pain or suffering. Therefore, the UN has clearly explained itself governments must provide states, legal and effective access to abortion, in the case that the pregnancy would perpetually cause the women pain or suffering in addition no layers or barriers may be placed that may push women towards unsafe abortions including those caused by the exercise of conscientious objection by individual medical providers. Clearly the legislation which is passed in Alabama is in contradiction to the statement of UN passed a year ago.
Abortion laws around the world
Abortion laws around the world vary widely from being illegal to acceptance only in cases of rape, incest and health issues to personal choice.
Countries where abortion is generally illegal: these include parts of Latin America, Africa, Asia and also Northern Ireland. Among the strictest are Malta El Salvador, Chile and Nicaragua, which prohibit abortion entirely. Most other states in this group don’t allow it in cases of rape, incest or fetal impairment but make exceptions to save a woman’s life.
Countries where abortion is allowed to preserve a woman’s health: these include places such as Argentina, Saudi Arabia and Thailand. Some countries in this group only allow abortion if the potential harm to the mother is serious.
Places where abortion is also allowed on socioeconomic grounds: these include among the others, Great Britain, Finland, India and Japan. Abortion regulations there consider factors like age, marital and economic status.
Countries with the most liberal abortion laws: these include most nations in North America, Europe, Central and East Asia. Women there can decide to terminate a pregnancy with no limitations as to reason, but most states have established gestational limits that vary from 8 to 24 weeks.
In the US and Australia access to treatment depends on laws determined by each state.
Republicans divided on Alabama’s extreme Abortion Laws
Democratic leaders have reacted with outrage and have pledged to fight against it. Yet again white men takes over the lives and rights over women. White supremacy takes over women rights too.
“Let me tell you, we are not going back, not now, not ever. We will fight this and win”.
By far the noisiest dispute is over Alabama’s failure to provide an exception for victims of rape and incest. As Donald trump notes in his statement on the matter, accepting rape and incest exceptions has been a standard for most republican’s pols. The reasons are baldly political. Banning abortion in such cases is very unpopular as is showed by the poll of 2018 where 65% of respondents opposed ban when pregnancy is a product of rape or incest. The quiet area of disagreement never mattered when the divisions were between parties that accepted and rejected basic reproductive rights, but they are now flaring up after trump 2012 GOP nominee mitt Romney, house minority leader Kevin McCarthy, RNC chair Ronna McDaniel and even Christian right war house Pat Robertson all went out of their way to call the law as extreme and draconian.
Civil rights groups have also resolved to challenge the basis of this ban in courts. This has set up a fierce and rigorous legal battle against the conservative abortion law, the campaigners hope this will lead to Supreme Court and would eventually result in overturning Roe vs. Wade, the landmark ruling that legalized abortion nationwide in 1973.
As promised by the ACLU: American civil liberties union of Alabama and planned federation of America have filed a lawsuit to block the dizzyingly blatant and unconstitutional restrictive abortion ban.
The measure has divided the republicans. State senator Vivian Davis figures told the bill’s proponents; “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 decision for that child”.
Stats shows that nearly one in four women in US have abortion by the age of 45 and they don’t al, share the same values and political views. Cultural stigma makes it difficult for any woman to talk about her abortion but the particular pressures facing conservative women means stigma often equals to silence. Republicans don’t have fewer abortions than democrats or liberals or anarchists or communists, it’s that our political rhetoric paints people who have abortions as largely the same. It’s gotten us to the fact that we are all doing it for the reasons we think matters personally, pro-life women are no exception to it. If we see the headlines it would prima facie seem that democrats are on one side of abortion debate and the republicans on the other. But the issue is more complex and partisan beyond the horizons of our thinking. The ban stands as a powerful testament to the Alabamians’ deeply held belief that every life is precious and that every life is sacred gift from god. But some other conservative women even abortion opponents find such laws as draconian. Many pro-life women at the senate shared their own personal experiences and delivered very passionate speeches to make amendment to the proposed law.
“Sexual assault should not be a partisan issue!”
Not only is it difficult for republican women to speak about abortion but it is nearly impossible for male and female politicians to get elected unless they are unequivocally pro-life.
Should men have a say?
Most of the US state laws severely restricting or banning abortion have been voted on by male politicians. The question which arises is that should men have the right to rule on an issue that impacts women so intimately?
Though women comprise 51% of Alabama’s population, its lawmakers are 85% men. There are only 4 women in the 35-seat Alabama Senate, and they are all Democrats. Men voting on the legislation have heavily outnumbered women. Male legislators in favor of such bills argue that the subject of abortion is one of morality and that it is an issue both men and women should equally be allowed to debate.
Social platforms are divided on both sides. Some say, yes- these laws affect everyone, including men. While the other half says, no- women are the only experts when it comes to their bodies, and no men has a right to tell what’s right for their body.
“Statistically speaking, half of the children aborted every year are male”, said Derrick Jones, communications director for the oldest US anti-abortion group, the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC). He also added that, “To say that this is wholly a woman’s issue misses the point of it being much larger than that. It’s a human rights issue. To say, you’re a man, you’re not carrying this child, to dismiss the idea that men can have an opinion on human rights is insulting.”
It’s true that in states with more restrictive abortion laws, men comprise greater percentage of the legislative houses.
However, in Alabama the governor who signed the abortion bill into law is a woman. In terms of female representation on the legislature The Rutgers University Centre for American Women and Politics (CAWP) ranks Alabama as 47 out of 50.
According to A Washington Post analysis of the state legislative houses in Alabama, Georgia and Missouri 367 in favour votes on abortion bans, seven out of eight votes were form men and mostly Republican men. Out of the 154 votes against in the chambers, over half were from women, even though most women lawmakers at the state level are Democrats.
“The irony is that it was older white men that gave us Roe [vs Wade] in the first place.” said Destiny Herndon-De La Rosa, founder of New Wave Feminists. “We tend to pick and choose which older white men we want to agree with. You have to get beyond that and realise that a lot of the people in this [anti-abortion] movement are very diverse, and we are females.”
Conclusion
It all comes down to the bottom line that is that Alabama might have its own reasons and beliefs for passing such a draconian law or was it a political move just to gain favor , we leave this up to you to decide. But it’s high time that we realize that men should stop making laws on women or their body’s .women rights are human rights and there is no law above that. Humanity stands above law. While the whole world looks up to a super power like America, which is the epitome of progress and development ,it is ironic to see that while we are all moving forward with acceptance America is going backwards to the 1900s when women didn’t have a voice. It’s high time that we as society learn to accept the choices and decisions of a woman and start respecting that, you have no right to interfere with her freedom to choose.
Don’t like gay marriage? Don’t get one. Don’t like abortion? Don’t get one. Just because something doesn’t align with your religious beliefs doesn’t mean you have the right to take that choice away from other people.
If you have an abortion there is a stigma, if you have a baby outside of marriage or teen there is a stigma, if you’re raped there’s a stigma, if you get married and don’t have babies there’s a stigma
It’s almost like it’s not about babies it’s about judging women and controlling their opinions.
When will we stop attacking the women and stop blaming them for everything? To have abortion or not is a personal choice and the government should stay out of the homes of the people. By passing this law you’re not stopping abortion but safe abortion as it would lead to illegal abortions.
Government we request you to please stay out of the uterus of women and please mind your own business.
As Rachel green once said “no uterus no opinion”.
By – Shipra Sahu & Astha Rao