1819: Rich white men (and some women) callously decide the fates of poor and minority women.
2019 : Rich white men (and some women) callously decode the fates of poor and minority women.
There are deep, dark currents in southern culture that just do not seem to change. Sometimes I think we should have let these state secede. Maybe we still should.
8
Not the "War on Women" meme again. That was badly overplayed and few take it seriously now. Of course, if ever there was a time to use it....Alas, the problem with crying, "Wolf!"
5
Do people like the Alabama 25, Terri Collins and Kay Ivey even know what incest is and what incest does? Do they have any idea how it impacts and compromises the physiology of the offspring (that's another word for "baby")? And these guardians of morality don't have a problem with this? No? Okay, then, well, how about that even The Bible says it's wrong? What church did these guys go to? But, then, they probably think that "rape" is a word that just means "rough sex."
50
These women have a pathetic need to please and accommodate the fathers, husbands or brothers in their lives.
This type of behavior is not specific to abortion rights. Genital mutilation of female children is frequently carried out through the actions of older women in many cultures. Why do they accept such heinous acts toward their female children? Because they think if they don't the men will be angry, or worse. So just don't go along with it, be a cheerleader for it. Gain their favor. Sick and pathetic.
Whether they realize this consciously is up for debate. But these Alabama women are accomplices to the dark, controlling work of men everywhere.
4
Romania's orphanages, "slaughterhouses of souls," Ireland's mass graves of babies and children. Salvadoran women ripped from their children and thrown in prison for suspected self-abortions when reporting miscarriages or other gynecological problems.
We know what happens when abortion is illegal. And Alabama really could care less, as along as they can stop women from competing with men in the workplace and in school. Just like the good ole' days.
8
Move to Alabama? Nope, not in this lifetime. Probably not in any lifetime.
7
I wonder if you think anything pertaining to women is a "big deal"....
3
Now Missouri . The poorest states , highest infant mortality, the the most violent states with the highest incarceration rate, the most welfare percentage of the population.
Typical old fashion nasty American thinking from the abusive upper class lawmakers .
3
Alabama is a national scandal. Good luck fighting that benighted state's entrenched sexism and bigotry.
10
Ms. Crain, I hope that very soon you are a woman who does not live in Alabama.
7
What do you expect from a state that twice voted to keep segregation in their state constitution.
Women aren’t going back to barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen.
Gay people are going back in the closet.
Black People aren’t going back to enslavement.
Except in Alabama
5
The primary abortion provider in Alabama is a black male doctor. This is about trying to put him behind bars. We see you, Alabama.
6
The Left is pretty clearly getting desperate. It's an untenable situation for them; one can't call others "science-deniers" on the climate and then turn around and be like, "nope that thing with human DNA and a heartbeat is not a human" and then plug their ears and start humming. They're going back to the tired "war on women" "reproductive choice" "privacy rights" soundbites that they've been using for 40 years, just hoping and praying that people won't apply rational or scientific thought to their arguments (the privacy right argument is particular weak; if it exists, how do we have drug laws, and why do you think it's ok to regulate which guns I own). It's actually pretty simple; if you're for the protection of innocent humans and you're philosophically consistent, you believe in ending the incarceration of minorities via the War On Drugs, ending the death penalty, getting addicts treatment, ending foreign wars that have killed millions of foreign civilians, getting healthcare costs down, and yes, ending abortion. People are slowly applying reason to the tired pro-abortion arguments and realizing that if we say we care about the human and civil rights of humans, we have to mean all humans. On the issue of abortion, the pro-abortion crowd is an emperor with no clothes.
5
The same states that claim a so-called Pro-Life stance and care so much about unborn children are the same states where the murder of children in schools by enraged gunmen is nothing to lift a finger about. These deaths are just price of freedom.
They are eager for a war on women but not one to save children - or anyone else - who may die at the end of a gun.
9
So the war on women in Alabama is being led by women, but it's still a war on women because...why?
Acknowledging the leading role of women in AL's anti-abortion push is only half the battle. You still have to explain why the fact that AL women seem to be split on the issue of abortion doesn't destroy the trope of the push being anti-woman.
Until you do that, this is just more tabloid-esque, emotional-appeal garbage more befitting the NY Daily News.
3
The bill's author was interviewed on NPR today. He believes it could take up to three years for it to be considered by the Supreme Court. We still have time to address this onerous bill.
5
Many red states in the Old Confederacy are getting worse in worse in their politics and cultures. Hard to imagine that as recently as the 1980s, Bill Clinton was governor of Arkansas. Other than VA ( which has become a blue state), FL (an evenly divided state) and GA and TX (which seem to be on the road to becoming purple), you could expel all the other Old Confederacy states, along with WVA, from the Union and it would be a big plus. Decent people would flee these expelled states and they would become the Afghanistan of North America.
4
“So if you care about places like Alabama...”
There’s the problem, though. I feel bad about it, but I don’t. Frankly, if the Deep South fell into the ocean tomorrow, I would personally be better off in every way. Obviously I don’t want that, but if we let Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, and a few other
states go their own way? I would rejoice. I would feel such tremendous relief. I would feel unburdened of huge worries about my country and my children’s future.
I don’t think that those states really belong with the rest of the US. They clearly don’t think so either. It’s absurd to me that I should have to live under laws made by their congressmen. That my freedoms should be adjudicated by judges approved by their senators. That my country should be led by presidents who rely on their electoral votes.
I can’t be the only person who finds it ridiculous that Alabama and New York City are smooshed together into the same country - that we are grafting Mississippi onto Research Triangle and Silicone Valley, like a zombie limb sewed onto a healthy body.
Forget it. Let them go, already. Alabama, congratulations, you won the Civil War in the end. Hoist the stars and bars, whistle Dixie, march on out, and don’t let the door hit you.
459
@Glen Our Civil War was fought to preserve the Union and while on first glance would agree with your perspective, in the end I think we should continue trying to keep the Deep South in. After all, it would be very expensive to build and man border walls and checkpoints to police our ensuing border. As more and more Northerners move down South, those retrograde states are (all too slowly) becoming civilized and laws like this are likely the last gasp of a dying political philosophy that, in the end, will not be missed once it is in the dustbin of history.
15
@sleepdoc
Those Northerners will not stay in the South as climate change makes those states hotter; more humid; and subject to more intense and dangerous storms. Land erosion due to the effects of climate change will also badly impact those states. Better not count on immigration from blue states to change the South; rather it will be depopulation as the weather worsenes, the land erodes out from under them, and both lead to decreased economic opportunity that chases the homegrown youth away.
42
@Glen Worry not Glen. If you live long enough, and living long enough will not require much more than another decade or two, the south as we know it will disappear. Climate change will render it largely uninhabitable. Even then, we must make constitutional adjustments. The institution of the Senate is anti-democratic in the extreme.
We should eliminate it. That five plains states with a population of around six million should get ten senators against a state like California's forty million and two senators is an affront to equity. But yeah. If the south were to secede, I'd welcome no longer having part of my federal tax dollars going toward propping up their governmental messes.
69
Sounds like we need the Supreme court to tell the nation that federal law allows women the right to choose. I can only hope that even though they are a conservative majority, they will uphold Roe vs. Wade. I know conservatives who are very much pro-choice, even if they would not chose an abortion themselves. But, I don't know if they are seated on the Supreme Court.
To go so far backwards on this issue is frightening. For too long this country has been letting the far right and far left have the mouthpiece and make decisions that the majority to not want. Time for things to change.
3
"... the abortion ban bill was sponsored by a woman — one who I believe thinks in her heart of hearts that she is doing the right thing by her faith."
I wonder what kind of a heart someone has who would relegate women to a form of slavery.
I think perhaps such a person has a severely limited imagination and a non-existent sense of empathy with women who are faced with the dilemma of an unwanted pregnancy.
I also think she must have a streak of cruelty, perhaps due to a limited capacity to think about conditions for real people in the real world, because she would force women and girls, including the very young, to endure a pregnancy that was a result of rape or incest.
No, the writer is being much too kind to Terri Collins. To me Collins is a monster.
13
I grew up in Louisiana and loved aspects of it as my childhood home. I went away to college and meeting people with less reactionary ideas changed me. I saw how neglected education in my state was and how my relatives voted against better education and healthcare, against unions and higher wages, against cleaner air and water, against themselves and their loved ones. Sadly this hasn't changed there since the 60s. Even the Rhodes scholar who became governor was a repub and had to parrot the reactionary party ideology. His talents wasted. I would love to see better things for my childhood home. Outside of better education and more humane gov. I don't see how this can come about.
4
Let’s be clear. They vote against these good things out of racial animus. They’re willing to forego social services that can help them as long as black and brown people will be denied.
6
As Neil Young wrote, circa 1972:
“Oh, Alabama
Can I see you and shake your hand?
Make friends down in Alabama
I'm from a new land
I come to you and see all this ruin
What are you doing, Alabama?
You got the rest of the Union
To help you along
What's going wrong?”
11
I admire the sentiment but I’d rather just have Alabama secede again along with most of the red states. This time we’ll let them go.
16
99 years for performing an abortion. I'm sure this is one of those states that hollers the most about sharia law taking over the country. I'd say the equivalent is already the norm in Alabama.
21
Many Southern women are as harmful as many Southern men. Many self-proclaimed Christian women are as harmful as self-proclaimed Christian men.
13
"Y’all come on down here and work with us to make a difference."
Oh hey, cool, yeah. Like the Freedom Riders! Neat!
Oh wait, what happened with them? Didn't Albamans firebomb the bus and try and lynch them?
Sorry, sister, but no thanks. But I'll be glad to help women escape who want to.
20
Alabama a “pro-life” state? Does that take into consideration all the blacks they fought to keep enslaved in an earlier era, or all the lynchings once they weren’t?
Sorry, the stereotype of Alabama, Mississippi, South Carolina, and other “blood-red” states is well deserved. These states are home to an unhealthy number of ignorant, hateful, racist, misogynistic “Christian” hypocrites whose biases get to thrive in the halls of their state legislatures. They are perfectly suited for modern-era Republicanism.
17
@RHD
Alabama has one of the highest infant mortality rates in the nation. They are "pro-life" until you are born. This is nothing less than the subjugation of women.
13
Showing up in costumes to protest really doesn’t do much for your credibility. Why did you neglect to mention the governor?
1
The Left cares about Alabama for the next 20 minutes.
It is a comfort to know.
2
Religion and power don't mix well.
Christ rejected earthly power when Satan offered it to him.
For those who love Jesus, it's time to look again at what he actually said. And did.
7
Thank you.
The state of Alabama, first to outlaw abortion...
last in everything else.
7
The rule that a raped woman must carry the fetus to birth
defies credulity. That's not a guy world. It is a Godless
world. Maybe we should let Alabama secede- or require
it.
10
Black women have been shedding their blood sweat and tears on the front lines in Alabama for their divine natural equal certain unalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
Addie Mae Collins, Carol Robertson, Cynthia Wesley and Carol Denise McNair never got to join their ranks after they were murdered while black girls when their 16th Street Baptist Church was bombed in Birmingham Alabama.
8
The right to exist is the foundation upon which all other human rights are built. If you have no inherent right to exist then all other “rights” are merely licenses granted, denied, or revoked by those with power. If you do not exist at conception then all other existential waypoints are really licenses granted, denied, or revoked by those with power.
To argue that humans have the right to terminate a viable pregnancy is to argue that the right to exist is license to be granted or denied by those with power, be it the person or the state.
Chris
3
@Chris
"If you do not exist at conception then all other existential waypoints are really licenses granted, denied, or revoked by those with power."
You exist at birth. All the things you speak of are based on birth. Birth Certificates. SSN. When your parents can claim you as a dependent. Age to drive, marry, serve, collect retirement. All of it is based on your birth. Not conception.
As I asked the other day:
Will states issue conception certificates?
Will Social Security issue a SSN to the fetus?
Will you be able to claim the fetus as a dependent on your taxes from the time of conception?
Will the IRS require the conception certificate to make sure that you are not claiming a child that was conceived after the new year?
Will your age for official purposes (driving license, serving in military, SS retirement payments) be counted as from the moment of conception?
Will the fetus be counted as a person on your town census and the upcoming federal census in 2020?
Why does Genesis (the start of all life), since the Bible seems to be the standard for our laws now, describe the first breath of life and birth as the start of life? "And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. Gen 2:7"
"The right to terminate a viable pregnancy" - Alabama and other states want to take termination of a non-viable pregnancy away.
6
@Marie
You are mixing when those with power choose to recognize you with your actual existence. My argument is that if you do not objectively exist at conception then any other point in time is arbitrary. If not conception then the powerful can argue for recognizing your existence - and therefore your right to exist, or not - whenever it suits them... as a zygote, a fetus, at 8 months gestation, or at any years old, and no one choice is objectively more or less valid than the other.
1
@Chris so if a person is created at the moment of conception, and not cesarean or vaginal birth, then Mexican citizens who conceive in the us should be allowed to stay, as their child is a full blooded American citizen.
5
Let's violate men's bodily autonomy by forcing them to donate a kidney, or blood, or stem cells, for someone who might die without them. All's fair!
Wait, what's that you say? You can't harm someone's health and invade their physical autonomy for someone -- unless that "someone" is a fetus?
9
@Tracy Good grief you can't even take the organs of a dead person without their consent. At least we women know where we rank.
The female body has spontaneous abortions all the time. It's called miscarriage. Happens in up to 20% of pregnancies.
6
Effective birth control stops a possible abortion every time. Where’s the law that punishes every man who doesn’t use a condom when he has sex? And the laws for programs providing easy access to inexpensive birth control? That would be pro-family, and “pro-life”. But birth control is against the “morals” of these zealots too.
14
I'm sorry, the recent past, the only thing that has worked to curb the more debased aspects of Southern male politicians is economic boycotts.
These guys are all about economic recruiting jobs (kickbacks). They don't care about women, they don't care about children, the only things they do care about are their own personal pocketbooks.
Of the top industries in Georgia, film and automotive are the most mobile. Consider writing to these companies that have factories in Georgia and to film studios who are in process of considering Georgia as a location. If a company or two or three threatens to move or not relocate, this could have a bigger effect than all the women in Georgia rising up.
Because, these guys have already told us, they don't care what happens to women. Believe them.
14
We need to defend our First Amendment right to Freedom of Religion via class action lawsuits in every state that restricts access to reproductive healthcare, including contraception and abortions. These laws are based on evangelical Christian talking points that are 50 years in the making. Talk to the ACLU in your state.
4
Sorry, historically, the one strategy that has worked in the South has been economic boycotts.
Southern male dominated politics are all about industry recruitment and the jobs (kickbacks) they bring. These men don’t care about women, they don’t care about children, they most certainly don’t care about minorities, but boy, do they ever love their pocketbooks.
Seriously, this is what works.
9
How can this be a war on women when 50% of women are pro-life? Perhaps presenting both sides is a better journalistic approach? Pretty complex issue concerning life choices deserves better discussion rather than political talking points. By the way I am pro-choice.
1
@Just 4 Play
Some women side with men against other women.
It's still a war on women. It's certainly not a war on men.
Anyway, while nearly 50% of women claim to be "pro-life," only 20% of women are opposed to abortion under any circumstances. That's quite a contrast to the new law in Alabama.
And no, in matters of civil rights both sides do not deserve an equal hearing.
6
@Jerry Engelbach
Gee I thought a democracy was about open discussion with both sides able to have a chance to discuss their POV. Pretty important discussion when you are talking about ending life at its inception. However if it is a war it suggests there are two sides. Perhaps before war we try to have negotiations? The far left wants abortion on demand up until birth and the far right wants no abortion. Pretty sure there is a position in between
1
Is Terri Collins personally willing to support the women who will be forced to have babies they know they should not have? How many children has she adopted from orphanages, and how many will she pledge to adopt now that her proposal has become law? How does she spend her time when she is not sponsoring laws that stand to ruin the lives of so many?
5
Boycott ALL of the female slave states. Do not pay money to see movies or television shows filmed in Georgia.
Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, (Louisiana soon) Mississippi,(Missouri soon), Ohio, and Utah want to force women to carry a pregnancy to term against her will. This is involuntary servitude, and it is prohibited by the 13th amendment.
Until these laws are declared unconstitutional, DO NOT SPEND MONEY IN THESE STATES.
11
@Valerie Elverton Dixon I wrote yesterday to the hotels I stay at every year in Ohio, along with the state and regional chambers of commerce, letting them know I will not travel to the state again until the law is gone.
2
Democrats:
‘in Alabama, the supermajority always wins.’- and that is bad.
‘Hillary won the majority and lost’ -and that is bad too.
So majority wins is only good when it’s a cause the Democrats believe in. Otherwise rule by the majority, you know, Demos Kratos, is a bad thing.
1
Sorry, I won’t move to a state like Alabama. I have a sister living there now and I won’t visit her there. We will meet up elsewhere to catch-up, shop, drink, dine and spend our money. Hit the wallets of States like AL. That’s the only way to get the rich white controlling men’s attention. And Shame on the female governor and state senator in AL to force their religious views on others.
7
Why does no one ever talk about the children born as a result of no abortions? ...the ones who are born drug addicted; handicapped, either mentally or physically; not wanted by their mothers and abandoned by their fathers; the children who had no choice in their conceptions/birth? Are they to be punished all their lives by poverty, displacement, anger and resentment? Oh, I know many of these children have acceptable lives. But what about the thousands who do not?
There can be no 'heavenly Father' who supports these choices. Are the so-called 'fathers' who support abortion attempting to make God in their own image...instead of the other way around? And how can they argue 'Thou shall not kill' when Americans rush to kill thousands...even when they know many are innocent of wrongdoing.
And, yes, (to There below), this IS a war to retain power, to control women, to strengthen white supremacy.
I grew up in the South. Unless you did as well, you know little about male supremacy and control.
9
@thinkaboutit
Oh, I don't know. Most of the rest of us here are pretty well educated, about both human behavior and human history.
We know quite a bit about male supremacy and control — even if we haven't experienced them directly — enough to abhor them.
1
As a progressive northeastern woman who moved to Montgomery almost a decade ago for what I expected would be a 2-year fellowship, I'm grateful for this column and I second Ms. Crain's call to action. Alabama is a complicated place. There is much to love about it, enough to make it worth staying here and raising a family - including a small daughter whose potential future has suddenly come into sharp focus - despite laws like this. Maybe even *because* of laws like this, actually.
If you don't like what you see happening in Alabama, why not do what you can to help change it? Visit Alabama. Get to know the place. You might even decide to stay.
My family is boycotting all states that have passed these extreme anti-women abortion laws. We do not visit these states, and we do not buy products from these states. I suggest that this is the most effective method for getting out the message that this disrespect for a woman's right to control hear body and her health.
6
As a southerner, I am stunned, furious and sickened by what has happened here in GA and AL.
That said, I wish to point out to everyone piling blame on the south to the extent it should be cut loose from America, the primary impetus for the horrific laws that have just been passed here, is religion - especially Evangelical Christians and Catholics. These people are not exclusive to the south -they're everywhere. My husband is one of them and he grew up in NYC.
Look at Ohio, Iowa, Kansas, Oklahoma, Indiana, any republican led state. Wherever the GOP has courted religion to garner the vote (pretty much everywhere they can), you will find extremists pushing these barbaric laws. They put republicans in office, this is their pay off. The south may have succumbed first but there will be a domino effect across the country.
The whole trump, republican, evangelical trio of nightmares has had me so down and worn out with worry, I actively started looking at moving elsewhere. Then I realized that there's really nowhere in America that one can be certain to live free of this kind of tyranny and oppression.
So while you're trying to wall off the south, maybe you should be keeping an eye on your own back yard.
9
I'm tired of being told that my thoughts regarding life, ethics, and morality must give way to the lunatic fringe of the Trump right wing and the inane evangelical christians that are their enablers.
Abbey Crain writes "...the abortion ban bill was sponsored by a woman — one who I believe thinks in her heart of hearts that she is doing the right thing by her faith."
Commenter "There" has the usual, self-righteous right wing answer, "love it or leave it."
Can we please remember that we are a secular republic, not a so-called christian theocracy. If one cannot separate their concept of their "faith" from the public good of a very diverse population, they have no business in any arm of our governments.
Wake up America.
17
@Eric Berendt
We may live in a secular republic, but that does not prevent a huge portion of our country from wanting to live in a radical theocracy.
10
As an older white male, it’s taken awhile to recall details of my reading of “The Handmaid’s Tale.” But with states now instituting egregious legislation, I have to ask: Do these white male, and some female, legislators have an even deeper agenda? That is, producing more white babies to contend with the rise of non-white babies? Some men in power have already called for “more children.” Even though abortion restrictions especially impact the poor – the wealthier can afford to do as they choose – the assumption is, once again, women are not so much dynamic individuals but receptacles for the passing on of desirable genes. A horrible next step – I realize this seems unthinkable, but – could be curtailing the number of children allowed to certain races. Witness, for example, Trump and Mnuchin’s drive to keep all-but-European immigrants out of the country. I hope all of this is spurious and misguided thinking. But I really didn’t think we’d get to where we are now.
8
@SGK
Hitler seemed to think it was a good idea. The Nazis even instituted a "gag-rule" in 1933 that mirrors the one put forth by the current administration.
2
All the comments elucidate well the worst aspects of what could happen if Roe dies. But I think it wise for liberals to be cautious and not reactionary in their response. I don’t know what the real motivations are of the people who take this up as a priority cause. But it seems somewhat bogus to me as the myriad threats to the health and well being of children and Mother’s is rife all over the world.
However I don’t think politicians wrapped up in this really care one way or the other. But Republicans know this is a powerful wedge issue and can win over ‘single issue’ voters. They will pump this up to the hilt if liberals over react. Don’t let that happen! This next election is too important.
3
It has always baffled me - how people who say they are Pro-Life are also -
Pro-Gun -
Pro Death Penalty -
Pro cutting funding for children, mothers and families in need Pro - separating children from their mothers and fathers at the border because they are Mexican -
Pro - having young children live in Detention City Camps because they are Mexican -
Pro - Anti-Climate change -
Someone point out to me - where the Pro-Life core values are in all the above fervently believed positions -
I hear Pro-Life people defending.
The government should not have Ruling Rights over a Woman's Body and Well Being.
What about all the women who have natural miscarriages after 16 weeks - according to Alabama law - these women will be sentences to 99 years for imprisonment for having a necessary surgical procedure to restore their bodies to safe, clean, health.
16
@Karen
Repeat after me. It's not "pro-life" its Forced-Birth.
Stop using their euphemisms and call their position on gestural slavery and laws what they are: Forcing Birth.
