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New Alabama Bill Carries a 99-Year Sentence for Doctors Performing Abortions

Ruth McCambridge
May 2, 2019
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“Defend Roe v Wade,” Thomas Hawk

May 1, 2019; National Public Radio

Yesterday, the Alabama House of Representatives passed by an overwhelming majority a bill that would impose criminal penalties of imprisonment for up to 99 years on doctors who perform abortions at any stage of pregnancy and under any conditions except when the mother’s life is in danger or the baby is judged to have a fatal anomaly. Most observers see it as one of dozens of bills expressly built to test Roe v. Wade in the Supreme Court.

Democratic lawmakers walked out before the vote was taken. This bill, if it becomes law, may be the most restrictive of those launched toward SCOTUS this year. The states of Georgia and Mississippi have passed laws that are similar, but they are based on a fetal heartbeat being audible. In all, around 25 have passed bills that test the boundaries of the law.

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In direct contradiction to federal law, Alabama voters approved a constitutional amendment last year that recognizes the “rights of unborn children.”

ACLU Executive Director Randall Marshall says, “There is simply nothing that Alabama can do to interfere with the right of access to abortion. That is a federal right and the federal constitution clearly trumps all state law.” But anti-abortion advocates believe the dynamics and the makeup of certain courts have changed sufficiently to test that theory.—Ruth McCambridge

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About the author
Ruth McCambridge

Ruth is Editor Emerita of the Nonprofit Quarterly. Her background includes forty-five years of experience in nonprofits, primarily in organizations that mix grassroots community work with policy change. Beginning in the mid-1980s, Ruth spent a decade at the Boston Foundation, developing and implementing capacity building programs and advocating for grantmaking attention to constituent involvement.

More about: AbortionLegislationNonprofit NewsPolicyReproductive Justice

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