4
I have always found it ironic that the two most important issues to evangelicals and the religious right are abortion and gay marriage. Abortion was so important to Jesus Christ that it is never even mentioned in the scriptures. Jesus also forgot to mention homosexuality, and it is only brought up a handful of times in in general lists of sins with virtually no explanation.
The religious right are guilty of straining gnats while swallowing camels and are too blind to even see their own hypocricy. Alabama's attempts to outlaw abortion is just another example of religion gone bad.
13
@cheddarcheese
The Bible does mention some punishments for homosexuality. Along with very severe punishments for working on Sunday and divorce. Christians just pick and choose and make stuff up.
9
@cheddarcheese You will note that homosexuality and abortion are related to sex. Apparently many people are up tight about what people are doing (or they think they might be doing) in the bed room.
2
Dear Ms. Crain,
I don't care about Abortion one way or the other. Furthermore, should Abortion be used as a method for birth control then state so. I believe China had this policy!
What is abject hypocrisy is upper class women getting abortions so they can have and keep a nice lifestyle [not that the fetus is damaged, just an inconvenience] while stating keeping Abortion legal is really for the poor!
The Anti-Abortion protesters including women were out protesting in extremes like freezing winters, rain, every type of weather you can imagine in every state, while the Pro-Choice people were counting on the U.S. Supreme Court to always keep Roe v. Wade legal and only went out when the news media would cover a big event!
2
@Dennis
If a "nice lifestyle" includes one without pre-eclampsia, dangerous hypertension and diabetes, worsening of pre-existing heart conditions, infentions, anemia, UTIs, breast infections, hyperemedia gravidarum, depression, potential other, serious complications of childbirth and pregnancy, oh, and an unwanted child, yes, that's what I want.
Reading posts by people who have no earthly idea what it means to carry a pregnancy to term and deliver is fairly infuriating.
9
@Dennis
If you care about the rights of women you should care about abortion.
And there is nothing wrong with expecting the Supreme Court to preserve constitutional rights.
3
Sharia law = Evangelical law. There is no difference when equating religions as the basis for laws that all must follow, regardless of their personal religious beliefs.
Alabama has decided that evangelical law will supersede civil law.
Alabama has decided that their faith shall "trump" the truth.
Alabama has decided that science shall not inform their civil discourse.
Alabama has decided that they prefer the 19th centaury to the 21st centaury.
Alabama has decided they would rather be part of the Confederacy. Well, finally we agree on something.
12
This is indeed a sad story. The real question I have is the price the rest of us pay for the general backwardness of all of this. We send billions in tax dollars to subsidize most of the southeastern states and what do we get in return?
Politicians who lecture us on how capitalism "really" works (their states have the lowest GDP's in the nation); lectures on inequality and income growth (from places that can't produce equality or income growth); and lectures about the welfare of children (from people who are last or near last in the nation in producing it), and lectures about how higher education "should be" (from places with narry a university of any reputation for anything other than football).
When will the rest of us wake up? The southeast has gone from a place we were trying to transcend in the 1960s to a place we're "all supposed to be like" because this is the "wave of the future..." , all paid for with federal subsidies the rest of us pprovide to prop up this nonsense...
Oh wait! I forgot...this is the "new south"!!!! I'm supposed to suspend all judgement and just write checks....
8
Why are the names of the representatives and their votes never printed in these articles? The voters of Alabama need to know the facts about voting records if they are ever to throw off the hypocrites who betray them.
3
I am curious. It was a female governor who signed the Alabama law. While all the legislators who enacted it were men I presume they were voted into office by women. Where are the women of Alabama and the other states that are looking to punish women for having sex?
4
@Daniel A. Greenbaum
They are descended from the women who were against granting women the right to vote.
7
This is not a war on women - a gender war of men against women. This angle/theme is disgustingly, divisively inaccurate. There are plenty of pro-life women and plenty of pro-choice men. Enough with the gender warring.
4
@Bjh
The fact that some women are anti-choice does not change the fact that the war affects the rights of women and not men.
The GOP has been waging a war against women for many decades. It stands for the patriarchal model of the family.
2
But boycotts are such cool virtue signaling.
1
There is no war. It's the action of Jesus Christ in disciplining humanity about the right to life of those who are unable to defend themselves. The ever present hand of Jesus Christ protects His own and He will not and cannot be deterred.
@JLC
Great. I am all for Jesus doing His thing, and keeping the government totally out of it. The thing is, the view of Christians is that their Jesus Christ is this weak, helpless god that needs human to inflict punishment on whomever the humans decide needs punishing. It reminds me most of the Inquisition.
7
@JLC
Clearly you've never read the Bible and how God treated the people he decided needed punishment. Which often included the dashing of infants and ripping the unborn from wombs.
Oh, and if you want live in a theocracy go find one and leave out country along. Saudi Arabia is a good start.
8
I am pro life. Stop insulting me by using that term to describe the woman haters who want to deny women self-determination over our own bodies. Pro hate is what they should really be called. Don't insult those of us who value women and our lives by implying that we are not pro life! No one is pro abortion. Stop using that phase, too. I am pro life, pro women and pro women's right to decide what to do with their own bodies.
4
@rac
Forced-Birth. That is what they are seeking. Pro hate is justified in seeing the totality of their positions where denial and punishment are the theme.
2
@rac
Okay, you have a valid semantic point.
But the terminology is well established and isn't going to change.
I prefer to refer to use the term "anti-choice" rather than pro-life.
Oh, the drama .....
This was a simple vote, not a war on women, the hyperbole behind the small story in this small state is on the border of ridiculous.
The people of Alabama voted to outlaw abortion, it’s their right to do so, if you don’t like it, go to a different state to have an abortion or simply move out of the state altogether, this is not as big of a deal as the time just trying to make it
20
@There
Actually, no state has a right to pass a law that is unconstitutional. So, yes, it's a big deal.
120
@There
The problem is that there should never be a vote about a woman's autonomy in the first place. This is a deeply personal decision - not one for the masses. We aren't supposed to let voters decide civil rights. We have proven time and again that they can't be trusted to protect them. These things are supposed to be above the fray.
104
You're overlooking the plight of the working poor. Alabama has the third highest poverty rate in the country. So how do you propose, to many of those people you've just criticized, to "simply move out of the state altogether?"
There's no "simply" about it.
98
We are divided. We scream at each other and call each other names and the fire inside us gets hotter.
Abortion is a complicated struggle, and because of Roe v Wade, it has become the deciding issue on which many voters cast their ballots. Is this what we want? Do we want to reduce all of our complex political choices to a binary pro-choice or pro-life vote? Do we want people like Trump to pander to us in order to get our vote based solely on choice or life?
Pro-lifers think that calling an abortion “safe” is like calling a suicide “successful” and then touting it as an effective solution to the problem. But what is “safe” for the mother is death for the child.
Pro-choicers view the matter as one of privacy and personal choice, the regulation of women’s bodies, the control over their sexuality.
When I look at my infant son, holding him in my arms, I try not to think that if he had been too inconvenient for me and my wife, we could have ended his life, killed him, long after he was viable outside the womb, even as we watched his small clearly human form developing from month to month on the sonogram. I think about his little hands and feet chopped up and vacuumed out like waste. We could have killed our son all too easily, with help from a doctor who has vowed to "do no harm."
When I hold my son and consider killings of convenience, I don't think about women being too promiscuous. I don't think about a war on women. I think about babies killed and thrown into the bin.
9
@Harold B. Spooner Well said. As a physician in Radiology, the advances in 3D and 4D sonography have made clear to all the humanity of a fetus in the womb - barring natural adverse events what should be the ultimate safe space.
The language used in the abortion industry cloaks a terrible act in the banal language of a medical standard operating procedure.
Quiet closely held guilt over a position, action or lack of action often manifests itself as vigorous lashing out. It can be seen daily when families confront the stress of dealing with a dying family member and the different values, beliefs and priorities are revealed.
I think a similar process is at work in the strident rhetoric surrounding abortion.
6
@Harold B. Spooner
If men got pregnant, abortion would be a sacrament. -- Gloria Steinem
You are a man. What gives you the right to impose your unpleasant ideation & opinion on women to justify imposing state control over their bodies? Your male privilege runs deep & wide, as does 6,000 years of patriarchal history.
If you look at your son and choose to think falsehoods about maimed bodies & play images of horror in your mind, instead of loving the wonder before you, something is sick & strange in your mind.
Reality: Late-term abortions are very rare, usually when the fetus is malformed or genetically compromised to the point of no life or vegetative life. More reality: Over 91% of surgical abortions occur within the first 12 weeks, when the conceptus is largely a mass of undifferentiated cells the size of a strawberry.
Nature herself aborts or miscarries as many as a third of fertilizations before the third or fourth month. This may be Nature's way of winnowing out genetic mutations & defective organisms.
Go back a few generations and you will find that your female ancestors would often die in childbirth, the survivors might give birth to sixteen children, half of whom survived to adulthood. Such is human fertility and life under men demanding rights to sex.
If you need to think of dying babies, act to help help save some of 15,000 children who daily starve to death, of the babies maimed by US-made bombs & arms, and do something pro real life.
41
@Harold B. Spooner. Dear Harold, you have absolutely no idea what you are talking about!
We all know if men got pregnant, abortion would be a Sacrament.
When you get pregnant, don’t have an abortion. Why must you enforce your beliefs on others.
7
What's more immoral:
Requiring a woman to bear a pregnancy through term, regardless of how she was made pregnant, then be responsible for the result for twenty years or so, regardless of her ability to feed, clothe, house or care for the child, after which it may or not have received the material, educational and emotional support to become a real human being, rather than only some highly evolved primate, so the woman (and it will only be the woman, as there are no requirements in all of this fascist regulation to require the man to provide support) will have had to abandon the first third of her life for a pious hypocrisy;
Or, provide the woman with access to sex education, birth control and the right to decide when, if ever, she will bear a child and raise it to be a full human being, with her consent and energy, without the government taking control over her body and life to satisfy some medieval sense of "morality"?
Seems pretty clear to me.
However, Alabama has taken the route of turning women of that state into the new slave class. Get pregnant, the state owns your body for the next couple of decades; you get to work to raise a child regardless of your own will or ability. No interest in what actually happens to the children born of this regulatory abomination, no action to support their growth into human beings. Men will walk free and have no responsibility.
How moral, how "Christian."
9
Looks like a lot of self hate going on. These women have been fed a lifetime of guilt about Adam and Eve. Yes, women, according to many relgious traditions including the Christian one are the source of all evil except for Mary. As a result, she is to blame for rape, incest and even failed pregnancies. She Is to blame if the man strays or loses his nerve or is impotent. It’s all on her.
I’m sick of it. Women are punished for men’s failures. Stand up and BOYCOTT ALABAMA!
14
Trump & other so-called "pro-life conservatives" incite violence against health care workers while hate groups & hate crimes spike...connect the dots. SPLC's Intelligence Project: "Rather than trying to tamp down hate, as... President Trump elevates it — with both his rhetoric and his policies. In doing so, he's given people across America the go-ahead to to act on their worst instincts.”
3
Does Alabama not support the death penalty? How is it that life is counted of no value?
2
I have been struggling a bit about going to a three day event in Huntsville, AL in September. It is held twice a year for since at least 2000 and I have attended almost all of them. This article may have made up my mind for me. Alabama needs a California born, mixed-race lesbian to show up, even for a trivial event.
2
Why do polls show only 50% (47% women, 53% men) of Alabamans against abortion when the plebiscite showed 59%?
They will bear the brunt of it if it remains. I s the fact that women are the ones who carry and bear infants God’s war against women?
When governed by pro-abortioners, how will pro-lifers feel when forced, against their personal or religious beliefs, to terminate a pregnancy to control population growth because they already have one child?
When it's discovered that male Alabama legislators are paying for their girlfriend's abortions in NY, will they go to jail? Let's make some bets...
One way for fascists to control roughly 51% of the voting public is to force them into the home and out of the workplace, putting men back in control of the home and business spheres.
This is bad - really bad for women in particular - but we are in the midst of a complete collapse of democracy.
5
The USA are the most violent industrialized nation on earth. 6 times more violent crime per capita than the average European nation. 6 times the incarceration rate as well . The last one not to have abolished the death penalty .
That morbidity reflects in the laws about abortions as reversed false life sustaining ideology.
The states who vote these laws are the most violent and have the highest incarceration rate inside the already record winning USA .
2
@JPH
Also the highest infant mortality rates in the United States.
1
@Spencer yes the poorest states with highest percentage of people on welfare.
It is typical abuse from Law makers who come from the upper class .
Old fashion nasty American thinking.
1
NEVER “OVER IT.” NEVER.
If only men conceived and bore children.....
1
Sorry but why would I inflict up In myself what the voters themselves are too ignorant of lazy to deal with and take a stand. The majority are happy with their lives, so be it. No reason for me to make mine miserable when it would take several hundred thousand of you to make a change in that God forsaken state.
1
Conversation around our coffee break toady was about Alabama. Here's some of our topics. Why is Alabama allowed statehood? The United States really isn't united, so why not rid ourselves of Alabama a few other southern states. We work for a large international company and agreed we would never hire anyone from Alabama.
Alabama get the hint. Do America a favor and please leave.
6
@concord63 I'm all in favor of your suggestion. But what about the cost of the wall we must build to keep them out once we get rid of them? I think we should make them pay.
I suspect many of these men that voted for the abortion ban measure - especially the married ones - would set aside their beliefs if their girlfriends got pregnant.
7
Women of Alabama of reproductive age, vote with your feet.
7
Alabama women tell us what New England women can do over summer to help you and your sisters of the south survive.
We are waiting for specific instructions not more rhetoric.
3
@nurseJacki@
I wish there was a way to form a non-profit we could give to that would help women re-locate to states that value women. I don't think this onslaught on women's autonomy will stop in the south. It may be time for us to help women who want out get out.
5
Religious fundamentalism is antithetical to democracy and human rights. This is just as true in Southern states where Evangelical Christianity holds sway, as in Islamic states ruled by Shariah Law.
6
Republicans have always been the part of Big Brother.
3
The fabrication of the “war on women” could only have come from the fevered minds of the New York Times. Women far outpace men academically in attendance at colleges yet they choose low paying majors like women’s studies over nuclear engineering. When women do enter the workforce when compared to men of similar education and tenure, the “wage gap” vanishes. This was reported in an Economist article in 2017. According to an fbi study, the false reporting rate of women claiming rape —8%—is four times higher than for all other crimes.
1
@Uncommon Wisdom
The war on women comes from the fevered minds and actions of the Republican Party, which for decades has advocated for "family values" based upon patriarchy and the inferiority of women.
A study of history will show you how women have been denied access to education and jobs, either directly or through the subtle but powerful operation of the Old Boys' network.
2
Those with the money will send their pregnant daughters to a state where abortion is legal. Probably some who voted for the ban already have.
5
You're asking for carpetbaggers? Remember what happened to those nice Jewish boys who ended up in a berm around a pond? We are all from somewhere and sometimes home and blood family has to be walked away from just to make the point that citizenship in a free democracy depends upon truth and not wishful thinking. Alabama can decide for itself without me. I give plenty just where I am and the work that I do. History will decide this. You just have to be sure that you are on the right side. The one that tells the truth and assigns responsibility for the life that is so casually extended with no support. REH, Artistic Director, the Magic Circle Opera Repertory Ensemble
2
I am unable to support your suggestion that people not from Alabama should move to Alabama in order to change things on the ground. It would seem to me that a much more parsimonious solution would be to have those Alabama women who do not wish to surrender control of their bodies to a theocratic patriarchy to leave that hopelessly backward state by the tens of millions. Abandon the Alabama menfolk and let them work out their family values with other Alabama menfolk
6
No thanks Ms. Crain, I won’t come down to help your backwards state. Knocking on doors isn’t going to help a bit. Frankly I think the federal government should enact some laws to restrict my tax dollars flowing into bamas greedy hands. Time for the union to break up. The conversation has started so let’s get on with the divorce proceedings. Time for you to move back up north, bring your mother with. And don’t look back.
4
Where do I sign up?
"Build That Wall!!!"
"War on Women" says the headline, followed by the picture of a woman described as a sponsor of the bill. Nothing gets in the way of the agitprop!
1
@Bob Roberts
Many women participate against other women in the war on women.
Traitors have always existed in every war.
This is...... a truly bad take. If there's anything Alabamians hate more than abortion and duh libruls, it's "outsiders" trying to force their views on them. We don't need New Yorkers or San Franciscoans (?) moving into the state, we desperately need support from structures and leaders who are already here.
For starters, part of the reason Republicans are able to remote control the state is that AL DNC is an absolute joke. Doug Jones is on record saying that they gave him absolutely no help in his Senate run and he had to pay them, I believe, $10,000 for reasons that remain mysterious. I get that sending Nancy Pelosi here would repel votes not change minds, but why doesn't the national party make some attempt to have a minimally functional operation here? You know, to build up and support talent in the state which is supposed to be their mission. See https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/17/magazine/struggling-to-bring-the-blue-wave-to-deep-red-alabama.html
5
@ac
The prejudice against "outsiders" was not from liberal-minded Alabamans, but from arch-segregationists.
1
Is State Representative Terri Collins (the woman pictured at the beginning of the article) wearing a Holocaust remembrance star? This outrageous comparison between her cynical campaign and history's greatest crime against humanity is truly despicable.
2
Kind of makes you wonder if readmitting Alabama into the United States was such a good decision after all. Perhaps we should have just given the slaves passports to emigrate from Alabama to states that did not declare war on targeted members of their populations.
3
Don't like abortion? Don't have one. How these women think they get to shove their archaic religious beliefs down our throats is beyond me. What arrogance and disregard for our democracy they show. I hope they are laughed out of court as they should be.
4
I encountered a young woman before abortion was legalized. A home invasion ended with her two toddler daughters raped and slaughtered in front of her, and she herself was raped and left for dead. She was so full of grief and rage it is unlikely she ever returned to full sanity. If she had been impregnated during that rape, there’s is no doubt she would have torn his seed out of her body with her bare hands to avoid her blood and his coming to fruition even if she killed herself in the process. Would these legislators have expressed their compassion by strapping her down raging and screaming for 9 months or just kept her drugged into a 9 month coma? This bill is an abomination and proof women are not considered fully human by the Republican Party.
10
While one can admire the author of this piece, and agree that fighting the barbarism of religious fanatics seeking to forcibly impose their beliefs on us all, places like Alabama are getting worse, not better.
I live in Illinois, where abortion is legal and will remain so. We aren’t under the heel of ignorant Bible thumping sanctimonious hypocrites, and won’t be. I’m happy to be here, where women control their own bodies, not Donald Trump and his right wing phony Christian followers.
Alabama and other primitive backward theocracies are about to get a lesson in voting. You get what you deserve, good and hard. (With apologies to H.L. Mencken).
3
I'm sure Jesus Christ is very happy with this bill. Young girls, for the most part, having to carry a baby after being raped, or a sibling who's responsible for this girl being "with child," is humming with joy at the thought of this now young woman carrying this unwanted baby, crying herself to sleep, terrified, morning sickness, more fear if she will even live though the 9 months, and enraged because she has to carry this burden while still going to school. Suicide may even look good. And we all know God's wrath will visit this girl. NOT! The Jesus i know is filled with unconditional love and sees in her as He was once. The mob ready to kill him. No doubt HE Himself curses them and wishes at times he never let the human species come into being.
I simply cannot believe we have a state in our supposedly Christian nation that would force these girls to carry for 9 months a baby conceived under the conditions of rape and incest. We cannot go lower. I never thought in my long life there were men out there and women too who hated females that much. We have stepped back to being sub human. No souls, no empathy, no compassion. They know it not, they have descended into rabid animals. They are the true disgrace in all of humanity.
Not a Christian.
4
Let's have Alabaman women driving along get into the carpool lane, get stopped, and tell the officer she's pregnant. Let's see how human that embryo/fetus is then. I'm guessing that woman will go home with a hefty ticket.
6
@Virginia
Great point!
1
No desire now to ever visit.
Sorry.
6
We should stop talking about “war on women”. This is a war on women by other women. Female religious fanatics, neurotics, self-hating misogynists, and willing domestic slaves are often more dangerous to the cause of women’s rights than men. I have no doubt that among the supporters of the obscene Alabama bill there are many women - perhaps a majority. It is no more surprising than the fact that Female Genital Mutilation is most often performed by mother’s upon their daughters. ISIS that treats women like sex chattel is supported by many women, even those who have grown up in the free West. There is no limit to the human fear of freedom and desire to avoid responsibility for your choices. So I always cringe whenI hear calls for “sisterhood”. My husband and sons who are supporters of abortion rights are better feminists than those Alabama females sobbing about aborted fetuses. I have nothing in common with them. If you are a free woman whose rights are being trampled upon, you are my sister and can rely upon my support. If you like an Aunt in Handmaid’s Tale, a contemptible traitor to your sex, you are my enemy. I don’t care what happens to you or your brood.
3
Appalling. Simply appalling.
3
The evil religions have fostered over many thousands of years far outweighs the good. Alabama may be extreme, but not unique. God save us from good Christians.
3
Exactly so.
1
Some celebrity needs to to start a business “Relocate America” that is geared toward impoverished women who want to get out of their oppressive state, like Alabama, and move into a 21st Century state. Oprah?
6
I would move to Alabama before I would move to Mississippi, Iran, or El Salvador, but that's about it.
1
Selma Alabama, I remember it well. Back in 1965 hundreds of us joined thousands to protest their racist, backward policies. Voting was all-but-impossible for minorities and it took lots of strong arming to get Johnson to finally act.
Fifty four years later, Alabama distinguishes itself again as the same backward, impoverished, pathetic place.
5
We in the United States are on the cusp of the Great Sorting Out.
It will be a time like no other -- when smart, thoughtful, fact-based young people leave the stupid states (mostly in the Deep South) for good coffee, better beer, and excellent conversations with like-minded peers. They will be leaving behind superstitious fake "Christians" with little education and no prospects. They will be saying goodbye to poor healthcare, terrible diets, and rejection of science.
The intelligent people will be headed toward the sane blue states where, not coincidentally, the good jobs are. Where discussions of the great issues of the day aren't precluded by faith that God is taking care of the white and the righteous. Where women control their own bodies. Where voters rejected the Buffoon-In-Chief.
No, the South won't rise again. It will continue to sink under the weight of it's plantation mentality.
8
the men who voted for this will find abortions for their wives, daughters, girlfriends, sisters, cousins -- the people they believe need the right to determine their own futures
122
@true patriot I just had a flash. If 1 in 4 women will have an abortion by 45, then very roughly 1 in 4 men have partners who had an abortion at some point during their lives. What happens if abortion is outlawed, these children are born, and those men are exposed, and then pursued for child support. THEN it becomes a real men's issue.
20
@true patriot. "the men who voted for this will find abortions for their wives, daughters, girlfriends, sisters, cousins -- the people whose decisions they want to control to make sure they don't reflect poorly on themselves."
Fixed that for ya :)
7
@true patriot
Just like Tennessee Republican representative, Scott DesJarlais a former OB-GYN. He had his ex wife have two abortions prior to their marriage and tried to force the patient he was having an affair with to have one. Yet he ran for re-election claiming he was 100% pro-life. He was re-elected.
9
Alabama horror story. A 13 year old girl, who has been abused for years by Uncle Hank, finds herself pregnant. The state's only interest is that she carries the pregnancy to term. The clinics who specialized in women's health have been run out of the area, and there is no hospital nearby. Doesn't matter because the state didn't expand Medicaid and there is no insurance. Mama and Daddy pull her out of school to be "homeschooled" to avoid the "shame". She receives no prenatal care and has to deliver her child at home. It's a girl. Uncle Hank is thrilled.
This happy little story brought to you by 25 white men and one white female governor, all in the interest of Christian morality.
173
Or maybe she and the baby die because her pelvis is under-developed due to her youth, and labor doesn’t progress normally, and she can’t get to the hospital 3 counties over quickly enough. It happens in third-world countries, which Alabama seems determined to become.
39
@Raul Campos
"Only 0.3% of all abortion involve minors under the age of 15. The exception does not define the rule."
Just so you know, in KASPA's example it does not matter whether the child represents 30% or .3% of necessary abortions. She needs one and she won't be allowed to have one because 25 Alabaman men decided she'll just have to stay pregnant. THAT is KASPA's point.
24
@Raul Campos
"Only" is a pathetically inadequate term with which to dismiss the minors who fall into that one-third of a percent.
The law as written condemns any one of those actual living, breathing young girls to a form of slavery. That law most certainly defines a "rule." That's why it's called a "law."
7
Protecting the lives of female fetuses is a "war on women"?
8
@Ludwig Yes, because women have the right to determine their own bodies. It takes two to make a child and somehow the man evades responsibility? How about working to make abortion safe, available, but rare through sex education and free contraception? But no, red states won't do that. Now we'll see murder investigations whenever a woman miscarriages or has a heavy period.
55
@Ludwig There isn't even an exception in this law to permit abortion when the fetus has died or is severely malformed. No woman should be forced to carry a dead or dying fetus to term. What is the point of that, other than to inflict unnecessary cruelty on women?
44
@Ludwig Roe Vs Wade legalizes abortion. Law trumps religion. You don't want an abortion don't get one. Move to a country that outlaws it if you really have a problem with it.
20
The issue is tissue: which is at the center of the standards of Roe v. Wade? Privacy and the right to determine what one does with one's body, and if female, that includes choices of carrying a child or making a tough choice to terminate a pregnancy. Women by Alabama's and other states' choices are trying to overturn history by going backward and nullifying the right to choose. These choices in these parts of the USA remind one of slavery and its long hold on the rights of people, not citizens then, not people. Is there a reason these parts of the country have the low literarcy rates, high poverty rates, and continue to hold in high regard the past rather than the lawful, legal present? Appears so.
2
The idea that there's some sort of "War on Women" is absurd. The right's call to tighten restrictions on abortion is a correct effort to strengthen the role of family in American life; both men and women have an equal interest here. The left's position, however advertised as promoting individual freedom, erodes the importance of strong family bonds. Has anyone failed to notice how public policies that excuse and pay the costs of ill-considered and, strictly speaking avoidable, private actions among a wide section of the population with a tradition of weak family structure, has dragged the state (taxpayers) into unseemly triangular relationships with these people making the taxpayers in effect unwitting facilitating responsible adults? Do the taxpayers actually approve of this? Should they
continue looking the other way, tacitly sanctioning immorality and paying for it?
11
@Ronald B. Duke You might say our family is on the left, though really we're really center left. Ou family bonds, going back generations on both sides, are incredible strong. I travel often to see my folks in Texas and my wife's family, who's primarily local, meets every holiday. We are strong, and we are all pro-life and pro-choice. Life is living in the moment with those who are with you and choice is, well not really about "choice" but about the ability to make one's own choices without judgement from others. To me, being on the left means not being judgmental about how others choose to live their lives, but about being flexible in our own lives and allowing others to be flexible in theirs. That feels right to me. Judge not... and all that.
53
@Ronald B. Duke - When I hear nonsense like this I remember the Barna study printed in James Dobson's Focus on the Family magazine. It ranked all the various denominations by divorce rate. In first place, with the most divorces, were evangelical christians. Tied for last place, with the fewest divorces, were Lutherans and atheists.
105
You offer no proof that the reproductive issues society faces are due to or end up with the broken family structure you suggest. Sadly the arguments for outlawing abortion and restricting reproductive rights are always from a deeply emotional or religious perspective that won’t allow for empiricism or data driven solutions that run contrary to the rigid faith those positions demand. You would infringe on the liberty of fellow citizens due to your ignorance and discomfort with the subject. You would put many fellow humans - often the must vulnerable - at much greater risk for morbidity or mortality because you assume without evidence that criminalizing reproductive rights will somehow improve family cohesiveness. How is that a rational concession?
45
the same here in california, except the super-majority is Democratic and the public employee unions always win. will you report on that?
1
Most of the commenters are critical of Alabama culture and much of what they say is true. But lets remember that Alabama has been a very conservative state for a very long time and it is not changing fast. To me the Alabama legislature is just being the Alabama legislature. I wish it was different but what do you expect?
I am much more critical of the Democrats who could see no difference between The Con Don and Ms. Clinton in the 2016 election. An obvious difference is the Supreme Court; Gorsuch and Kavanagh would not be there if Ms. Clinton had won.
Democrats don't seem to be able to take politics seriously and to look ahead at what is coming. When the republicans won the White House and had control of the Senate, it seemed obvious that any vacancies on the Supreme Court would be filled with reactionary, anti-choice, anti-worker, Federalists Society judges. Which is exactly what has happened.
The democrats can protest and demonstrate all they want, but the President (or his aids) picks the judge to nominate and the republican senate confirms.
The supporters of choice and women's issues need to make their views felt at the ballot box. We can't refight the 2016 election but 2020 is coming and we need a democratic House, Senate, and White House.
2
Who will this law impact the most? Impoverished and disadvantaged women, those who are least able to care for themselves due to substance abuse and addiction. Who will take care of these mothers and their children? Alabama better have a plan for robust social services because this is a set up for deteriorating neighborhoods and increased crime.
240
@Jane
They don't and they won't. Here in the south it's believed that the baby should be born. There is no plan or consideration beyond that. Funds for WIC, SNAP, housing and education are nothing other than resented by the same politicians and voters who profess to be that party of life. They don't care about the kids. At all. Their budgets and voting records prove it time and again.
33
@Lauren
I agree. As long as there is someone else to blame ( Mothers ) there will be no responsibility and no change. The lack of empathy is the wedge that divides our once great country......
12
@Lauren The anti-choice people are worried about life for nine months -- from conception to birth. After that the child, mother, etc. are own their own.
Lauren is right that the poor and disadvantaged are resented by many politicians and voters.
22
Alabama has done the nation a service with this draconian abortion ban. It has revealed the true goals of the Republican right — ban abortion completely. Alabama also reveals why pro-choice forces must organize for the 2020 election as they never have.
The GOP’s anti-abortion wing now has a 5-4 majority on the Supreme Court. They know that Justices Ginsberg and Breyer are very old and the next President is likely to name their successors. If Trump wins, the anti-abortion GOP could get a 7-2 majority on the Court, all anti-abortion, who could ban abortion and contraceptives in America for a half century or more.
14
So, those who are able should start planning where to immigrate to. I have already told my son to start thinking about this. America is no longer a decent place to live, and I don't think it will be for at least 100 years.
2
Many years ago, in college, my political science professor defined democracy as "rule by the majority, with respect for the rights of the minority". I am personally opposed to abortion --- and to capital punishment and war and people starving to death and so forth. However, when the majority in this country supported abortion, I didn't leave the country, or become a single issue voter, or even quit the Democratic party. Now it seems the majority in some places are taking a different position. And that's majority rule unless civil rights are being violated. So the question is whether abortion is a civil right. If the fetus is nothing more that a growth, like a tumor, then a woman should have the right to "control her own body". If the fetus is a human being, there are two sets of civil rights to consider.
2
@Emma Fitzpatrick
No, the question is why aren’t women equal under the law? If we were then our right to full autonomy and self determination couldn’t be infringed upon. If we were no state could then make laws denying us access to health care for any reason, including abortion.
There are no laws that infringe the rights of men. The same should be true for women.
14
If the majority ruled, Trump wouldn't be president.
5
If a fetus is a human being, we’ve redefined “human” and “life”. Something living supports itself outside the womb; human life is never biologically parasitical.
A nonviable fetus is, by definition, unable to live absent support from the mother’s body. Whether or not it’s potentially human it is at that stage actually a parasite: sustained through the life of another.
If our law recognizes an obligation in the woman to support a life not her own through her own body, why, logically, should it stop there? Perhaps the state should also defend life by mandating kidney donations from the best available donors.
Except for blame and righteousness, forced birth and forced organ donations are morally indistinguishable.
4
I commend the author on having the guts to move back to Alabama; I don't have that kind of courage. In fact, I took the opposite path, recently moving from Wisconsin to Vermont. Here, the state legislature is quietly, and successfully, working to protect women's reproductive rights and bodily autonomy. I'm in my 50s, and weary of decades manning the barricades (literal and figurative) for abortion rights in places where religious zealots hold too much power. I want better for my teenage daughter (and her children, should she choose to have any), and I believe we will find it here. It's clear, cool, and quiet in the green mountains, and it feels wonderful.
13
Abby Crain,
I feel your pain being a liberal in a conservative state like Alabama. Although I suffer for the opposite reason. I am a conservative pro life woman in a very liberal city like New York where the overwhelming majority are pro choice. I do not know the exact ratio but I would guess it is much higher than in Alabama.
It can get lonely at times but I do not give in or give up. I do know some pro life people and do volunteer work on a regular basis. I stick to my values and if the subject of abortion comes up I tell them I am pro life but do not push my views. We live in a democracy and all voices must be heard.
The pro life people of Alabama are obviously in the majority or this abortion ban would not have been passed. The people have spoken and their wishes must be respected. What comes next in Alabama will be interesting. I hope that this abortion ban is permanent but then I am pro life.
15
@KMW
I respect that you are pro life for yourself, but, until you can put yourself in another’s position, you cannot possibly disallow others their right to a choice. It would be a perfect world if all children were wanted, healthy, and cared for. Use your energy to help those who are already born. So many need the love and care you can probably provide.
107
@KMW
I greatly appreciate how you identified with the writer, even though you have a different, but equally felt, conviction. And what you say is true: when we find ourselves in the minority opinion, we should be true to our beliefs and not just go along with what’s popular.
At the same time, it is important that we are willing to listen respectfully to those who have different perspectives, and not simply sequester ourselves with the like-minded. As you write, all voices must be heard.
In my own life, I went to a Catholic high school, as an outsider to that faith, where we had to take a right to life class, which was opposite from what I had been exposed to. While I still believe in abortion rights, I also took away some good dialogue with other students and the teacher. I learned to respect what drives other convictions and that, if people can hear each other out with trust and without shouting, we find out we’re not so far apart after all as people.
Thanks for what you wrote. Best regards.
13
I find this to be a disingenuous false equivalency. Living in a state which allows you to make a choice is not the same as living where you are not allowed to make a choice. You do not wish to 'push your views' because you are locally outnumbered by those who allow you to act on your own values (like that's a hardship that makes you suffer somehow?) But given your hopes, you'd prefer to prevent other women from sticking to their own values.
Yours is not a pro life position, it's pro control. When you're ever forced into having an abortion against your will, then you'll be on equal footing with those forced to give birth against theirs. "All voices must be heard," is one thing - legislating that women may not follow their own voices in quite another.
Alabama held the majority opinion that slavery was OK too. That didn't make it right, but perhaps you would have preferred that was kept permanent also?
154
You do realize that this abortion business is just another battle in our never-ending Civil War. The Rebs are still trying to stick it to the Yankees. If Yankees were against legal abortion, the Rebs would be for it. The Republican Party replaced the old Democratic Party as the defender of racial, regional and religious identity. Few whites with Southern roots will be brave enough to vote against the "white party" for fear of being cast out of the tribe. Unless there is a vast migration to Alabama of people with no ties whatsoever to the Confederacy, the "super-majority" will keep fighting the War and the Yankee "enemy."
10
One can feel a bit defensive when reading the NYT comments that tar the whole state and all the people in it because of the decidedly backward actions of GOP lawmakers.
To coin a phrase, Alabama is just like the great swath of states in the Midwest and southwest only more so. Steve King, Michelle Bachman and Louis Gohmer are not from the Deep South.
It’s a matter of degree. There are plenty of progressives in the south. All urban areas have large numbers of well educated people who are moderate to liberal and young educated people are as progressive as anywhere in the country.
Almost all Blacks in the South are democrats because it was democrats who took the lead on civil rights and voting rights in the sixties. Blacks, progressives, and moderates appalled by Roy Moore, elected the democrat Doug Jones to the senate. (He’s on the ballot again next year, send him some money.)
We progressives in the South are as appalled as you are by the actions of our GOP politicians. Our breakfast groups and social events are made up of like minded people who commiserate and strategize about how to fight the good fight.
To those who say you will never set foot in Alabama, you are short changing yourselves. Come to Montgomery and visit the memorial erected by the Equal Justice Initiative to honor the victims of racial lynching that occurred in this country over a period of more than 100 years. 400,000 people from all over the world have done so since the memorial opened last year.
68
@Joel Sanders
Thank you. We need to hear voices like yours. It is really easy for we Yankees to generalize about Alabama and the deep south in general. It is reassuring to know there is hope for Alabama.
20
@Joel Sanders
You are absolutely correct about the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, and I do intend to visit it soon.
That said, I empathize with you and your fellow progressives in Alabama. Believe me, I feel at sea here in NC more often than I like. But voter turnout is key, and that continues to be the issue everywhere, imo. People are frustrated with politicians of all stripes. They feel like voting is a waste of time. And they now are faced with disinformation campaigns pushed by Russians, Republicans, and right wingers in general.
I wish you well, but it’s definitely an uphill battle you (and I) face.
And BTW, Louie Gohmert is from Texas, so maybe Mike Pence from Indiana would be a better example to use. Just saying.
17
The lynching memorial used no public funds. I just visited and was struck by the lack of government acknowledgement in Montgomery that slavery had ever existed: no plaque at the square which was the site of the biggest slave auction in the country, no mention in a posted review of the civil war near the Alabama River. Plenty of confederate monuments though. The people in power are mentally diseased.
41
Thank you for reminding the rest of us who live in blue states that there are a lot of progressives in red states. I completely agree that taunts and insults delivered at a whole state are counterproductive. How do we think we'll ever flip red states blue unless we recognize and support the minority that may some day become the majority?
The Alabama abortion bill is indeed supported by "...one who I believe thinks in her heart of hearts that she is doing the right thing by her faith...". But belief is religion and our Constitution could not be more clear that church and state be separated completely. No court in the land should fail to block it.
8
The ending of this essay is appalling. Is this author for real? The light-hearted tone at the end is startling. Why would anyone want to move to a state where women and blacks are second-class citizens, where the quality of public education is poor, and the people in power are unabashedly determined to force their view of the world down everyone else's throats? I'll be happy to contribute to a fund to help women relocate to more enlightened states. From an economic view, the civil rights movement and air-conditioning were the best things that could have happened to the South. The misogyny now so obvious should curtail any further progress. Any company moving there should be boycotted.
11
The article was incisive and enlightening. As are many of the comments and observations.
But Alabama is dead to me. And I'm ready for a larger fight - especially after reading about the woman who had a miscarriage and had to bring in mucus and blood from the episode to prove it. That is barbaric, intrusive, and the act the religious police in Saudi Arabia. Hey wait. Maybe the evangelicals are the reason we are so tidy with them now.
6
There are no "victims" here. Women are the majority of voters. They have all the power they need to legally change anything in America they find to be oppressive. Why are they so wimpy and helpless as voters in the face of this war on them, anyway? Why isn't the war on women as politically toxic nationally as, say, the war on the NRA in regions dominated by it, the way all our regions are dominated by women voters? With "friends" like lots of women, who must be voting soldiers in the "war on women," or there could be no war, feminists need no enemies. Tom Frank should write a new book called "What's Wrong With Women?"
4
Exactly right, and some of this has to do with the prevalance of thyroid disease in this area as well as the high level of ignorance and lack of health care.
"A house divided against itself, cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure, permanently, half slave and half free."
While I in no way mean to diminish the scourge of slavery, aren't we somewhat at the same point in country with the old south, now not only continuing the oppression of African-Americans but now making women's oppression the law? Are women's bodies now now indentured to men in Alabama?
3
apparently so, and this was a goal of Trump.
1
It is all about the fetus. Are any anti abortion zealots who will commit to signing binding agreements to adopt or financially, emotionally, take the time entailed raising the baby into adulthood? Are the Churches committed to take a percentage of their revenue to subsidize what becomes the baby, child, teenager, along with higher education expensives in order for the fetus to be raised with the advantages their own children possess? Much better to be aborted than to suffer physical abuse or murder which is becoming more prevalent. Addressing beyond the fetus is the most realistic argument for abortion in addition to the rights of a woman who bears the responsibility many times alone.
6
Calling this a "war on women" seems like a gross exaggeration. Only doctors will receive direct punishment for abortions. Complicit women will get off scot-free.
I would love to come down to Alabama. I like the heat. Can't make that life change at this stage. I hope that more native Alabamians can push back against this kind of fundamentalist extremism. If I thought it would do any good I would move to Saudi Arabia and protest extreme interpretations of Sharia by that religion.
Thanks for the invite but I won't visit Alabama, won't send my money to any business in Alabama, I wouldn't take a flight that connected through Alabama if it had a major airport. I wouldn't let my kid go to college in Alabama or go to a convention or hold a business meeting there. It is a land run by religious zealots who have completely forgotten separation of church and state and respect nobody who isn't drinking their Kool-Aid.
11
A man recently told me, a woman, that he thinks these men who legislate for these extremely strict abortion laws even in cases of rape and incest just don't like women and think "women have become too powerful". I've been mulling this over since I heard it and, at first I thought this is silly, but now I'm beginning to think there's truth to it.
14
@GetReal18
I've had a similar realization; looked at through the lens of preserving white male power at all costs, lots of the stupefying legislative behavior of republicans becomes clearer, on multiple issues: abortion (vs. women), sentencing guidelines (vs. black and Latinx people), climate change (vs. nature and the global south). They rally support with misdirection and distract from the real purpose. Sickening. I don't know where their insecurity comes from psychologically, but the clinging to white power explains some of the legislative madness.
1
Of course there is truth to that, and it alway has been.
1
Thoroughly misleading headline for an article about a difference of opinion that divides Alabama nearly 50-50, whose electorate freely chose its legislators, resulting in a law sponsored and signed by women. Some "war against women."
1
@HMI
The war against women by the GOP is nationwide and stretches back many decades.
I find it hard to believe that you have not heard of the GOP's policy of "family values," which establishes the man as the head of the patriarchal household and the woman as the dutiful housewife.
In Alabama, the women who voted against the current legislature are indeed the victims of the war on women. The fact that other women have joined their oppressors does not change that.
Strange as it may be, between calling dems socialists and the party of death, Trump will probably ride this issue into a second term.
1
I wonder if the 25 white men would feel the same about outlawing abortion if a law also required paternity DNA so the father of these children could be identified and their wages garnished for child support for 18 years of the child's life. Anti- abortionists claim to support the fetus, but then not the the child it will become (not to mention the support a women needs for a healthy pregnancy - for herself and the fetus). I am so tired of the hypocrisy in the name of "religion"!
14
Alabama is one of two states, with Georgia, that enacted new abortion restrictions over the last week. Their records on maternal and infant health are shameful. Alabama is tied for fourth-worst place in infant mortality in the USA, with a rate of 7.4 deaths per 1,000 live births. Georgia, with a rate of 7.2, is tied for seventh-worst. Of the 12 states ranked highest in infant mortality rates, all with rates of 7.0 or higher, 11 are described by the abortion rights organization NARAL as having the strictest anti-abortion laws. By contrast, of the four states with the best infant mortality rates, all at 4.2 or better—California and Washington offer “strongly protected access to abortion,” and New Hampshire and Massachusetts “some access.”
Also Alabama has the highest rate of cervical cancer in the USA. The states with strict anti-abortion laws have mostly not expanded Medicaid under the ACA and have fewer other supportive policies and programs further impairing access to any medical care for poor women and children. These statistics should give the lie to legislators’ arguments that their anti-abortion measures are somehow good for women’s health or aimed at protecting their rights or that reflect a religious commitment to the sanctity of life. The most strict anti-abortion laws are created in a states that have a moral and compassion vacuum which demonstrably harms women and children.
8
Outlawing abortion does not stop abortions from happening and never will, which makes me wonder what the real goal here is by these 25 white Draconian men who want to imprison doctors and no doubt women but are too afraid to admit it. Since the "women are too trampy or stupid to make their own decisions so we will for them" crowd have no problem with the government making law about reproductive systems, why not instead of outlawing abortion, since they'll happen anyway, mandate that all males at age 13 get vasectomies, and once they are married, it can be reversed. Let's start having women tell men that the government will dictate to them how their reproduction will be managed. Something tells me that won't go over to well.
9
It was once called Democracy when the vast majority that you mention had their interests voted into law. Now, with all of the victimized screamers and yellers, Democracy has been relegated to extremism where both sides have little or no respect for the other.
America has been relegated to black and white opposites that ignore those in the middle. We've become insensitive and senseless bawlers and brawlers and in the process, reduced Democracy to democrats and republicans and
Me-MeToo - first.
1
@Anonymot
How does standing up for the rights of women against the onslaught of GOP-sponsored laws to take away their autonomy translate in your mind into "me too first"?
When it comes to personal freedom, there is no middle.
Unfortunately, attacking the (sinful) love of money is the only way to effect change in the hearts of Alabama's rabid anti-choicers. Since women who run for legislative office there have a snowball's chance in climate change, the difficult truth is that making them feel a lonely ache in their wallets is all that's left.
2
This didn't happen overnight. It's been a slow steady build over the last few decades. As someone who marched in Washington at 17 to protest Reagan's attack on reproductive rights I kept waiting for the millennial generation (and younger) to spring into action.But alas seems maintaining an Instagram presence was of greater importance as they say out one mid term after another. Do they think the right to control their bodies and size of their families came easy???? Do they think they can't lose it??
The Trump party (formerly the late republican party) has been desperately spouting the lie that it's legal to abort a full term viable actual baby. It's pure nonsense but they truly believe that lie. How long do you think it will be before these same ignorant folks start going after birth control???
History lesson for you young women out there. There was a time when doctors would refuse to prescribe birth control to single women because THEY didn't approve of her moral choices and it was legal to do so. If you think that will never happen again then by all means go back to ignoring elections and posting the minutiae of your self absorbed lives on social media. I'm sure your daughters will thank you some day.
9
I would ask each of the women who supported this bill. "How many children have you adopted?" Even victims of incest and rape should be forced to carry a child to term? Okay then here is a bill you need to pass: any woman can enter any hospital and have her baby delivered free. Any woman can walk out of a hospital & leave the baby for others to raise. An infant can be abandoned at any fire station without the mother being charged. Not my choice, not my responsibility. For those of you who would like to adopt such children, I assume you know nothing about genetics and would not mind raising the child of a rapist, drunk or drug addict. Actions have consequences.
6
The war on women myth is disproven by many things, including the fact that the Alabama law was sponsored by a woman legislator and signed into law by a woman governor. There is no war on women; there is, however, a war by men and women against the destructive leftist policies advocated by men and women.
1
@ehillesum
Some women have joined against other women in the war on women. That doesn't make the latter a "myth."
This new law is just one example of many proofs that there is a war on women.
Are you trying to argue that forcing a woman to carry a pregnancy to term against her will is not an attack on her autonomy?
Suppose I put you in jail, and tell you that you are free. Would you believe me?
I don't agree with the abortion law in Alabama, but in a Democracy shouldn't "the supermajority" always win?
4
@TMDJS Civll liberties are not subject to vote - for example, we wouldn't say a supermajority can vote to put an innocent person to death.
27
@TMDJS This is a law about denying women access to adequate and necessary health care. It is not up for a vote. What if a law was passed to deny men Viagra, or prostrate cancer screening and treatment? Think about it.
19
What democracy? As the electoral college keeps reminding us, we are not a democracy.
22
It's time to boycott these states - and any major businesses that are located there; there's not much else we can do right now, besides letting our own legislators know that these attempts to force women into second-class status are not going to be tolerated. This is not just a gender war - it is a class war, and a "race" war - a desperate battle waged primarily by white men to maintain their grip on power. The fact that it will ultimately fail should not deter us from fighting as hard as we can right now.
27
@Leslie
Colorado Secretary of State "In a mostly symbolic gesture, Secretary of State Jena Griswold announced restrictions Thursday forbidding her staff from work-related travel to the state, which just adopted the most stringent anti-abortion law in the nation.
My tentative trip through the Southeastern US, including Alabama, is being put on hold indefinitely.
How many others will join in this boycott of this unfortunate state?
13
Thanks, Abbey, for your article. Alabama is not a place that we Northerners often think about unless something as medieval as this takes place. Thanks for humanizing the situation. It was gratifying to hear that women were in the balcony mocking the madness on the floor below. Does the political situation have anything to do with gerrymandering or have the bible church pastors actually convinced their flock that a fetus has more rights than a mature adult?
17
I moved South twenty years ago to earn a graduate degree and work in a specialized field. I have contributed to my community and built relationships with folks from a very different background.
But for the last two and a half years, not a day goes by that I don't think about moving back north, to raise my family in a more moderate political climate. I stay, for now, because I would need to leave my field-- but quitting and leaving becomes an easier choice to contemplate with each episode like this. I have no emotional ties to this region, but more importantly I lack the courage and fortitude of Ms. Crain.
Reconstruction was never complete-- the white patriarchy just found a different way to impose its will. With this law, and every other bit of state legislation punishing women, the poor, immigrants, etc., the mask slips further.
30
@TJ
Another perspective to consider is that if all the folks abandon a place then it leaves in power those whose position you can't abide. One reason I remain an active Catholic-my voice counts and unless I remain engaged I lose my opportunity to use that voice.
The new abortion laws contain an exclusion for serious risk to the life of the mother. I would argue that being forced to carry an unwanted pregnancy to term is an unequivocal and existential threat to the emotional and psychological health of the woman and will irreparably alter the course of her life.
30
@David Eike
Correct. Just some of the relatively uncommon effects of carrying a pregnancy to term: severe hypertension, preeclampsia, diabetes, infections, depression, anemia, hyperemesis gravidarum, placenta previa, placental abruption, dangerous worsening of heart conditions, and other very serious medical problems. One’s body, health, and life is forever changed. How can it be constitutional to force this on women?
7
@David Eike
Unfortunately, any doctor who tried to use that as a defense under the new law would be overruled by the reactionary state court and face up to 99 years in jail.
It’s easier to create a new system than to change an existing one. So a bunch of red states make abortion illegal. And maybe one of these laws makes it to SCOTUS and perhaps perhaps SCOTUS goes against stare decisis and abortion becomes illegal at the federal level. Ok, so is marijuana. There are many ways to obtain an abortion. Telemedicine (already happening) where the dr may not even be in the US and prescribes the necessary pills and mails them. How will the Alabama state legislature touch that? The Dutch Abortion ship - a ship that stops in ports and picks up women who need abortions and then travels to international waters where no country’s laws can touch them. Alabama does border the Gulf of Mexico. A robust network of organizations that help women get the transportation and lodging to travel to a state where it is legal - there already are some. The only serious issue I can forsee is if a woman has complications and needs follow-up medical care after she has returned home. I’m not advocating for giving up this fight. But putting energies into developing “alternative” ways to do something is always a good strategy. And perhaps the alternative way then becomes the mainstream way. Meanwhile, it will be years before red state legislatures catch on, and by the time they do, the majority of abortions will be happening online with pills delivered by fed ex overnight express.
7
“I’m Christian and I don’t believe we need to be playing God, deciding who gets born and who gets aborted,” said Caroline Reddy, 32, a mother of two children. “I believe it’s murder. If people would have behaved in a proper way they wouldn’t be in that situation.”
Does anyone else see the inherent contradiction here? If people (women) behaved "properly" they wouldn't get pregnant. But hey, I'm not judging here. I'm not playing God.
This kind of thinking is so punitive it almost makes one wonder if Ms. Reddy doesn't view pregnancy as punishment. We're not even talking about rape or incest here, but I guess she is also saying that if an 11 year old behaved "properly" her stepfather or father wouldn't have assaulted her in her bed at night.
49
I find this prevailing meme very distasteful. In the same vein, woman should not be able to promulgate any rules or laws having primarily to do with men and Christians should not be able to rule on matter having to do with religious minorities. Actually, this perspective is anti-democratic. (For the record, I am avowedly pro-choice and always have been.)
4
When a woman has a miscarriage in Alabama how will she prove that she and her physician are not murderers? When my sister had a miscarriage in Virginia her doctor asked her to bring the blood and mucous into the office. That was the last time she had anything to do with that practitioner. So I guess they will have to run autopsies on fetuses to determine cause of death after a woman is registered to be pregnant. They will definitely need to keep a legal registry of pregnant women and monitor their pregnancies till birth to enforce this new law. How horrific.
27
@ScottC
I don’t know all the circumstances surrounding your sister’s miscarriage, however, I can offer a bit of context. As an RN back when I was working with a OB-GYN in California he also requested pregnant women who were bleeding to bring in the used pads to determine what action was needed. He wanted to determine if the woman might need a D&C for retained products of conception. This could be the reason the doctor made that request. At least I hope so.
I agree with everything you say about how invasive these laws are. How will they tell if a woman has an abortion, they shouldn’t know unless she develops complications like severe bleeding or infection and needs emergency treatment. Then they’re all in deep trouble. Women are going to die, just like the dentist in Ireland because some doctors are going to be afraid of prosecution. I predict many OB-GYNs in these states may limit their practice to GYN only.
5
@ScottC
I’m sorry I missed that your comment asked about how a woman and doctor could prove a miscarriage. I hope they take them at their word. The law is worded so it sounds like a woman’s life and character are subject to the subjective scrutiny of the investigator. I just hope religious zealots aren’t assigned to investigate. If so, it will be like the witch hunters centuries past. They saw witches everywhere.
The author says she cried after the vote i on this draconian law outlawing abortion in Alabama and imposing 99 year sentences on those who perform it. Presumably including the women and girls who get one. And in blood red states, crying is all there is left to do, because Republicans have stacked the Supreme Court. Now the entire nation will weep.
21
Everyday I read about the hideous behavior of conservative Americans and wonder when, (when?!) will progressives start to seriously look at separating from America until their states are given greater autonomy? Quebec has been threatening separation my whole life in Cananda and they've managed to gain far more independence from the country than it seems most American states - and our leaders aren't even completely deranged, if maybe a little incompetent. Leave the red states to themselves.
13
No, Y’all, the solution is not to come down there and work to make a difference, not unless you mean to do it in the manner of Ulysses S. Grant, Phil Sheridan, and William Tecumseh Sherman. Our bloody history has already shown us that a society forged by the overseer’s whip and the midnight visits to Slave Row can only be changed by force. If our three killer angels had stayed in the field for just another year: had Grant smashed the Army of Northern Virginia in the manner of Zhukov at Berlin rather than graciously accepting Lee’s surrender, if Sheridan had set the Carolinas to the torch after burning the Shenandoah, and especially if Sherman had just stopped at the Atlantic long enough to water his horses before wheeling around, forming on line, and destroying everything between Savannah and Mobile Bay, we wouldn’t currently have to give the State of Alabama a second thought.
But since we can’t restart the Civil War at this late date, what is to be done? Well, in 1861, facing a series of powerful, expansionist European powers, Lincoln was right to preserve the Union. However today, when Russia is a toothless shadow of its former self, and the trade war has shown China to be a paper tiger, perhaps preserving the Union is not the best way to advance freedom. Perhaps, as Lincoln himself stated at Gettysburg in 1863, this nation now needs a new birth of freedom. Maybe now, that means that we should sunder the bonds that bind us to those who find our beliefs anathema.
7
A great piece and kudos to you for returning to help your home state join the 21st century.
The pro-life legislators of Alabama should start by facing some facts about the already born under their jurisdiction, which is that Alabama has the second-highest death rate in the nation.
"In 2016, Alabama had the fourth highest death rate from heart disease, the nation’s leading cause of death. Alabama also had the country’s highest death rate from stroke, ranked No. 7 from deaths from cancer and Chronic Lower Respiratory Diseases."
"In 2016 Alabama had the country’s highest infant mortality rate and the second highest rate of deaths from firearms."
http://parcalabama.org/alabama-grows-but-slowly-weighed-down-by-high-death-rate-and-low-rate-of-international-migration/
I'm with those here who say let's have an all-out campaign to call these people "forced birthers" because calling them pro-life is just ridiculous.
28
It seems appropriate that the least educated, poorest, most believing state would lead our Nation down the slope of civilized behavior.
Our national "values" have been co-opted by ignoarnt belief and bully politics.
Re: Alabama, I travel there often on business. There is a certain gentleness and polite civility about the people that belies the winking racism and paternalism that lies bebeath the surface.
Make no mistake, what is wrong with Alabama is directly connected to the use of religion to control and profit by the Religio-Capitalist Industry.
16
Time for an economic boycott of Alabama, Ohio, and other states which are trying to make the Handmaid's Tale into a documentary? How about the Lysistrata approach? That could get the attention of all of these men who are deciding for women what they can and cannot do with their own bodies.
13
Alabama is not an alluring place. It is a place where people are "should" upon. "You should do this"; You should do that." We do not like the vey idea of abortion, but the idea that any of us should enter the home or suppose we should enter the mind of anyone who for whatever their feelings about something as important and deeply personal as abortion and say "You should not!" Or now, worse, "You can not!" is really offensive.
In truth all it means is that people who can afford to do so will go elsewhere for an abortion and those who are economically trapped will either find the rusty coat-hanger or have the child that the intolerant society will deny health care to, deny food and decent education to, and uplift their eyes and pray loudly "God wills it!" And denounce Allah, Buddha, Abraham, and those who silently or openly believe that no God with the principles of Jesus would allow such bigotry an intolerance. Whipping up intolerance is not much difference than whipping those who differ in opinion, sex, or color.
7
It is worse than you think. A woman who plans to travel out of state for a lawful abortion may be charged with conspiracy to commit murder. This element of the law is a sure tactic in forcing the law to the Supreme Court where extremists expect the Trump court to overturn Roe v Wade. But should this law go into effect on Jan 1, 2020, how is this travel ban executed? Are all women to be interrogated as to the purpose of their travel? Are women's communications beyond the State's borders to be surveilled? Does the TSA security at the airport include screening for pregnancy? Do the folksy welcome centers on the Interstate become mandatory stops for checking status of women's menstrual cycles? This is more than relegating women to second class citizenship; this law makes women chattel without any rights at all.
Even if a woman is deeply devoted to her faith and abides by her church's teachings on abortion, she needn't waste her time with any moral decision making. The State now takes precedence over her religious beliefs and is making religious decisions for her. Her relationship with her priest, her doctor, and her family is now owned by the State. This is the legacy that awaits not just these religious zealot states, but the rest of the country should the Trump Court overturn Roe v Wade.
18
Yeah, the “super majority” always wins. The author uses the stats that “ of the people who are pro-choice” 53% are women & 47% are men...but she doesn’t state how many people that actually includes.
Until the super majority in Alabama is pro-choice nothing will change...but boycotts will not change that.
1
It's becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish those who are in favor of killing abortion providers from those who would throw acid in the face of girls trying to get an education.
Forget about banning abortion, let's ban religion.
26
Another reason for caring about and taking action in response to what happens in the Alabama's of this nation is that there is more than a little of the worst in Alabama everywhere.
Here in deep red upstate NY, I am "served" by a GOP state assemblyman who would fit in and feel just as at home in Montgomery as in Albany. And believe me, this man and a solid majority of his constituents are encouraged, feed off and model what they see in Alabama. And they're only too glad to keep or bring much of the worst in Alabama - be it anti choice, anti-labor, voter-suppression, or whatever - up here anytime they can.
So it would certainly behoove any of the rest of us up here to accept Ms. Crain's invitation. Just like the 60's it's again time to get back on the buses and bring some "got-dam Yankee" human rights progressivism down there - not only to help them but to stem their red tide from rolling up here as well.
9
The political certainty that prompted the Alabama legislature to pass the anti abortion law and its signing by a woman bodes no future good for the state. In fact, why would any clear-headed woman choose to live there?
Despite this horrible "law." women are humans who deserve the same rights of choice as men. Where, for instance, are the laws against vasectomies?
Women of Alabama, and for that matter women of the whole world, you have the same red blood as men and with that blood is your right to choose.
11
There was a severe increase in fetal death and miscarriage related to the lead-poisoned water in Flint, Michigan. Where are the "pro life" people? Where are their calls for protective legislation?
Hmmm. Maybe it is really all about controlling women's bodies and forcing them to remain pregnant as punishment for having sex (how dare they!) and not really much about embryos and fetuses after all.
23
"...it’s worth noting that the state Republican Party is led by a woman; the abortion ban bill was sponsored by a woman — and it was signed into law by a woman, Gov. Kay Ivey."
the balance of this piece is advocacy, an all talk-about-anything-but the-subject dance...having fled alabama when the climate was not to her liking, the author returns when, she assumes, the climate is more favorable to her own opinion...a good thing that some of the women whose strength she praises, were stronger that she.
the problem with the bill is its view of women and pregnancy as a "monolithic" and in this it denies the same variables that are considered by medicals and family when decisions are made to terminate life support (not tho compare the two conditions, but the two attitudes)...it is illegal to "pull the plug" without the authority of consultation and, so, it might be rightly held that the termination of a fetal life (wherever science sets its shifting bounds) be the same unless backed by the authority of consultation and not obscured by the euphemistic "reproductive choice" (which of course seems to exclude both father and the unborn)...medical necessity, the threat to the health of the mother, (physical and, in the case of force, social) and not convenience, ought to be the basis for "choice,"
@ecco
Regardless of what you think "ought to be," human beings have a right to autonomy.
I don't have to consult with you or anyone else to decide what to do with my own body, and neither does any other man or woman.
Terminating life support for a person who is brain dead does not infringe their rights. They are already dead.
Terminating life support for a person who has signed a DNR does not infringe on their rights, it honors them.
Forcing a woman to be a slave to what is inside her body is the ultimate in infringement of her rights.
Religion is powerful in Alabama which is why you will be punished if you have any association with abortion.
In America as a whole, religion is losing out to to "religious
unaffiliated" groups Atheist, Agnostic or "Nothing in particular"
Of these three groups "Nothing in Particular" is the most popular and growing.
One can take from this that the fastest growing "belief system" in America is "Nothing in particular" followed by atheist and agnostic.
Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama are the most religious
states in the nation.
When it comes to the religions,there is a lot of animosity to contend with as could be seen recently on the floor of the Alabama State Senate with abortion as the subject.
The faster growing unaffiliated non religions seem to be less combative. The Atheists, Agnostics and Nothing in Particulars , aren't so divided over abortion because Jesus, Moses. Allah and the various bibles are not involved in their unaffiliated non belief system.
Before i made a study of this, it never occurred to me that
the"Nothing In Particulars" were such an important part of America's belief system.
Finally, i can't find any deaths in combat between Atheists,Agnostics and the Nothing in Particulars.
I can't say that about the religions of the world.
5
The "right to life" movement is a political movement that has been in existence for generations. It has been methodical, working in states where it is easier to elect radical representatives, using the media to incite fear, using the Clergy to promote false science. Who are these leaders, how are they funded, and what is their real purpose? Is this politics preached at Sunday Mass? Anything that impedes the constitutional rights of citizens is political. Women are citizens. "Fetal heartbeat" at 6 weeks post conception is a misnomer, because in no way is this a viable beating heart that can sustain life, let alone vote. If this was about morality, wouldn't right lifers protect fertile young women from exposure to lead, stress, or an unclean environment? Would they ask to ban all wars, because conflict could affect the viability of a fetus in Yemen or Syria? Is that sacred life, too? "Right to Life" is merely a political movement, not a moral one. Dems should not be baited. Do not ask a conservative Supreme Court to decide. Politics can change, even in Alabama. Elections are coming. Minorities can vote, even when difficult. Some of those 23 Democratic candidates should hear the call, and instead of weakening our chances in 2020, they should run in Senate and local races. Where are the pink hats, now? Running for office? Are they working to remove Governor Ivy from office, or these ill informed men who voted for this ill informed law?
4
So much for getting women into politics. Women are supporting these medieval anti-abortion bills in state legislatures. Women support Trump. I’m sick of people pretending that “diversity” will magically solve everything.
4
Ms.Collins is not against therapeutic abortion as, if she were, she’d merely choose not to undergo such a medical procedure herself . What she opposes is any other woman of Alabama not adhering to her beliefs. That’s called theocracy and is in direct contravention of the U.S. Constitution.
11
I have zero patience for self-righteous men who will blithely assert a bizarre claim require pregnancies go to term. Ignoring the rights of the living woman, they create laws to fence a non-viable fetus from the will of its mother until one moment post delivery, then the state disappears forever burdening the woman and society with full responsibility for raising the child. This is not morality, this is the height of immorality. Until the rise of modern western male-controled medicine, women with their female family members and trusted midwives made thoughtful decisions themselves and men, wisely, let them. Herbal abortifacients were carefully administered if the woman decided to terminate the pregnancy, with her inalienable rights of liberty and dignity intact. Men should have no authority to chose to control the 1/2 of Americans who can conceive - they have no valid moral, legal or ethical right to continue to keep their tyrannical boot on female necks unjustly asserting rightful authority. Men should be forever barred from voting or deciding on abortion - they have no relevent experience and should forever recuse themselves from debate or vote. Male judges of integrity will cede authority over women's reproductive rights to female judges. Least of all should the 4 male catholic Supreme Court justices vote or participate in any decisions limiting the liberty of women until they themselves carry a fetus to term.
12
"There is a gap between how men and women view abortion in Alabama, but it isn’t huge: According to Pew Research Center, in 2014, of Alabamians who believed abortion should be legal in all or most cases, 53 percent were women, and 47 percent were men."
You make your own point for why trying to change Alabamians' minds is futile. If more than 50 women ran in November 2018 and almost all of them ( Dems) lost, not much has changed in the minds of Alabama women, has it? Just look at the two women instrumental in creating and passing the "law." When women are women's enemies, there's no blaming men for a "Handmaid's tale" of anything, This is geographically defined ignorance, not gender defined. Come back to New York before it drives you crazy.
3
@BettyK
It's not just geographic.
The GOP war on women has been waged for decades, and it's nationwide.
The same day Governor Ivy signed the anti-abortion bill is the same day she directed the state to execute a prisoner.
This is "pro-life, Christianity" in the U.S.
24
The purpose of all this activity right before the presidential race is to distract voters from the real issues: living wages, affordable health care to all & affordable edducation.
6
@eli weinstein
I keep reading that 'this' or 'that' distracts from something else that's more important. Well, I don't think so - it seems that with this administration everything has come under assault and needs front page coverage. It's been this way from the beginning of IQ45s reign. Don't think for a minute that these are distractions. They are all part and parcel of a pervading sickness brought to us by republicans. Oh, and how they would love it if we ignored the undermining of women's rights by these miscreants.
3
Your invitation to visit Alabama to help out does not move me.I was in my 30’s when the Stand in the Schoolhouse Door occurred in 1963.John Kennedy had to deputize the National Guard to escort African American students to the doors of the University of Alabama to be admitted.That was a ghastly scene and I still see the TV pictures in my mind.Now 56 years later Alabama has challenged the laws of the United States and has passed the most extreme and cruel abortion law.Two generations ago Alabama would not abide by Brown v Board of Education and now they insist on challenging Roe v Wade.In the meantime they have done little to improve schools and health care for the poor..No, I don’t want to visit Alabama.
13
Good luck Abbey to you and your state. I hope you and your fellow reasonable, thoughtful friends ultimately prevail.
But get ready. The backlash from this law will be ugly. Many folks like me would not even drive through your state. The summer heat sounds intolerable, but the heat from the police state is more frightening. I don't think I would feel safe.
And I suspect these sexist pig legislators won't acknowledge the fact that now many, many companies would never consider locating a business or facility in Alabama - now identified as worse than a backwater of poverty - now as a repressive throwback to an era of female slavery.
Good luck, you have guts just living there. Wish you well.
7
The irony is the religious right want to go all-out to protect a group of cells not yet viable, and yet as soon as they become a child, after successful birth, they are on there own!
No healthcare, poor education, poverty.
Irony?
Hypocrisy.
Cynical, uncaring, un-Christian.
9
True, people need to turn it purple
2
I left Alabama in August of 1995, when things were at their stickiest, the red dust from screeching tires settling on my sweaty face as I finally hit the road. For my first 39 years, I had suffered the attempts of others who tried to ram their rigid evangelical ideology down my throat; for 39 years, I had witnessed far too often the judgments of self professed righteous majorities who viewed racial differences as fact, who separated black from white as if it were a privilege of all to instigate the divide. A year ago, I returned to my hometown of Montgomery to help my ailing mother as she transitioned from a life of independence to one of vulnerable dependence on others in a nursing home; I'm still here, seeing absolutely no change from the way things were when I pulled the UHaul truck away from the curb 24 long years ago. This latest decision by the good old white boy Alabama legislature to effectively ban LEGAL abortion, to punish doctors who perform them with a lifetime in prison deepens my view that Alabama refuses to move forward into a future that honors tolerance, kindness, civility, and an ability to love one's fellow human beings as we would have ourselves loved in return. I've never been as appalled of governmental actions, particularly here in Roy Moore era Alabama, as I am today. Shame on you, Governor Kay Ivey; your political position as a female has utterly failed to give you an ability to justly see things from both sides.
27
This bill seems extreme and maybe dangerous. But I felt the same disgust at NY Gov. Cuomo's horrifying bill last month to extend abortion to birth and after.
Both sides, and their states, seems to be rushing to counter each other's extremism. Is there any talk anywhere about a "third way" or compromise? Perhaps the advancing science around fetal development might be a solid ground both sides could work from.
3
@keith
You are repeating falsehoods. The NY law only allows abortions later in pregnancy where the life/health of the woman is in danger or there are serious fetal abnormalities. It is not extreme; in fact, it is the compromise you should be applauding. Please be careful about spreading Trump's lies.
23
@keith
Gov. Cuomo's bill does not "extend abortion...after". You're describing homicide, which is against the law. There are plenty of things to complain about with Cuomo. No need to make statements that aren't true.
23
@keith Nice try but this propaganda has already been debunked. There are lots of problems in NYS but criminalizing women who get abortions (for whatever reason) and the doctors who care for them is not one those problems.
2
If I were the lawyer challenging this case in the courts, I would be certain to use a few novel arguments:
The First Amendment prohibits the establishment of a religion. The notion that a cell at point of conception, or a mass of cells at six weeks is a person is largely a theological construct. Imposing that concept on the full population is the same as imposing a religion. The first amendment prohibits that.
Second argument: The US Constitution references birth in many places as the point at which individuals take on the rights it protects. For example, the 14th amendment defines when someone becomes a citizen (at birth). In other places where the term "person" is used, the original meaning was for someone already born. Trying to move the personhood sooner is not consistent with Originalism. It will be a very odd constitutional construct to have the unborn treated as persons, but not as citizens.
Third argument: The approach taken in states that grant to a fetus full treatment as humans will create a mess based upon the words of a constitution. If states use different definitions, there will be conflicts and plenty of them. Women travelling from state to state might be arrested in the next state for conduct in the first state. Products legal in one state (alcohol, tobacco, pharma drugs) that hurt a fetus may be legal in one state with no issues, but involve prosecution of the manufacturer in another state for causing harm/death to a fetus.
15
@Jack S
Fourth: women have the right to privacy and the right to make their own medical decisions.
10
@Jack S Thanks for your thoughts on this. One of the most dangerous things that has happened in the United States is that fundamentalist and evangelical Christians have taken the word Christian and applied it to themselves and their beliefs only. To that they add their other belief in the most extreme versions of capitalism and pretend that the Bible calls for this. They ignore all other interpretations of Christianity. They do want a state religion. They call it Christianity. I call it ignorance and misogyny.
11
@Jack S All good arguments in front of a judge who respects the Constitution, precedent and the rule of law. But this case will be ultimately argued in front of Roberts, Thomas, Alito, Gorsuch* and Kavanaugh. All of which have a well documented history of bending the law and the Constitution to justify the ideological conclusion they favor. And as we have seen repeatedly, precedent is meaningless if it gets in their way.
8
As for leaving for - or leaving from Alabama - let me observe that its ethos is actually a state of mind which, in varying (and often shocking) degree can be found anywhere in these clearly (un)United States of America. Here in deep red upstate NY a state assemblyman who purports to represent me would be more at home in Montgomery than when he leaves his district and travels to Albany.
This man and the majority of his constituents take justification, hope and their socio-political cues from the Alabamas of this nation. Thus, following Ms. Crain's invitation to come to Alabama, literally or figuratively, is imperative in countering the prospect that the worst in Alabama may indeed be coming to "us."
15
My sister once told me that “if men could bear children that abortion would be a sacrament.” That really stuck with me. I think at a very primal level that men fear and respect the ability of women to reproduce. The abortion issue allows them some control over this more powerful and wiser sex.
47
@Harper Hatheway I am sympathetic to your letter until the last line. Women are not more powerful and not more wise. We are all humans and each of us deserves the right to control our use of our bodies.
18
@SFR
Harper Hathaway is correct, though. I have belonged to evangelical groups where the men not only fear and respect a woman’s ability to give birth; they are exceedingly envious of it. Amongst themselves, they use it as a reason to ban women from many positions and activities. After all, the men teach (yes, they teach this); God has given women this special and unique ability, so men deserve areas that are special and unique to men as well. The abortion argument is, at heart, about men’s envy of women’s ability to give birth; and men’s desire to control it.
25
@aem
I believe SFR’s argument was only with Harper’s final few words, and I think he made a valid point.
Feminism, imho, should be about expecting, demanding, and fighting for equality, not about trying to establish superiority.
Women and men have inherent physical differences - different “gifts,” if you will, - that should be acknowledged, honored, and respected. But, as SFR suggests, all of us, regardless of our gender, should be able “to control our use of our bodies.”
6
Great piece. In so many ways. It's a pleasure to read such good writing. I had never heard of Abbey Crain before. Please print more of her stuff.
15
"Alabama has always been an easy state to pick on. We appear regularly on lists of the least-educated states. Just this week, U.S. News & World Report ranked Alabama the worst state to live in save Louisiana. It’s also a state with a blood-red supermajority, one that has kept our voter turnout rates low and our apathy high for decades."
And those three points reinforce each other. Republicans do not support public education, because educated people tend not to vote Republican. Poor education and lack of public services keep people wary, on the edge, always on the lookout for The Other coming to take away what little they have. Republicans promise that they protect them, while they casually put their hands into their pockets to feed the wealthy. This has gone on since Reconstruction, with the party identity switching after the Civil Rights Act of 1965 as segregationists looked for a more welcoming political home. People have come to expect that it's how it will always be and they note that their vote doesn't seem to change things.
This sets up the environment of ignorance, fear, and hopelessness that the Republicans prey on.
25
@Cwnidog
Then there is Mississippi. It already had several bills worse than this one. It might be my home state, but I left a long time ago and do not want to visit. After all, I can legally be discriminated against because I am divorced.
15
@SchnauzerMom: I spent six months in Biloxi (Keesler AFB) one eternity. I feel for you.
I support abortion rights, but find that the language used by both sides works to alienate each side from the other, and that frustrates me. Here we've got "the War on Women." It's not a war on women. It's a war on abortion rights. For example, did anyone notice (and of course they did) that the originator of the Alabama law was a woman? I think the vast majority of people who oppose abortion rights believe that abortion is murder (and I'm not including the President in that group - for him it's all politics). I think it serves only to alienate people who want to restrict abortion to denigrate them or impugn their integrity or misrepresent their position. It serves only to rah rah rah for our side. I'm not impressed.
4
@James
At the same time, this "cultural issue" of language ONLY impacts women. It is a cultural issue revolving around their bodies. There is something to be said about that.
16
@James Only women can get pregnant. If you were a woman, you would definitely call it a 'war'; since you're a man, you can't possibly understand the horrifying idea of not being able to govern your own body.
I am from Alabama and share a similar story with the author; born in Alabama, moved away, and for multiple reasons moved back and remain; but I come to an entirely different conclusion. I believe Alabama is beyond hope and not worth my time. Corrupt to the core and governed by the old boy network, our “leadership” stokes hate and resentment against “outsiders” while the rob the citizens of the few remaining crumbs in their pocket. Underfunded schools, underfunded penal systems that are unconstitutional and violate any sense of common decency,and pitiful infrastructure show what real “Alabama values” are. I can no longer tolerate the inhumanity and intolerance of my neighbors.
51
Florida is a tough place to live, and I can’t imagine Alabama.
It’s easy to blame politicians and it was refreshing to read the author’s comments.
I’m willing to invest myself in change where I live. As to where I visit - I wont be spending my tourism money on Alabama.
25
@Blue
Totally agree. We cancelled our reservations to Gulf Shores, AL for our annual vacation the day after they passed the ban. When I was asked why, I explained that my hard earned $ would not be spent in a state that treats women that way, she laughed and said that it will be challenged in the courts so it shouldn’t matter and that I would have to pay a cancellation fee so I should just come on down anyway. Just wow. Yeah, no, keep the $70 cancellation fee and I will keep the extra $1000 or so we would have spent.
13
@tjcenter
Good for you!
Only when actions like those of the Alabama legislature -regardless of their “end game” strategy (in this instance, to give the Supreme Court another opportunity to chip away at Roe v. Wade) - result in significant economic pain for the state will these so called leaders feel any pressure to act differently.
2
Women in other countries who are way more politically and economically disempowered than women in Alabama successfully won political rights and even stopped brutal wars, not through laws, but through sex strikes, in Liberia, Kenya, Columbia and the Philippines. In 2003, Leymah Gbowee organized a well-publicized sex strike to end Liberia’s brutal civil war. Not only did warlords agree to end the violence, Gbowee was later awarded a Nobel Peace Prize for her efforts. I refuse to believe the women in Alabama have no power. Women everywhere will always remain subjugated as long as they choose to appease their male partners instead of demanding their own rights.
30
@Amy Luna
I agree that is a brilliant method, but in America it is white women who are against you. Not men. White women put in Trump and white women sponsored and signed this law.
2
THE REMEDY FOR ALABAMA Is for women and their supporters to do everything in their power to get out the vote. Otherwise, the legislative decisions will be made by a super majority that was elected by a super MINORITY of voters. Voters who do not exercise their civic obligation to participate in our democracy have only themselves to thank if they fail to register and vote. That said, I, of course, object to the Alabama legislature's legalization of the abuse of women's freedom to control their bodies and make their own medical decisions. Nonetheless, the great silent majority in Alabama must get out and make its voice heard loud and clear. Or else things may get even worse.
16
When abortion was outlawed, many women were killed or maimed due to unsafe abortions. The new Alabama law is a threat to society. We have very clear red lines to help people avoid harming others, and punish those who engage in such anarchistic activities.
To prevent anarchy, we need to apply the same standard to government officials that we apply to other organizations in society when they cross the red lines, whether they harm children by separating them from their parents (family separation policy) or any other way.
We must not repeat the grave blunders of past generations, when many persons acquiesced to government's anarchistic activities. We have an absolute duty to use appropriate force against each government official to deter them from engaging in anarchy, and for applying appropriate penalties for harming others. We should not allow an out of control government to run amok again - that's why we have the clear red lines to prevent anarchy.
5
In addition to forcing a woman or girl to remain pregnant and go through labor or surgery for delivery, Alabama’s law says women must subject themselves to risks of severe hypertension, preeclampsia, diabetes, infections, depression, anemia, hyperemesis gravidarum, placenta previa, placental abruption, dangerous worsening of heart conditions, and other very serious medical problems. Some medical complications persist after delivery. They require time off work, away from family, and create enormous expenses. Quite simply, one’s body and life changes forever.
How dare they.
This is no time to say, “ya’all come down and work with us.” This law is abhorrent, it is meant to keep women as second class citizens, and every corporation should be standing with women and their fundamental rights to bodily integrity and health.
41
@Tracy
Thank you for the first paragraph pointing out the risks a woman can experience in pregnancy, which tend to remain hidden to anyone except the woman and her physician. The funny thing about abortion statistics is that while it separates out spontaneous from induced abortions, I've never seen a breakdown among the induced specifying what prompted or preceded the decision to induce. I believe that that coupled with the lack of basic biological knowledge fuels the impression in many that hundreds of thousands of callous women each year use abortion to cure their inconvenience.
2
It's useful to remember what happened in Ireland last year when a complete abortion ban was overturned in a landslide vote. Don't underestimate the anger these laws cause. Women will fight back - especially now when it is more acceptable to be assertive
19
But we don’t have a nationwide referendum process like Ireland. Not even for the Presidency. The will of the minority has run amuck in the US.
3
@Carol I hope you are right! But, the fact that so many women were on board with this bill is frightening. I've always said: Women are their own worst enemies.
2
Alabama's new abortion laws are what you get when Stone Age religious ideas are applied in the 21st century.
Research shows that to reduce abortion rates children need to be given accurate age-appropriate sex education and free access to contraception throughout their teenage years.
Senior high school children need to be educated on the challenges and responsibilities of parenthood so they can make adult decisions properly.
Beyond that, a woman has the essential right to manage her own body constrained only by a general requirement that abortions should not occur later in the term of the pregnancy unless there are compelling medical reasons.
This is the practical legal compromise adopted by multiple western countries to reflect the different perspectives on this issue.
Of course the Christians can practise what they preach on themselves and, like the Catholics, never ever use contraception or have an abortion.
Just like they 'never' had a problem with sex abuse in the church.
34
We need to keep our focus on economic issues for women and make sure Republicans don't change the focus. We have separation of church and state for a very good reason.
Women keep your focus. They try to divide us on this issue.
It is a really sad day for all the states that are trying to change this issue for women.
5
Nice try, but a boycott of any, all things Alabama seems more than fair. This religious zealotry, for that’s exactly what it is, - with little or no basis in the history of most religions, can only be countered by something more important to it’s proponents; money.
Stop putting those quarters in the collection plates. Stop buying products, visiting, spending tourist dollars, in a state that seems to think a woman is little more than a baby factory. Companies with headquarters, offices in Alabama- think again.
Forced birth. No. We are not going back.
And in a better future, we will stop calling nations with extremist religious laws, our allies. They aren’t- and never were.
33
Face it. There are many women out there that want a patriarchal society. For them, it is a calculated risk that they may get into something other than a committed relationship. The safety net is divorce, and if they are lucky the divorce happens in a state where they can get the best result. Having a child increases the amount of money coming in by way of child support.
And, of course, everyone knows, in the patriarchal society, that women should not have sex unless they want to have a child.
5
The author asks us not to give up on Alabama, and by extension the "blood-red" south. But after Reconstruction we had repression, since the civil rights era we've had voter suppression, and now we have this: continuing rule not by a "supermajority" but by the same anti-democratic elite that created the U.S. Senate and the three-fifths rule 250 years ago. The free states need to make it clear that we cannot continue supporting (through federal taxes) the anti-freedom pro-poverty states.
31
I grew up in the South. I love the traditionally gracious pace of living, the food, the friendly way we did "bidness," and the strength of family ties.
I do not love worship of football. Even less do I love the predominant religious climate of living patriarchal myth as reality. The Fundamentalists who wish to subordinate women because all twelve of the Apostles were men and who ignore the presence of powerful women in Christian history strike me as very limited in their understanding, though their refusal to separate living their faith from the rest of their secular lives is admirable.
If, however, as in the case of the banning of most abortions they cross the red line of imposing their dogma on the rest of us by law, that is theocratic oligarchy cut from the same cloth as the plutocratic brand that serves the oligarchs at the expense of the meek and lowly working and elderly poor.
We need to call this emotional wave what it is: reversion to virtual enslavement of women. The notion of a bunch of "good ole boys" giving each other fist pumps after cutting' them uppidy women down to size reminds me too much of the resistance to freeing people of color in the sixties. Long live the resistance!
36
I wonder how many of those religious leaders have created programs to support single mothers with children. It seems to me, the pro-lifers defend life inside the uterus. Although once a baby is born, is immediately forgotten by those same pro-lifers.
34
Let's look at this again: A fetus-carrying woman goes to a doctor because she really doesn't want to be pregnant with it, for whatever reason. The poor Alabamistan doctor then gets caught and has to go behind bars for 99 years for murder, whereas the woman doesn't even get a slap on the wrist for what must at least amount to a conspiracy to murder. Two questions: 1) How isn't that so ridiculously inconsistent that even the Roberts court would have to strike it down? 2) As a woman, you can go anywhere in these US of A for your life (and bring your momma) and then come back once you're 75.
1
A woman is raped and gets pregnant or gets pregnant through incest and 25 self righteous men decide they may not have an abortion but rather carry the pregnancy to term, will they pay for the psychological and emotional well being.
Such an experience can scar a women for life. It's horrifying that men get to decide what a woman can do with her body but also horrifying that a woman signed that bill into law in Alabama.
266
@Sari
And it was a self righteous woman who wrote the bill and a self righteous woman who signed the bill into law. I am sick and tired of Religious beliefs of some people being pushed on the rest of us.
I personally would not have an abortion but I made that choice for myself, not because of a Religious belief. And no one, not a man, woman or the Government has a right to interfere with my personal freedoms.
When will we pass laws preventing men from buying Viagra or having vasectomies? You can bet that will never happen.
When will those who commit incest or rape be punished instead of women who may get an abortion. What kind of justice is that? Based on the description of the weather in Alabama by Ms. Crain, I am beginning to thing that much hot, sunny weather is baking the brains of the Alabama State Legislature, the Governor and those who support them.
12
@Sari
I appreciate your thoughts; however, these quotes from another NYT article on abortion opposition support that these laws are not just about men making choices that endanger women but rather generalized incuriosity in a significant segment of the populace irrespective of sex/gender.
"“I’m Christian and I don’t believe we need to be playing God, deciding who gets born and who gets aborted,” said Caroline Reddy, 32, a mother of two children. “I believe it’s murder. If people would have behaved in a proper way they wouldn’t be in that situation.”
AND
"Mallory Parker, 17, said she believed every pregnancy had a divine purpose, even in instances of rape or incest.
“I believe if a woman carries a child, despite the situation, it is part of God’s plan,” she said. “No one is asking her to raise it, but I do believe if that child was created, it has a purpose and it’s our duty to humanity to allow it life instead of dictating if it should live or not just because of how it got here.”"
(https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/16/us/abortion-law-women.html?searchResultPosition=1)
3
@Sari
Did you not get the memo? During the Kavanaugh hearings, the conservatives decided that there’s no such thing as sexual assault. Any woman who claims she was assaulted is either confused, or lying to get her 15 minutes of fame. The proper response is to hold a campaign rally and mock her for daring to make the claim.
And these are the misbegotten people making the laws.
8
Has any Pro Lifer ever offered to adopt an unwanted baby if it was carried to full term? I wish they would put their money were mouth is.
17
I gladly donated to Doug Jones Campaign and will do so again without question.
14
No one seems too concerned that young girls will be
subjected to incestuous behavior by family members.
18
@jahnay thesempeole dint care about girls or boys once they are born!
61 million unborn babies have been denied the opportunity to live a life since Roe vs. Wade. These children will never get the chance to dress in white, vote or write an editorial in the NY Times. I'm dumbfounded by a society that protects plants and every animal, but has no objections to ending the life of the most vulnerable humans in the womb. It's great to see there our exceptions like Alabama.
5
@Patt third trimester abortions need to be criminalized. I was disabled in early childhood but went on to support myself and family. Third trimester abortions are used to kill off babies that don’t come out flawless like from a catalogue. Third trimester abortions of handicapped babies ( and no one refers to the wriggling person in your womb after six months gestation as a fetus) is murder.
@Pat
It's not an "unborn baby" - it's a zygote or fetus until it's viable outside the womb and actually born, just like an acorn is not an "unsprouted oak tree".
By your rational eating an acorn is equivalent to cutting down an oak tree.
Thanks for playing, but the only argument against abortion is a religious one and we [supposedly] live in a secular republic, so if you want to live in a theocracy feel free to move to the Middle East.
And the planet does not ned that many more human beings.
Ms. Crane if you want Alabama to change please do not wait for others to do it. You Southerners need to stop voting for rule of the bible. Our founding Fathers separated Church and State so that one could hold no sway over the other.
21
Are any OB/GYNs goingvto want to stay in Alabama? Let’s say they have a patient who has a miscarriage— aren’t they going to be afraid of being thrown into jail for the rest of their lives over that, when it’s just their and the patient’s word versus the state?
Good luck, women of Alabama, when there’s no one left to deliver babies and provide basic care.
24
I know there are Democrats who want to fight to the last dog. I believe it's better to fight to the last volunteer. The vast majority of American volunteers are white or black. They keep our parks staffed. They keep our schools open. They keep our playgrounds alive. Not a whole lot of them wave little American flags.
Never mind.
5
25% of children in Alabama live in poverty and they endure one of the worst education systems in the country. Those born black endure even worse. What kind of faith demands that a woman to bring a child into that world? What kind of justice sentences her to life in prison if she doesn't?
19
@michael Is it better or worse to live in poverty or be denied the chance to live at all? Honest question.
1
Education and the morning-after pill can reduce abortions by 95%.
14
@al
For the faithful, the morning-after pill IS abortion. Soul-carrying conception entity is already made and is ready to get settled but gets thwarted. Technically, it might rather be pre-bortion. Otherwise it would also be abortion if the female body rejects a fertilized egg for any other reason. How dare she? This would also extend to miscarriages of any kind.
1
I think all women in Alabama need to go on strike.... wither its from work or home... I think that would give the men of Alabama some think to think about other than the reproductive system of the other sex
10
I hope I never have a reason to step foot in Alabama.
21
The tone of this piece was perfect
6
Maybe the unwed Fathers should have to spend the Pregnancy in Jail, to learn their lesson.
Right, GOP ???
27
Women get what they vote for; in this case it's what they don't get: the right to decide their own health care.
15
What we are witnessing in Alabama and, alas, elsewhere is states’ rights to its logical extreme. An ideological cleansing, where those who are targeted can convert, stay and perhaps fall victim, or escape. But where there is a supermajority as hateful as this, there is a greater likelihood of shoveling all the sand back in the ocean than changing hearts and minds.
Our last best hope is the judiciary. If that fails us, then our time and money are best spent helping those refugees too poor or infirm to escape on their own to leave. It is noble to want change from within, but the odds are not with the author in the short term, which is all that matters in this context.
Sanctions work. Ask North Carolina.
16
Referring to this as a war on women is a cheap stunt.
The debate is much deeper than that.
3
@Objectivist How is the truth a cheap stunt?
22
Where is the separation of church and state? The Evangelicals are pleased with Trump. When will the christians start burning the rest of us at the stake with Trump's approval?
15
Gloria Steinem said it best in my opinion: "If men could get pregnant, abortion would be a sacrament." Yeah, they're all pro-life till the poor Alabama baby comes out of the womb. Then they'll find a way to deny the kid and his mom an adequate health care system.
34
I grew up in South Georgia next to the Alabama border as an illegitimate child, and the ethos I remember is punitive and god-popping—that is the resort to the god answer for everything and the prayer palliative for every perceived transgression or shortcoming. As a child and young adult, I had white “friends” tell me they could not invite me home because of my color and “gasp” at the fact that I was illegitimate when I innocently said my parents had never married. I have no faith in people to change or comprehend complexity anymore. At the same time I experienced all of this, the public school curriculum in my county in the 70s and 80s included environmental science which acquainted us with the concept of greenhouse gases and its effects on planet Earth; biology including human reproduction and development, which specifically defined an embryo, blastoma and fetus and the criteria to determine what is life from a scientific perspective; and basic health and sex ed units in the 7th and 8th grades. Now, not just with this Alabama law but virtually every time I read a newspaper of substance, I wonder what , if anything, people are introduced to in public and/or private schools today. It seems a-factual – the god solution and god retribution for everything with no attempt at complexity of thought or understanding. Frankly, after this week I am thoroughly convinced AL/GA has not changed all that much, except that it seems more perverse from afar.
35
As a person of color, I respectfully decline Ms. Cain's invitation to "come on down" to Alabama. Perhaps as a white woman, I'd respond differently.
11
But would the people of Alabama appreciate a northern aggressor moving down to work with them?
What if the women of Alabama moved up where they are more likely to be treated as full-fledged members of humankind?
13
I'll be standing by your side following you in Alabama with all my heart and thoughts Abbey Crain!
1
Big question is why do Christians feel the need to push their religious beliefs on others.
29
I still don't understand how women's reproductive health issues-- pregnancy, childbirth, miscarriage, abortion, birth control--are so dominated by religion in a way no other issue is.
This nation is not a theocracy. We have a separation clause in our Constitution that Republicans claim to revere. Nobody is forcing people of faith to have abortions.
And yet, in places like Alabama, you have these frozen white male faces, usually old, who are telling young women what they can and cannot do with their bodies should they be raped or forced into sex at age 12 by a drunken uncle.
For a party that so prizes freedom and personal liberties when it comes to guns, the press, speech, and association, why is it always a woman's uterus politicians love to regulate?
41
Because it’s the party of hypocrisy.
2
It's hard. Praise to those who can do it. I'm working on it - trying to see these pitiful deplorables in a favorable enough light to even speak nice to them.
But aren't there those who know what they do? - who are just atheist enough to have a more devious intention?
Would Christians continue to vote for Republican waring, jail stuffing, poor bashing, and environmental destruction - if they already had their way with abortion?
4
As someone who lives in a "donor state", I do not want my tax dollars going theocratic anti-choice states. Let those ignorant states fend for themselves. We in NY and CA are paying to keep states like Alabama financially afloat. I'll be on the phone with my reps tomorrow to see what can be done to eliminate all donor state funding from Alabama. My taxes shouldn't go to places like that. I'll never willingly spend another dime in ANY of those backwards states. I'll be boycotting their businesses, and pushing for legislation to end their ability to receive any portion of my taxes.
Time to starve them of donor state money.
28
"Y’all come on down here and work with us to make a difference." Think I'll pass.
15
In another article in today’s paper, it states that most women in Alabama are in favor of the legislation. I suggest that you leave again.
17
The Alabama legislature established an unenviable poor position on Women’s rights, health, and childbirth. This results from the death of Protestantism as the Evangelicals take over in their closed minded assault on Women.
7
Any politician who governs by his or her religion doesn’t belong in politics!
12
What part of the separation of church and state d0 Alabamans not understand? I feel sorry for the Alabamans who want to modernize, but their only choice may be to leave.
10
I would like to have visited the museum in Montgomery which remembers lynching victims; however, I will now never set foot or spend a cent in Alabama.
I also would like my California and Federal tax dollars to go to states that honor women's rights and honor Christian values not some form of terrorism in the name of my Christian faith.
I don't want to help Alabama in ANY way.
18
We have a Constitution that dictates the separation of church and state. This is a clear violation wrapped up in biased claims. Religion controlled countries strip away women's rights and freedoms. I see no difference in what Alabama is doing to what Iran does or Saudi Arabia does in controlling women's rights because of religious beliefs for male dominance. Religious control over women continues to structure poverty and ignorance.
16
I’ll pass on the invitation. Alabama deserves all the derision and disgust it’s getting.
If you want to change the political dynamic there, encourage women to continue to run in large numbers for every local and state election.
9
Since it seems a woman's body is so open to being governed by law, let's invite the men in the formula. A law can be passed that any reproductive male must have a reversable vasectomy and a DNA test. That would mean all children born out of wedlock would be fathered by a married man and with DNA records, we would know exactly which man.
Then both parents can contribute finacially and emotionally to this child. Those so focused on ProLife can do more than talk about their commitment to life and adopt every child in the world who needs a safe nurturing home. Time to get off the couch and do something meaningful.
11
Quite outside the religious and ethics debate are the practical consequences of these laws. There are multiple studies demonstrating that so-called "backyard abortions" will soar with the concomitant rise in maternal morbidity and mortality.
The Christians will end up killing thousands of mothers without also saving their fetuses. Doesn't sit well with the teachings of Jesus as I've read them.
12
My mother, who was a lifetime supporter of Planned Parenthood, told me in her eighties that she had become a one issue voter. The only thing she wanted to know about any candidate for any office was whether they supported a woman’s right to abortion and other reproductive services. She said that knowing that a candidate was pro-choice told her all she needed to know about their values. If she were alive today would be truly outraged and disgusted at what is going on in southern states like Alabama and in the Midwest where she grew up.
15
Nationwide, most people believe that abortion should be legal in most cases. Not so in Alabama. So, nationwide, most people support abortion rights while most in Alabama, do not.
Roe v Wade says nothing about when life begins, even though that is the fundamental question separating the two camps. Instead, Roe says that abortion is protected by the Constitution, even though it admits that there is nothing in the Constitution about it. The Roe decision is rooted in the right to privacy, which is an implied right.
Regardless of when life begins, women have the right to abort because it is part of their to right to privacy. That is Roe’s holding.
Whether or not life begins with conception — which nobody knows — women can terminate their pregnancies under Roe. In short, whether or not abortion is murder, an “implied right” gives women the right to choose.
In Alabama, most people think Roe is wrong because it ruled that women get to choose even if they choose murder. And that indeed is part of the holding of the case. Most legal experts agree with the holding of Roe but consider it a sloppy opinion. If you believe, like most Alabamans and most legal experts, that Roe is unconvincing, it is hardly surprising that you’d want to get rid of it.
What few non-lawyers know is that Harry Blackmun wrote an unconvincing opinion, whether you support its holding or not. And that is one important reason why Alabamans and other anti-abortion advocates remain unconvinced.
3
I truly appreciate this author’s heartfelt article. I was born in Alabama, grew up there, and still have family there.
With all due respect to the author, I would never live there again. Ever.
I’ve lived in a variety of places since then, from big coastal cities in blue states to smaller cities in red states. Not a one of them was as bigoted, ignorant, dysfunctional, and hopeless as Alabama.
Alabama was a great place to be born . . . if you wanted to grow up somewhere that would take any hope you had for the human race and burn it out of your soul.
Our entire planetary civilization is careening towards disaster, and we have now almost certainly irrevocably altered the global ecosystem in which we evolved. If you want to fight for something, fight for what’s left of American democracy or human civilization. People of intelligence and goodwill should not waste their precious time on Alabama.
16
After moving to a place where I don’t have to think about access to healthcare, my families safety from guns, or draconian laws brought in by religious extremists, I can’t imagine the stress of living in such a place. The fear of not being able to provide for or protect yourself or family has to affect almost all aspects of life.
The points the author makes about how Alabama is viewed and why are spot on.
To see so many amazing Alabamans fight for their freedom is truly humbling.
You folks deserve better, and although you absolutely should be able to live where you grew up, Alabama is not home anymore.
I think people should abandon these states and allow these extremist hypocrites the society they seem so intent on imposing on everyone. The disproven social and economic policies will fail again and they will have to experience the reality of socially engineering like the 1920’s while living in the 2020’s.
I understand generational poverty and institutional racism make this an impossibility for so many, but these Americans deserve our help.
Canada still welcomes immigrants from anywhere (although our immigration policies are far from perfect), we could welcome these folks who would seemingly be fleeing the same oppression that other discriminated people face around the world.
Let these people have the society they seem so intent on imposing on anyone and everyone.
8
". . . thinks in her heart of hearts that she is doing the right thing by her faith . . ." I'm sure that's true, the problem is that our government is intended to be secular, that, above all else is the meaning of the second amendment. The government is prohibited from adopting laws that advance one religious belief over others.
Using the criminal process to force one system of belief onto others is the worst example of a violation of the bill of rights. Constitutional criminal laws are those laws which near 100% of the citizens agree with, things like murder and theft and robbery and burglary. When a substantial portion of the citizenry do not agree that what is proscribed is criminal the law has become a vehicle for the impostion of a religious belief on the entire citizenry and the most egregious sort of constitutional violation.
I know that we have made similar mistakes in many areas and for a long time, but it's time to stop repeating those mistakes and not use them for an excuse to violate the constitution.
12
Sorry, boycotts should be an essential element of our reaction to states like Alabama who enact laws like this. We need to use every tool available, including economic ones. And I highly doubt the Alabamians who support this law would welcome this northerner’s opinions, or hordes of us going there to try to change their minds. That’s just fine with me, as I have no intention of ever setting foot there again anyway.
14
Making abortions illegal will not ban abortions. I remember the days when desperate women went to the back alley, and many died.
Many of the same people who want Roe repealed also disparage young women for being on food stamps, living in subsidized housing. Where is the support for education, health care, and other programs that pull people out of poverty?
If you want to ban abortion, you should be supporting Planned Parenthood so young women can get the health care they need, including birth control.
And while I'm at it....what about the men who are impregnating these women?? They didn't get pregnant by themselves. Let's change the culture among men who wear their conquests like a badge and hold them accountable for their actions.
27
One commentator at Fox News probably got it right: these laws will be appealed through the courts, and the courts will rule them to be unconsitutional, with the merest ghost of a chance that the Supreme Court would agree to hear the states' appeals.
Id est, this fracas tht is hogging the news space will be history in months.
7
@The Observer
These new abortion laws are like spam. States are flooding the judicial system with them because they know that one of them will eventually get through. It won't be the strictest one, certainly not the one from Alabama, and Roberts will find some rationale to ensure that it is not a total victory for the Christian Sharia movement. But the wheels will be set in motion. Case by case, they will chip away at Roe until Republicans retake the legislature and enact a federal abortion ban that cannot be overturned.
8
@The Observer
True, I think you could say that about nine tenths of the news we can read as well.
2
The author is right in that change will not take place in Alabama until a more diverse educated voting block arises, whether that be from internal residents changing or outside relocations into the state. It's a big commitment, however to move oneself into a place where your own needs are not being met.
22
If you read the original writings of Thomas Jefferson and other authors of the US Constitution and Bill of Rights they had grave reservations over the mixing of church and state.
It's perverse the way that "strict constructionists" now on the recent courts have misrepresented what these men so clearly stated in their own words.
35
@OSS Architect. Agreed. “strict constructionists” or so called “Orignalists” aren’t really interested in the original intent of the framers or the original meaning rather theynuse this term in an attempt to clothe themselves in some mystical cloak of legimacy and say what every they want. It’s judicial activism of the right wing variety.
22
@OSS Architect
Good at reading 18th century sentence structure, are you? Even better at reading what's not there in 18th century sentence structure? And "perverse", you mean to wear a sweater "perverse"?
Sorry to disagree with Ms. Crain's thoughtful piece, but, yes. boycott is the answer. Don't buy a Mercedes, Toyota or Hyundai and don't spend a red cent in that benighted place. Lay siege to these medieval places.
74
@Raymond L Yacht
I am not disagreeing with you...but "those places" are already besieged.
@Raymond L Yacht Contact Alabama Chamber of Commerce and let them know you will not be visiting their state or purchasing anything manufactured or sold from their state.....unless they repeal this dystopian law. https://alabamachambers.org/
It's so sad that Alabama's elected officials have fallen into such one-dimensional thinking: abortion-yes-or-no. A more thoughtful approach---if one were truly dedicated to preserving precious human life---would be to address those factors that drive desperate women into seeking abortion. If the need for abortion were to be addressed, then it would be a win/win situation. Sadly, I think that kind of thoughtfulness and respect for ALL human life is lacking in Alabama's state congress. They shame their state.
43
@former therapist
They don’t want a win/win situation. They want to win and others to lose. It’s about making society buckle under so they can maintain their grip on money and power. Logic is worthless to these people because faith and the punishment of sinners is all they need to get the blind support of their voters. And, in the end, It’s a do-as-I-say and not-as-I-do situation.
9
I live in NY, and when a friend tells me about their red state vacation, my response is “I don’t spend money in red states.”
But in my circle of moderate to liberal friends, I am looked at as an oddball for this attitude. I think that there is still a lot of untapped power in boycotts if states like AL go too far.
66
When you face a stacked deck there is only one recourse and that is to increase the number of players. Suggest that you greatly increase the number of female and non-white voters so that the tables can be turned.
9
@Indy1
Are you paying attention? Another NY times article reports that the majority of women in that sate oppose abortion. How biased must you be to not accept that fact and instead "blame " it on white men.
2
Let’s make it fair at least: whenever a woman gets convicted by one of these detestable laws, the putative father gets an identical sentence. If the woman doesn’t want to name the father, then a male legislator has to take the rap instead.
48
@Mr. Mom
The AL law does not include charging mothers who get abortions, it only applies to those who perform them. You should at least know what you are arguing against, I think, especially when your argument hinges on it.
3
Alabama ranked 49, my state ranked 1. But all you non-Washington residents shouldn't believe it. Cold all the time, too much fresh air, not enough air pollution. Stay in New York. Don't even visit.
23
The female sponsor of this bill feels she’s “doing right by her faith”? I thought she was supposed to be doing right for her constituents & the people of Alabama. She doesn’t believe it’s right to have an abortion? Fine, she needn’t elect to have one. What she obviously does believe is that because she wouldn’t choose to have that medical procedure no other woman in her state should either. Welcome to a theocracy.
131
@Lewis Sternberg
Well. so far 41 recommends for a response that simply ignores that if the majority of women in Alabama do not support abortion then the bill's sponsor is doing right for her constituents isn't she? 42 liberals ignoring an inconvenient truth.
1
@R.B.
In our Nation the rule by majority is limited by the rights of the individual and that system is known as the rule of law.
2
Legislating morality is always a bad thing. Legislating against booze often shortend the lives of mob members. Legislating against drugs is bringing caravans of terrified Central Americans north to meet our new wall. Church fathers "legislating" against marrige brought us a new round of sorrow. One persons horror is somebody elses normality.
11
What if the headline read, “On the Front Lines in the War on the Unborn.” Or more pointedly, “...in the War on Unborn Children.” Would you click on that? To many people, this issue is not as morally clear as the rightful war against racial prejudice. One can be both for women’s rights and for unborn children, and still be a good person.
5
@The Silent Majority
Major flaw with your argument: they are not children until they are born.
An equivalent analogy: An acorn is an unsprouted oak tree.
See the flaw in your premise? Potential is not equivalence.
33
@The Silent Majority an unborn child is an oxymoron. Before my children were born, they were zygotes, embryos and fetuses - not children. And anybody who tries to restrict my freedom is my enemy. I don’t care if you are a good person or not. If you are in favor of reproductive slavery, I have nothing to talk to you about.
12
@Voltaire42
Henri, you'd blow a fuse if the courts stopped hearing life-or-death appeals from death row inmates, no?
Here we have 63 million human beings fully deserving a chance to life and breathe, and you just brush them aside like so many ants?
Human rights are human rights. Once that ovum is fertilized, we have a girl or boy. But can you tell the difference between a created person and an acorn?
2
America has separated into religious fiefdoms. Some are left/secular and others right/religious. But it’s all a kind of religion like LOYALTY to the tribe. So there’s the jerry Falwell religious tribe and the AOC religious tribe. And on the one hand, it’s difficult to imagine an advanced society where women’s bodies are policed by a church movement. On the other hand even women in Rwanda who bore the children of their rapist tormentors, apparently, according to the NYT, love their children. So even if women end up having unwanted children because of abortion restrictions, apparently - impoverishment or not- everyone loves their progeny regardless.
In the end, technology will solve this vexation. You’ll be able to take a pill two three four weeks later, or before, and... no pregnancy.
Meantime, endless strife. Endless religious wars.
I was born into Ultra-Orthodox Anabaptists. There is no reasoning with religion.
The mythology of religion is what's wrong with that state.
It'll never change until people realize the myth and separate church and state.
58
We should let things hit absolute bottom.let those who enabled this calamity that they have brought upon themselves, their neighbors, friends, relatives and the whole nation see and experience the true horror-let them lose healthcare, all the while falling sicker and sicker due to pollution, lose their homes to tornadoes and floods due to climate change that they deny- out of great suffering comes change and we should let this happen.
7
"...a woman — one who I believe thinks in her heart of hearts that she is doing the right thing by her faith..." That's the basic problem, isn't it: faith? A medieval viewpoint in a supposedly post-Renaissance world.
34
The message this Alabama bill sends is that the religious leaders of Alabama don't believe the soul is eternal. Their abortion rhetoric is based on the fundamental belief that when you're dead, you're dead. Therefore every embryo, every fetus, must be preserved at all costs.
What a religion of despair. Can it even be called a religion when it demonstrates no understanding of human existence beyond gross physical embodiment? When it locates the human heart in the beating muscle on the left side of the chest instead of in the center of the chest, where love is felt?
Where do we come from before we are born? Where do we go when we die? These are the great questions of religion. But in the religions of despair, the answer is: no where, you are nothing until some DNA combines and starts replicating, and when the heart stops beating, you are reduced to an empty nothingness.
Not all religions preach such despair. According to many, the soul does not incarnate in the fetus until very late in the gestation process. This is the true miracle of birth: not the meeting of egg and sperm and replicating DNA, but in the meeting of the soul, our transcendent heart, with the evolutionary body, that together make us truly human.
Thus abortion is no big deal. Just a medical decision made while weighing the many challenges of human life. One choice among many on the endless journey of the eternal soul, that spark of love that lights our way through this mortal and material world.
24
Beautiful and thoughtful. Thank you.
2
Just as prohibition spawned the speakeasy, abortion prohibition will bring back the old back alley coat hanger operators that flourished before Roe v Wade. Religious-based laws are one dimensional, blind to social downsides. Religions need to heed the separation of church and state so that we may live our lives of freedom given to us by our own constitution.
25
Why doesn't Alabama pass a bill mandating that the biological father of any embryo is compelled to pay for at least 50% of that "child's" life until one or the other is dead. Let's see who votes for that bill.
43
Great idea. I love it. Fair is fair.
3
Actually, every state does require that a father pay for the support of his child from birth through college, whether he wants the child or not.
“Every child a wanted child” is a slogan for mothers, not fathers.
3
@proffexpert Yes! All Alabama men must register their DNA at a central registry. Then, any child born without an identified father can be matched up to its father in the system, and the father will be forced to pay child support for the next 18 years. Failure to become registered is a crime. Sounds like a great, pro-life plan to me!
1
The same faith of course told them Jesus had approved Slavery . The same faith that as a woman I bet she voted against our best opportunity to see if a woman can avoid some of the harm that men have caused , and now her faith tells her to take away a woman's right to decide to bear children or not and saddle the young girls and young women who will accidentally get pregnant with hampered futures and the children born to them with mothers not ready to be mothers .
These are the same people that have always prevented America from living up to its ideals and are the reason many people see religion as hypocritical instead of realizing it has always been a way to try and disguise White Supremacy and hate .
26
Remember on the campaign trail when Trump said, “We love our poorly educated.” According to the rankings, Alabama is near ground zero for that love. Consider Alabama Republican Senator Clyde Chambliss, when asked if state law should block rape victims from terminating an unwanted pregnancy. He responded: ”anything that’s available today is still available up until that woman knows she’s pregnant. So there is a window of time, some say seven days, some say ten. There is a window of time that every option that’s on the table now is still available.” Translation: absolutely she can have a currently allowed abortion....unless she knows she’s pregnant....which automatically cancels the abortion. So, women suffering with amnesia, or women who want a preemptive abortion on the theory that they might be pregnant, but don’t officially know it, are in the clear and ready to go. Sound policy!.....and worthy of Trump’s love.
27
I live in Alabama. I have a Doug Jones for Senate sign propped up against the wall across from my bed in my room to get through times like these. It serves as proof that it is not time to give up on my state just yet.
111
@VM Here, here. Please know that so many of us have not given up on your state either. We have your backs and will support all you women who morally and rightfully defend what is yours and no one else's. For you see, if Roe v Wade is overturned, as is the intended goal, we will be in this together throughout our 50 states. Blue, Red, or Purple we have to stand together to fight this injustice. It is wrong and cruel and against a universal moral code. No one can take you or me away from ourselves.
22
@VM you're so lucky to have Doug Jones. Louisiana, Mississippi doesn't. Fight on. More education, better healthcare. A more humane future!
Another southerner in exile here, although I grew up in Louisiana. Alabama took a huge step backward today and I feel will rightly lose more of it's most educated and forward thinking population to other states because of it. It hurts to see some the places of my childhood, so rich with history and warm memories codify into law their most hateful and backward tendencies. I would never consider moving to a state so intent on limiting reproductive healthcare for women with my young daughters.
194
It's worth noting that it was just reported that fertility rates in the United States hit a long time low. I did not see if they were broken out by race, but presumably the only reason that we are not the lowest ever is because of the massive immigration in recent years, from more traditional cultures, and here I am referring mostly to Hispanics. Maybe, but just maybe, these anti-abortion bills that are popping up in various parts of more traditional America are a recognition that the 1968 generation is a cul-de-sac. That it does not work. And maybe, but just maybe, Trump is not this big figure that some people think, but just an imperfect vehicle for facilitating this. Let's watch more for what happens in Europe, and in particular what AKK does in Germany.
It’s worth recalling that one of the main female characters in Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale is a former televangelist named Serena Joy. With all good intentions, in the fervency of her faith, Serena helps bring about the establishment of the patriarchal Republic of Gilead—only to find herself removed from her powerful position as an evangelical leader and trapped behind the golden bars of her “Commander’s” home. Like Serena, these powerful women in Alabama should be careful of what they wish for.
39
Finally, the GOP has an issue worth fighting for.
That issue is life.
Too bad it's taken so long.
I doubt they were ever that enthralled with saving those little lives.
I'll bet it was all about the gotcha factor.
Maybe life was never the goal.
Maybe political power was the goal.
Gotcha!
8
Ms. Crain, I admire your courage for returning home. Like other readers I couldn’t do it. It’s hard to work and live in a place with people who have such limited view of the world. What happened to separation of State and Religion?
34
The Alabama law must be considered in light of public comments made by the Governor of Virginia and Governor Cuomo who signed the Reproductive Health Act into law to "protect the mother’s health" ( a deliberately vague term) or in cases where the fetus won’t survive ( who decides this?). He announced this to rapturous applause . A reckoning is coming.
3
@Thomas
In regards to your first point, while I am not a physician, I would imagine that women can experience a wide spectrum of potentially fatal complications from a pregnancy, and thus the woman must be able to make a decision in tandem with her doctor as to the best path forward. To your second point, as outlined by Roe v Wade the "viability test" is typically used where the fetus must be able (or have the potential) to live outside of the mother's womb without immediate assistance (this is typically between 24-28 weeks).
25
@Thomas - You could go online like many of the rest of us did and read the NY and VA laws for yourself. The NY law was intended to correct the previous law which had forced women to continue a pregnancy when it was known that the fetus had fatal flaws and was expected to die in utero (endangering the woman's life), or to die at or shortly after birth, after hours, days, or weeks of enormous suffering. Under the new law, a woman, with advice from her doctors, can choose not to continue a doomed pregnancy.
The VA law actually requires a doomed infant who unexpectedly survives birth to be put on life support to allow doctors and parents to assess the infant's condition and prognosis and then to decide whether it's kinder, given the prognosis, to provide comfort measures and let nature take its course, or whether the parents want all medical technology applied, even if there's little chance of doing anything but extending the infant's life a few days. Think about this: if the infant needs life support to merely survive, then not providing useless life support is not "killing" the infant.
Reminder: There's no law that forces anyone to use extraordinary means to try to extend the life of someone with a terminal illness, whether it's an old person, an accident victim, or an infant.
17
I say a boycott on all states that choose to pass such regressive legislation. Let’s hurt these politicians where they’ll feel it, their wallets.
48
Fight fire with fire. The bill's author stated the truth. She stated that it was her religious belief behind the bill. In a recent SCOTUS case in 2014, the right wing majority found that a belief that life begins at conception was "a deeply held religious belief".
The first Amendment does not allow religious laws by governments at all. All Americans have the"freedom of religion" and that means Alabama cannot stuff a religious law down any ones throat Constitutionally.
Many religions differ from the Evangelical and Catholic view. Most require "viability" for any fetus protection. Some require live birth. The 30% of ashiest, agnostics and other beliefs believe in secular law like our founders and the Constitution they wrote. At least 75% of Americans do not want religious Sharia law of any religion imposed.
55
@Newman1979 Well said. Thank you!
Growing up as a military brat our family was transferred all over the country, north and south. But even at a very young age, I noticed the different attitudes about race, education and especially about women while living in the south. There was a silent and deep undercurrent of hostility toward anyone or anything that did not have these beliefs. The women in this article who voted pro life don't realize how soaked in southern hostility their votes are. They think they are being upstanding women, wives, mothers or church goers by rubber stamping these worn out beliefs. I will never go back and live in any of these states.
52
Honest question to the author: How do you work with people who have no regard for women's civil rights, and whom will never regard women as human beings who are worth the dignity of medical privacy, no matter what?
38
@Alex
You don't work with people (men) who have no regard of women's civil rights. Thinking women should abandon Alabama by the millions. Let the Alabama menfolk share their family values with other Alabama menfolk. If you can't choose to control your own body in one way, control it in another. Start walkin sister
"Y’all come on down here and work with us to make a difference."
I tried that. They told me to take my yankee opinions back up north.
58
You’re so right that the solution isn’t a mocking tweet. Not to belittle mocking tweets, and they are perfectly understandable...! but I think your invitation to Get Down Here presents the real force for the possibility of change.
1
According to the accompanying Times article on Evangelical support for the Alabama bill, one of the women who support an abortion ban argued, “If people would have behaved in a proper way they wouldn’t be in that situation.” That’s what this has been about, prudish obsession with sex, and making those whose private lives don’t conform to their views pay the price. And don’t look to them to provide contraceptives, because once again that would merely let people engage in sex that they think is sinful. Yet at the same time, many of these parents still adhere to the double standard that allows boys to go as far as they can, while admonishing girls about modesty. Unbelievably hypocritical.
72
@Ockham9 - That's where we see the ignorance of so many on the forced birther side about pregnancy, abortion, etc. Apparently they don't realize that many of the women who have an abortion are married women who already have all the children they want or can afford, or married women who for one reason or another are in no position to nurture and care for a child. Others are in long-term committed relationship, with or without other children in the home. Of unmarried women who have an abortion, the majority go on to have much wanted children later in lie when they're equipped to nurture and care for and support a child. But I don't know how you reason with someone who's sure only "sloots" have abortions.
21
Personally, I'd rather live in a society that shares my values than move to a society that doesn't share my values and beat my head against a wall trying to change people who don't want to change.
40
Dear Abbey, I live in "Looserana," the state that ranks #50 as a place to live, saving Bamer from the ignominy of the bottom for two years in a row now.
I think you are mistaken. This stuff isn't fixable. Now and then I see a bumper sticker with the outline of the state and the caption: "Third world and proud of it."
That pretty much sums it up. I'm looking forward to leaving.
71
Given the state’s high maternal mortality rate, low life expectancy, poor educational outcomes, high rate of deaths by firearms, high rate of executions, and history of extralegal executions (last lynching in 1981!), Alabama doesn’t readily come to mind when one considers sanctity of human life.
Its new abortion law has more to do with the sanctity of traditional sexual morality and expectations that women uphold that moral code. Without the threat of the scarlet letter of extramarital pregnancy, women have less incentive to remain chaste and protect men from acting on the sinful urges they as a sex are unable to control. And men are unable to tell the decent women, those fit to be wives and mothers, from the slatternly ones. Once again, the South, bible in hand defends a way of life.
35
Pro-life is a term which applies to those who want life on earth to continue and are willing to change their habits to make sure we don't heat ourselves out of a habitable planet. I am pro-life for life on earth.
Forced-birthers are not smart enough to realize that increasing the population mindlessly makes them pro-anthropocide; that is the extinction of humankind by their own thoughtless actions. Force-birthers are pro-death for every living thing on earth and are either incapable of or unwilling to understanding this.
25
If Alabama truly wanted to show that they were pro-life they would outlaw the death penalty.
This has nothing to do with being pro-life, it has everything to do with control over a woman's body and bringing a case before the supreme court to show who the court will go out of their way to support.
35
I've lived in the Pacific NW all of my life. I suspect that If I moved to Alabama, I would keel over from culture shock within a week. But I commend those willing to live there and fight.
20
@Frank - I have not been east of Vegas in 30 years now. Good luck even getting me to head east of the Cascades at this point in my life.
As for staying someplace to fight? What a waste of life. Find a place where people accept you and want to live life like you do whether you're conservative, liberal, religious or not. There is nothing in Alabama worth fighting over other than the front seat on the first Greyhound bus going west.
27
I live in the state of Alabama and in the deep south for over 35 years. I'm well over 60 and a catholic NYer . To live peacefully, I pretty much have tuned out the backwardness of this all (R) state. I keep my thoughts private or else the few friends I have, would be none at all. My status at work would suffer, my breadwinner wife's career would suffer, if I made public how I feel about all social issues. In affect I'm a coward and not proud of it. My dad had friends with men of color in L.I. where I grew up, my sister had to fly to New Orleans to have an abortion in the late 60's. My H.S, was wealthy and white, my jobs came easy. But I will be moving out in a few years and have to admit my choice will be based on finding a city where the values I hold dearly, are the norm. Tolerance and compassion. It wont be in the south.
353
@george nice comment, I feel your pain but you shouldn't feel guilty for holding your tongue, your time will come.
19
@george - You are describing my first 25 years of life on this planet as a gay man. There is nothing in the closet except a worn out pair of last year's shoes.
33
I feel your pain and share your future view. I am simply waiting until I find out where my physician resident daughter settles. It will not be Alabama.
26
For over a decade now, my family and I have lived and worked in Alabama and tried to help make it a better place. Honestly, I'm not sure if we feel welcome anymore. It's become a struggle. I have lived in 9 states during my lifetime. As a professional, I always felt free to move about the United States as it suited my family and career. I have always focused on the best of each state that I've lived in and yet counted on many shared values and freedoms throughout the United States in order to live this way. Unfortunately, I'm not sure I believe that our country has shared values anymore. Our country feels fractured. Can Alabama be changed for the better from within by well meaning people like the author of this article? I wish it were so. I truly do. But I think it might be time to go...
63
@DrLawrence - thank you Dr for illustrating my point. I couldnt have said it better myself.
5
Even though I'm not in Alabama, this new law concerns me. Beyond being a woman, it concerns me as a human being. The importance of having abortion as an option is just as important in protecting your religious freedom. It is essentially a human right.
I champion environmental issues; I study marine biology and focus most of my energy on that particular movement. But that doesn't mean that I detract myself from the matters of social justice. Although I am unable to understand what it means to be pregnant and to consider such a heavy decision, I strive to understand that experience a little more as an ally. Every day, I strive to learn more about the arguments surrounding pro-life and remain unimpressed. Pro-life ought to focus instead on educating youths about contraceptives, which is sorely lacking in high school health courses (Trust me. It wasn't that long ago since I took it).
Tell me where, tell me when, and I will stand behind you when the banner is raised for abortion rights. Human rights.
24
A state that seeks to criminalize abortion even in the most extreme cases should be prepared to provide prenatal health care to the mother and adopt the baby if the mother is unable or unwilling to provide for it.
35
I’m sorry, but this State should be avoided and dismissed as a backward thinking group of people. It doesn’t contribute much to the country. As a matter of fact, 25 States comprise 83% of US GDP. Alabama and 24 other states contribute just 17%. It’s ironic that they control 50% of possible Senate seats.
58
@Peter Z
Yeah, but some of us don't equate value with money.
3
Auburn & Alabama certainly DO CONTRIBUTE something significant to our country...Great college football...It’s NOT culturally INSIGNIFICANT! Alabama is an elite state when it comes to college sports...
1
Money shouldn't be the only thing we value. Do you only have rich friends? Do you "avoid and dismiss" the less wealthy? I'm not defending Alabama's values here, but I don't like yours any better.
And certainly, representation should be based on population...not income! talk about buying influence!
4
I have always felt that while the GOP is quite strategic in planning for the long term, Democrats and liberals basically wait for the GOP to hit them where it hurts then they run off to the courts hoping for legal relief. With the current setup of the judicial system, this may be a fool's errand.
With regard to the Alabama abortion law specifically, I think a more strategic approach that might be a more effective counter might be for rich, liberal Democrats, instead of contributing funds for a legal challenge, to raise funds and offer all women of color in Alabama, a $20,000 bonus for every child they have since they can no longer have abortions in Alabama.
I suspect strongly that when the white, male Republican legislators start seeing a sharp rise in the births of children of color, they just might rush to pass a law offering free abortion services throughout the state and especially to poor women.
Sometimes the best strategy is not one that requires direct confrontation.
20
I’ve been thinking today about the legacy of slavery, and the slaveowners’ view of “their” women as breeders, with dominion over their bodies. This bill is a move back to that, not to the 1950s but to the 1850s. And while I admire the author’s courage to fight, I am so saddened by where we are. We are truly a nation divided.
63
I struggled to live in Tuscaloosa for three years and feel so sad for the women of the state. I wonder how long you’ll last back there, surrounded by the extremist conservatism, and wish you strength. I wish I could say I’ll return to help, but life is too short.
51
The Southern Baptist Society praised Roe v Wade when it was decided in 1973 as a step forward for Religious freedom, women’s rights, and welcomed that the ruling also meant those of religious persuasion could not be forced to have an abortion. One of the two lawyers who argued Roe before the court was a Southern Baptist and noted that an emotional reaction to the Roe decision would mistakenly conflate the legal question at hand with the individual moral question that Roe allowed to be freely made between doctors and their patients. Opposition to Roe was largely seen as a Catholic issue.
Evangelicals did not come to broadly oppose Roe until SIX years later in 1979, when adopting a Catholic position on the issue was seen as a more palatable way to garner donations and a political base of support that the real reason Evangelicals wanted to maintain political standing - protection of segregated schools. They felt they could no longer use race as an issue to rile up the base and chose abortion instead. They may well go back to race if they “win” on the abortion issue as Trump has shown that is possible. It’s all been a dupe and the practitioners of evangelical denominations have gone along blindly supporting their leaders while said leaders endorse policies to protect the rich and harm said practitioners.
The Bible does not prohibit abortion. It actually sanctions it in certain circumstances in Numbers 5:11-31 and hold a Mother’s life above the potential fetus in Exodus 21.
74
I am a firm believer in a woman's right to chose, but I am coming to the realization that Roe v. Wade may have been, on a long-term basis, a real negative for those rights. On a short-term basis Roe was a great development. Women suddenly had the freedom to control their own bodies and make their own decisions concerning reproduction.
But with the benefit of hindsight, there were three big problems with Roe. It galvanized the opponents of legal abortion and gave them a clear target to fight, while at the same time lulling many supporters of legal abortion into complacency. Moreover, as a work of legal scholarship Roe was badly flawed; easy to attack and difficult to defend.
Of course the supporters of legal abortion are no longer complacent, but they have decades of being outfought to overcome.
It is impossible to know how the abortion debate would have come out if the Supreme Court had left it to the political process, but it is interesting to see that Ireland, despite an overwhelming majority of Catholic voters, recently legalized abortion through a referendum (admittedly after enduring years of repression on this issue). Unfortunately, the residents of Alabama and its neighbors may have to endure a similar experience with the reality of an abortion ban before there is a sensible political solution.
16
Casey is a lot harder to attack legally than Roe
Thank you Ms. Crain. As a displaced southern woman, this is the most useful thing I've read about the whole matter.
13
Like many Americans today I was shocked by the vote in Alabama last night. Hope is a good thing. Hopefully the voters of Alabama will get it right next election.
11
@concord63
Not just Americains I can assure you.
This is deeply shocking and how is it different from oppressive regimes in the Middle East?
39
@concord63
I’m originally from Al. Don’t count on the voters. Count on God who performed a miracle when Judge Roy Moore wasn’t elected —almost as amazing as water to wine.
1
As a Christian it has become increasingly obvious over the last 10 years that Evangelical Christians have taken on the practices of well known terrorist organizations. Tough words for tough times I know but it has to be called out. Evangelical Christians have a distorted and selective view of their sacred text and that any deviation from their interpretation is not tolerated. Evangelicals believe that theirs is the only true world view and all others are to be either destroyed or compelled into their interpretation of the Christian belief system. There is no tolerance for nuance, discussion or interpretation. You could substitute the words "Evangelical Christian" with "Al Qaeda", "Hamas" or "Khmer Rouge" above and the meaning would still be the same and the actions taken just as accurate. Evangelical Christians have become the new terrorist threat to our democracy. I am embarrassed by them. I am sure God is too.
452
@Randy
In Evangelical terms, the Devil is a very powerful and devious spirit. His greatest and most successful way to tempt and lure people into his power is not offering them women, fine cuisine, luxury, money, or power. What he does is dress up as God (he has the best makeup and costume personnel) and offer us a false, ersatz salvation. This strategy has gotten him more souls than all his other strategies combined.
God liked America because we decided to choose our own rulers and be responsible for our own fate, rather than pretending that whoever got and kept power was chosen by him. But the Devil has found a way to sabotage our choosing and perhaps even persuade us to abandon it. Those of us attracted to authority, command, and obedience have been sadomasochistically seduced in a truly satanic course of events, a course that has lasted a half a century.
18
...And this is the very reason why we need separation between church and state!
41
Aaron Sorkin’s “The Newsroom” has an episode worth watching that explores the characteristics of fundamentalism in America that exist in terrorist organisations and oppressive religious regimes elsewhere in the world.
8
I honestly don't know what to say. It is beyond my understanding that so many feel they have the right to control other people's lives according to their personal beliefs in a country founded on religious freedom.
200
@JennaSmith, a woman would do that to other, most likely, less fortunate women....there’s an evil streak in her.
1
Another option is to just give up on Deep South States controlled by evangelicals. Evangelicals when in the majority are unstoppable. They all meet at least once a week for a pep talk and discuss strategy AND they donate 10% of their income to the cause. Add the fact that they believe they're being guided by the creator of the universe and you have an unbeatable combination. Nothing in the secular world comes even close. The truth is, despite the outrage that I feel at their behavior, I have no business with them or their state whatsoever. I feel sorry for the women and sane people who live there but everyone in the US has the opportunity to vote with their feet. The more good people who leave the better.
108
@Roland
You can take as many people out of the state as you want but those left still can put in two senators and have th3 electoral college. Your system has to change to reflect the choice of the majority.
38
@Joe So right!
Now if we eliminated the [undemocratic] electoral college and Senate, I'd be all with you!
2
I've often thought that the way to deal with the gerrymandering is for those of us living in blue areas to move, en masse, to the red ones. In some states it wouldn't even take much. But we'd need some sort of concerted effort.
Let's start with Alabama.
25
@Pam
I am not white. I know I am not welcome in any Southern State. That is besides their oppressive legislative policies.
8
@Pam Better yet, boycott every single business that does business in these Y'allqueda religious states. Let them rot in poverty. Strip them of ALL federal funding. Let them sink into the absolute depths of abject poverty and take Trump's wall money and build a massive wall around the state until those who chose to remain no longer exist. Alabama should become the leper colony of the USA. No entry from business or funding until they've shown themselves ready to rejoin the civilized world.
Let that state rot in it's poverty and ignorance, or better yet, sell it wholesale to those seeking to bury radioactive waste.
It's been a long time since Roe v. Wade passed, and most people don't know or don't recall what the world looked like when abortion was not legal.
Teens, 20 and 30-somethings are not used to seeing bad stuff happening to young women their own age. They are not used to having classmates who have to drop out because of pregnancy, or who get arrested, or who die. They are not used to doctors going to prison, including doctors they know or went to school with.
In some states, they're going to be very shocked when women who miscarry are prosecuted.
And for men, the re-discovery of the shotgun wedding or finding themselves owing to support unplanned children will be an unwelcome surprise. It happens now, but it's going to happen way more often. Paternity tests are way better than they used to be.
The wealthy among them will just jet up to another state, and be back in a few days, plausible excuses for absence at the ready. But the rest will be stuck with it.
They're going to be surprised at how many women they know are actually impacted by this. TN and other southern states are close behind AL and GA.
Young people will be very surprised--and I hope they start voting in greater numbers.
215
I remain hopeful, but find it difficult to imagine that many in the state of Alabama can be persuaded, particularly regarding an issue as polarizing as this one. I imagine that many in the state still strongly identify with the evangelical movement, thus it remains incredibly difficult for them to cast aside their biases and examine this debate from the perspective of a woman who is in desperate need of such a procedure.
Unfortunately, they will most probably allow for their worst impulses to cloud their judgment and continue to support this measure, that will undoubtedly lead to the exploitation of countless of women in the state. I'm cognizant of the fact that there are surely countless citizens in Alabama and elsewhere that will petition to have this measure overturned (and surely many more as it works its way through the appellate courts), but I remain skeptical that their efforts will have much impact on the evangelical majority in the state. However, I wish you the best of luck in your efforts this summer, and hope you prove the rest of us wrong.
14
@Kyle It's like most evangelical women suffer from Helsinki syndrome.
Men still cannot accept the idea of women having control over their lives whether that's their reproductive lives, work lives, or lives in general. I'm on a Facebook group where the men are always willing to tell the women how wrong and ignorant the women are. Give them facts and they pick a fight. Explain things to them and they ignore it. I don't understand the women who believe that no woman should be able to have an abortion but that's a different story in some ways.
Here's what I do understand from my life's experience. To a woman who wants to be pregnant that embryo is a baby. So is the fetus. She wants that mass of cells that took root in her uterus to grow into a baby. She would be devastated if she had to have an abortion. To a woman who doesn't want to be pregnant for whatever reason that mass of cells is just that. It's a reminder to her that birth control can fail, that the family cannot afford another mouth to feed, or worse. The logic in forcing this woman to complete her pregnancy escapes me. Adoptions don't always work out. Unwanted children are often abused, sometimes they are murdered, sometimes they are thrown out of the house.
As long as there is no perfect birth control, as long as there are rapists and there is incest, there will be unwanted pregnancies and a need for abortion. As long as there are times when pregnancies go horribly wrong there will be a need for abortion. The only answer is not to have one if you don't want to.
287
@hen3ry
And let’s not forget, after these children are born, the state, the evangelists, and the GOP wash their hands of them - no health care, no support, no education. They prefer to use the death penalty later on to deal with the problem. So much for pro-life.
38
@hen3ry
'To a woman who doesn't want to be pregnant for whatever reason that mass of cells is just that.'
To a lot of people, that 'mass of cells' is the beginning of a human life. Which they believe is 'sacred'. No matter how you look at it, an abortion is ending a human life. It's that simple. Either you can live with that, or you can't.
1
@sheikyerbouti - I understand there are people with very sincere beliefs about the issue. But why can't they live their own beliefs without forcing everyone else to live by their beliefs as well.
Roe was in fact the compromise on the issue, allowing abortion up to the stage of viability and then only with a few crucial exceptions afterward. What we see now is some motivated, energized people who are determined not to allow any compromise whatsoever.
27
It is hard to forget the words of Susan B Anthony when the GOP rants that controlling women's bodies is the right thing to do because allowing them to make their own decisions is immoral:
"I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do, because I notice it always coincides with their own desires."
307
I’m sorry, but I have to disagree. I see no reason to come to Alabama. Money is the only thing that matters to conservative politicians. Perhaps if Alabama businesses suffer as a result of this law, they will use their influence on Alabama’s elected officials.
Meanwhile, voters in Alabama need to get out and vote for candidates that treat actual people (women) like human beings instead of favoring fertilized eggs.
If I can avoid economic activity in Alabama or Georgia or any of these other states racing to limit a woman’s right to do with her own body as she chooses, I will.
148
@Dave
While I agree with your points outlining how legislators in the state are primarily concerned with their own personal interests, rather than those many of their constituents, I disagree that we should encourage a boycott of Alabama. There are many municipalities and counties within the state where progressives are truly yearning for change, however I feel that they often lack the resources and support from progressives in other areas of the country due in large part to the negative stigma associated with the state. By inflicting further economic hurt on Alabama, we could inadvertently further damage those who are working for real change, particularly within the long exploited Black Belt region of the state.
2
@Kyle. A different way of thing about the situation. I deplore the state of my home state and will never live there again, but I do know there are pockets of great people who have hope. I can only pity them.
6
As an Alabama Democrat I say thank you
1
I'm very sorry to be so blunt - Alabama can be as proud as it deserves to be, by women mentioned in the article (Ledbetter and Rachel Evans, rip) but as a state?
when women in Alabama start voting their interests, then, and only then will Alabama rise.
Better health care, better education, better pay.
Women in Alabama - vote Democrat and your daily lives will get better!
71
@c In 2020 Vote Blue, No Matter Who and better lives will ensue. There is no compromise with what happened in Alabama and now in other states - the Evangelical zealots want to force the issue in the SCOTUS. What is needed is a Constitutional Amendment(s) a second bill of rights as it were regarding women's rights, voting rights and redefining the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
13
@R. Zeyen - I believe that is what the ERA does. We need one more state to ratify it. Then it goes to Congress.
It's very needed.
3
@R. Zeyen
Unfortunately, a great majority of women aren’t much better than the legislature. After all, the Governor is one
Thank you Abbey....
I, for one, am willing and able to come on down to Alabama and help in any way I can! Please keep writing!!!
14
That's all right. Out here, the Democrats have a supermajority, and it too always wins.
8
@Wine Country Dude
Yes, and California has one of the top economies in the country. While supermajority GOP states.... don't.
This is not a coincidence. It is a result of policy.
18
@gratis
It also has the highest poverty *rate* in the country and an intolerable housing crisis. I guess when you're a supermajority feeding off the likes of Apple and Oracle, who cares?
1
Superdelegates, supermajority, same difference.
2
As in the past it’s going to take help from outside agitators to change Alabama, and Federal Judges.
15
Did Alabama change a half-century ago, or did the people who run it merely stop using a few words that make it too clear what they think.
17
Would like to hear from OB GYN doctors, NPs and nurses living and working in Alabama.
What does this do in terms of your practice and what you discuss with your female patients?
Will this drive any away from Alabama or attract these workers?
25
@Su Penn
I'm not in OB/Gyn but from what I know of that specialty and medical culture in general, I'd expect it to drive practitioners out of the state. Threatening doctors with 99 years in prison doesn't exactly make them feel respected and valued. Few actually provide abortion services anyway, but they'd now have to worry about life imprisonment - not "just" a malpractice suit - if an error is made, a high risk case ends badly, etc.
27
@S Agreed. And women with high risk pregnancies may struggle to access care. Our maternal mortality rates are already abysmal, and it won't only be those seeking to terminate their pregnancies who suffer tyne consequences of these new laws.
11
@S
You’ve no idea what your talking about. Most gynecologists want absolutely nothing to do with abortion. It’s a solid business. Doctors also know enough about biology to recognize that arguing a fetus isn’t a life is inconsistent with science.
A well written piece, but I’d rather boycott whatever I can that comes out of Alabama. I’m one of many people who will never set foot or spend my dollars in a state that treats women so disgracefully. If you think their poverty level population of single mothers is bad now, just wait until this bill goes into effect.
106
@Meg
Not much comes out of the very poor state of Al. Recently, the airline and car manufactures have brought in a few jobs to the state, the two big colleges have good football teams, one has a very good medical hospital system, the schools are abysmal, poverty is rampant, the state government has never cared about the children which is ironic. All in all, it’s a lot like other places in this nation, especially those places that don’t value people or education. But, it’s much worse than those places because it’s the entire state.
14
Just a simple thanks to you for your work and presenting it in such a compelling way. Keeping my fingers crossed for Alabama and the other states that are being dragged back to the middle ages by old people who have not moved on with the rest of us.
27
I lived in Mississippi for more than 10 years so I'm familiar w/ Alabama. Like MS, it's beautiful country w/ friendly people who are exceedingly slow to change, even when it's trust upon them. I grew weary waiting, hoping and fighting for improvement. Finally, I moved on.
Wish you all the best. If George Wallace can change his views perhaps other Alabamians can too.
24
I'm afraid I disagree with Ms. Crain. The young people who went to Alabama in the late 50s and early 60s only did so to assist African American people in their struggle for political enfranchisement. Today black Alabama is politically enfranchised, but the state's partisan structure is racially polarized. White Alabama adapted, but never really changed.
A close look at Pew's stats tell the story. About 25% of the nation is Evangelical, but Alabama is 49%; 85% of whom are white, and 55% female. White Evangelicalism is closely tied to Republican partisanship and extreme conservatism. So that's what liberals are up against there: convincing Alabamians to forgo several generations of racial animus and their Evangelical identity. Ain't happening.
The most appropriate thing to do is boycott the state; in fact, shun it. That's what we do with nations whose social systems are an affront to civilized standards and human rights.
209
@Gary F.S.
Whenever we "shun" groups and put them in a box their group cohesion goes up so I would not recommend it. It would be better to provide as much support and assistance to the pro-choice folks that are there already and progress may be able to be made. Even better would be if pro-choice individuals moved there as it would accelerate the change of ideology. Being from Texas I'm surprised you have not noticed that happening already in your own state from all the transplants.
3
@Tim
I believe if the shunning came in the form of major economic loss, such as tourist dollars , boycotts of the business interest of the legislators, no conventions, less state college enrollments, etc this issue and others would be put to bed overnight. Money wins every time. In this country at least.
22
@Tim If we had the ability to deport California's 3 million excess Clinton voters to Alabama then abortion rights might have a shot in the state. Without a Stalin-style strategic population transfer, regime change in Alabama courtesy of moving vans and real estate agents is not going to happen.
I understand how popular the MSM fantasy of Texas-turning-purple is, but sadly election results don't show that. Domestic migrants in 2018 accounted for 29% of the net pop growth (82,569). They are not some army of libs though - most of them hail from conservative southern states. Today, international migration now exceeds domestic - and of course those can't vote. If Texas ever "flips" it will only be because death carries away a sufficient number of boomers, not because of people moving in.
2
I stand with you and all the people, everywhere, working to keep all aspects of women’s healthcare safe and legal.
At the same time, the current situation emphasizes the need to elect representatives, at every level, who will protect women’s rights. It’s not about voting for women or for men, it’s about anyone’s platform. Sending Doug Jones to the Senate was a good step; Mr. Jones has expressed horror at Alabama’s law.
It is easy to feel powerless against legislators determined to use their authority over us; but we have the ultimate power to put anyone in office, or not.
19
This discussion is going nowhere until both sides realize they are having two separate arguments with both sides feeling like they are the obvious defenders of a core human right.
Pro-life supporters take it as fact that the zygote/baby (such weighted terms!) is an individual human life and therefore has all the rights that all humans have including the right to your own life. A right that we usually give preference to above all others when it comes into conflict.
Pro-choice supporters take it as a fact that the zygote/baby is not yet an individual human life and therefore does not have a right to life that is being impinged when the mother exercises her right to control over her own body.
The fight is not about these rights as I think most Americans support both the right of individuals to both their life and control over their body but is over the fact of when an individual human life begins. That is what we should be arguing about.
10
@Tim
You misunderstand the pro-choice position; no one has any right to use anyone's body without their consent, even if they are a zygote. No forced pregnancy, ever, for any reason.
67
@Tim There is great sincerity in the tone of your comments. However, there will NEVER be agreement between people about ‘when individual human life begins.’ In fact, you chose an angle of this debate that is probably the most fraught with passion. Robin, below, nailed it succinctly. The core of this issue is that women deserve control over their own bodies, or they do not have full agency as a human being. Period.
34
@robin
I would agree that there is a large number of people who would preference a women's right to control over her body but I think there are also a large number who support that belief by also believing that the fetus is just a part of the women's body or is not yet an individual life. That argument is quite common among the pro-choice crowd and if you are correct very unnecessary.
I'm also interested if you would extend the right of control all the way to the moment the baby is delivered? Is there a reason to have a restriction on third trimester abortions if the women's right to choose is paramount?
1
No accèss to abortion for any reason? Any state that passes such a law should be required to also refuse any access to Viagra or similar medications as well as enforcing full financial support by the DNA confirmed father of all forced births. Same penalty for any male who fails to follow these rules.
191
We need to keep saying this.
30
@KO-National and state-grown companies with operations in Alabama have health plans that cover employees' medical care including family planning. Under HIPAA, health information is private -- so how do Alabama's legislators imagine their law will work? Also what will they do when doctors and nurses flee the state because they are unable to fulfill their Hippocratic oaths and adhere to professional standards?
4
@KO
When used correctly, Viagra benefits the partner(s) as well as the user. It's mother's other little helper.
1
Alabama sounds like a foreign country. In fact it is. According to history Alabama seceded from the United States in 1861 and was only returned by the force of arms. It sounds like Alabama is yet more proof Albert Einstein's theory of relativity that asserted the revolutionary concept that time is dependent upon the observer. From the description of Alabama politics in this article and the manifest result of a bill that criminalizes pregnancy, I would say Alabama is culturally still living in the Eisenhower period, whereas we in the advanced civilizations outside Alabama are in fact living in the post Jetsons 2019 on our way to the 2020s and who knows the technological singularity.
But Alabama believes that the human blastocyst is in fact a person and that God has ordained this situation.
My point is that this situation doesn't look like it is going to change anytime soon. Evangelical Christians living in Alabama will not miraculously turn themselves into secular liberal democrats.
It may be the case that the Eisenhower period in Alabama will come to an end. And sometime in the future, reproductive rights will be recognized in the state. But it will take a while, perhaps decades.
19
@Yankelnevich
Evolution takes time but I’m pretty sure evangelists don’t believe in that either.
9
"For all that the national coverage has focused on the male legislators who passed the bill, it’s worth noting that the state Republican Party is led by a woman; the abortion ban bill was sponsored by a woman — one who I believe thinks in her heart of hearts that she is doing the right thing by her faith — and it was signed into law by a woman, Gov. Kay Ivey."
Yes, but none of that is the real point. The real point is that the majority of Alabama voters are women.
4
I have lost patience with those who are 'pro-life' and oppose abortion for any reason, nor do I understand the stated reasons for that opposition and am not interested in understanding.
Many of those opposed to abortions are men who, of course, have never been pregnant much less with an unwanted or unplanned pregnancy . Since these men are free of such traumatic experiences they ought to assist in preventing them. Therefore, they should either undergo vasectomies at a very early age or the other more dramatic surgery.
The choice can be theirs. The point is since these men feel entitled to exercise control over women's reproductive cycles, then women should certainly have the same right over men's.
I doubt either surgery will be painful or as traumatic as an unwanted pregnancy or the anxiety of raising a child often as a single mother.
It's quick and simple - done all the time. So men, step up and be responsible.
79
@N.Eichler As one of my favorite aphorisms says: "Not every sperm needs a name."
29
It’s hard to claim that there is a “war on women” when the “war” on women is apparently being led by women, including the governor, the sponsor of the anti-abortion bill, and the head of the state Republican Party.
This isn’t a war, this is a disagreement among women on what abortion rights should be in America.
Cut the hyperbole and the woe-is-me attitude.
20
Just because there are some women involved, doesn’t mean that statement isn’t true. A large majority of women want abortion to remain legal, especially in the case of rape or incest. The reason behind the belief may be religion for some, but the result is the same and is anti-women.
87
"Some of the worst misogynists I know are women.". - -Sarah Silverman
107
@Serrated Thoughts
Yes, hold up the minority of woman with some power, and blame them for the fact that 'women - collective - can't decide what they want' and therefore bring everything upon themselves.
You also suggest, therefore, that all men are united in their attitude and therefore no problem here? Perhaps you can enlighten us on what your universal male consensus is, then?
Your attitude smacks of male privilege. Perhaps you should cut the attitude of 'it's not my fault, it's women's fault - let them fix it'?
36
If the Alabama legislature had, at the same time, voted to ensure that any women who was pregnant would be assured of getting full perinatal care sponsored by the state, then I would have been somewhat satisfied with this law. Had they guaranteed maternal child benefits postpartum then I would have been more supportive. If they would have ensured that any child conceived would receive full support from the state, along with the mother, until they reached adulthood then I would be all in.
Absent that, where once the fetus is being delivered the state abrogates any responsibility, then I say a pox to the 25 white males and the grandma governor who approved this bill.
I am a physician who would not treat any of the 26 of you if you showed up in my casualty ward. I only treat humans who are human enough to warrant me adhering to the hippocratic oath.
131
@Aaron Of London
I'm 100% appalled at this legislation that just passed in Alabama. I'm also a physician. Where I take issue with your comment
is that your Hippocratic oath compels you to treat everyone that falls in your lap. Regardless of skin color, religious beliefs, political orientation, irresponsible lifestyle choices, sexual preferences, etc. It's not a two way street, but it's the reason Israeli doctors treat Palestinian terrorists who were injured in their attempts to kill Israelis.
Your comment is sufficient grounds to lead to your dismissal and forfeiture of the right to practice medicine in many jurisdictions should the proper authorities find out about your sentiments. You fail to comprehend the true meaning of the Hippocratic oath.
Many contradictions are coming to light these last couple of years that make the vaunted United States of America look not so united and a mockery of what it touts to be. How is it possible for a state to act in such a way as to deprive women of a constitutionally protected right? The NRA is always crowing about the second amendment as their sole argument to not "touch their guns", well what about the other protected rights, namely the fourteenth. This whole United States of America thing is just looking comical these days.
45
The republican party will continue to become more and more extreme (especially at the state level) until it is held accountable (wiped out at the polls). It is that simple.
Having said that, I want to push back on one thing. (boycotts - especially financial) They DO work.
You see time and time again, where a state or city has some type of event, and then a truly extreme law is passed (or even just contemplated) in that state. then word gets out and then that event is suddenly being held out or cancelled. Then ultimately the lawmakers of said state back down.
It works at all levels (state, federal, or even internationally) ONLY if all parties hold together. The moment there is a release for the state or entity to do business elsewhere, then the troublesome acts will continue.
This is why on a personal level, I try and look at whatever company I am going to shop at, or product I am going to buy, must at least try to be socially responsible. It doesn't matter in the scheme of things because I am just one person, but occasionally I influence others to do the same.
I am sorry, I will not be visiting Alabama anytime soon, or any other place that denies human rights to its citizens. I would advise others to do the same, then it can become a platform for a Democrat to show how political policy is affecting the bottom line.
It seems to be the only time any republican takes notice.
157
@FunkyIrishman
Also boycott all products and TV shows originating in states that pass these extreme laws. That includes Alabama, Georgia, Arkansas, Ohio, and Mississippi. I will not be flying Delta because their headquarters are in Atlanta.
3
As the writer noted, the woman who sponsored the bill sincerely believed she was doing the right thing according to her faith. HER faith. How dare she require others to satisfy HER faith? Keep religious dogma out of our civil laws!
607
@Dissatisfied, Spot on!
I'd love to tell her to take a basic biology course and keep her religious delusions out of my uterus. Arrogance and ignorance is a dangerous combination. Hope she gets voted out in 2020. I will gladly donate my time and $ to make it happen.
70
Exactly. Her job is to do right by the Constitution and the rights of all people in her state, regardless of their religious background.
37
@kay - or she could skip the biology course and just read the First Amendment.
25
"[I]t’s worth noting that the state Republican Party is led by a woman; the abortion ban bill was sponsored by a woman . . . "
It's a fact that quite a few women buy into and even support patriarchy. That doesn't make it not patriarchy.
103
This is exactly what the war on women looks like.
Anti-women anti-choice activists are not interested in advocating on behalf of protecting any stage of pregnancy —otherwise they would not include all the exceptions to make their extremism more politically palatable.
Their clear goal is to keep women where they want them to be: barefoot and pregnant, or in jail if they don’t conform.
The one good thing about the Alabama bill is that it makes their goals clear. All Americans, not just women, should push back hard on this.
60
A good article spoiled by its click-bait headline 'War on Women'
"Twenty-five men voted that night to pass the most restrictive abortion ban in the country"...Correct, but as the article notes, the bill was sponsored by a woman and eventually signed into law by the Governor, also a woman. The article also makes it clear that the gap between men and women regarding choice is quite small, so why do we continue the trope of 'War on women' with that automatic implication of 'Man's war on Women'? Additionally, 53% of white women voted for Trump despite his promises to appoint conservative judges who would continue to restrict women's ability to choose. Abortion is part of the culture wars in America. Labeling it as a 'War on Women' is a lazy trope that fails to understand what drives laws of this type. And Alabama and Mississippi are completely off my list of places to visit.
16
Thank you Abbey Grain, excellent article. I hail from Boston, but have lived in "Hotlanta" for 23 years. We just lost our closest Governor election to a Republican. But our Democrat Stacy Abrams continues to fight on for fair elections.
It was sad news to hear what's going on these days about women's reproductive rights, immigration, our environment and climate change, tax cuts for the rich, etc.
We need to vote, in every election, at every level of government and do in year in and year out. It is our only chance to make thongs right. VOTE.
19
Bravo Abbey Crain. Write more, please. Great journalism hits you like a cold reminder. Keep it up (for &#!'s sake, please keep it up). Those of us that don't have access to publish count on you more than you will ever know.
6
The only reasons why Alabama has criminalized abortion is because the women fighting the right to have one are those who would never need one and men do not give birth.
18
W'all would do just that if we could, go on down there and work with sunscreen and fans. (Or at least many of us would if not all.) Abbey Crain makes a good point. So much of what we out-of-staters are hearing during our own fears and tears over the fate of Roe v Wade, is to boycott any way we can the state of Alabama. It may just be the wrong tactic. In fact, it is. We women who believe in our right to our own personhood will be counterproductive in our quest for justice and perhaps even hypocritical if we turn our backs on our sisters in this state and those other oppressive ones hell bent on wedding the Church and State. Maybe we can not move to Alabama or even take a trip there, but we can still help with voices of support for our moral right to ourselves, our souls and bodies.
7
Terri Collins may believe that she's "doing the right thing in her heart of hearts by her faith" by denying women the basic human right to safe and legal abortion, but by dong so, she is in fact clearly going against the United States Constitution, which clearly separates the Church and State.
She is a traitor to our constitution, as well as being a sexual predator, by trying to force her religious beliefs onto women's uteruses and private lives.
Considering the fact that an embryo is a zygote, with no consciousness whatsoever, what Terri Collins is doing is spreading lies, with the direct intention of forcing her religious beliefs onto the population, with her cruel and immoral intention of forcing all American women to carry unwanted, unplanned, unaffordable, unsafe pregnancies to full term.
Shame on her, and her evil ways.
81
The southern ruling elites are desperate to maintain an underclass of people, so they can feel....superior.
I hope your efforts go to helping the victims of the Alabama governing elite get to the voting booth, so they can vote these misogynistic and cruel people out of office.
16
As Neil Young said “Oh Alabama”.
As a Canadian family doctor this decision terrifies me. Just like racism under Trump anti abortion is becoming the new norm. And it’s spreading here.
40
Every conservative, or almost every conservative (and I'm sure this holds for Alabama too) has a wife, sister, girlfriend, mistress, or daughter, who has had an abortion.
It's pure hypocrisy. The job now is to unmask them. The job for the women in their lives is to come forward.
The other question is--and one I've put to conservative friends--is, well, if abortion is murder, does that mean your wife, high school sweetheart, daughter, should go to jail on murder charges? Not one has said yes. So--it isn't murder, even to them
It's men making political capital of women's bodies. Especially poor and disenfranchised women, because you know what, their girlfriends and daughters and nieces, will simply go out of state or abroad (Ireland!). But this is simply slavery, owning someone else' s body, by another name.
69
The Clintons said that abortion should be safe, legal, and very rare, but instead it has become so common that abortion is the leading cause of death in the United States, at greater than 800,000 cases a year (https://abort73.com/abortion_facts/us_abortion_statistics/). The CDC reports that there were 45.7 million legal abortions between 1970 and 2015 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abortion_statistics_in_the_United_States). Overwhelmingly abortions are not performed because of rape, incest or danger to the mother, but rather for birth control. This should prompt moral outrage but instead is hidden behind the language of "family planning" or "woman's choice", as if those can justify such carnage. Any efforts to reduce this number should be welcomed by all.
2
@Dr B Dr of what, could be Medicine but suspect it is not. In any event, you and the state should mind it's own business and let comprehensive women's health care, including abortion, be truly comprehensive. In my view, it is morally outrageous that you want to violate the primary ethical principal of personal autonomy, the right to decide what happens with one's own body. If you don't like abortions, don't have one, but you may not impose your dislikes on others.
41
@Dr B Yet "prolifers" fight against the very things that actually reduce abortions. They are against birth control they are against medically accurate sex education, they oppose universal health care, paid family leave and higher minimum wages.
13
@Dr B
Just to clarify (facts are difficult for some), according to the CDC (2017 stats) the leading cause of death is heart disease. And yes, most agree that reducing the number of abortions is a worthwhile goal. However banning / criminalizing it is not the solution for many reasons, that others are best to explain.
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/deaths.htm
Number of deaths for leading causes of death:
Heart disease: 635,260
Cancer: 598,038
Accidents (unintentional injuries): 161,374
Chronic lower respiratory diseases: 154,596
Stroke (cerebrovascular diseases): 142,142
Alzheimer’s disease: 116,103
Diabetes: 80,058
Influenza and Pneumonia: 51,537
Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome and nephrosis: 50,046
Intentional self-harm (suicide): 44,965
Also note in 1992, the year before Clinton was president, there were over 1.3 million abortions. By 2015 that had dropped to less than half. Over 90% of these were performed at ≤13 weeks’ gestation
8
The Alabama Governor is ready to preside over her 7th execution.
There is no “sanctity of life” reason for banning abortion. It’s all about controlling women.
78
Something is wrong with a system in which 25 men can dictate the fate of all women in their state. What happened to women’s freedom to decide about their lives? We are going back to Medieval days.
247
@D.B.
Women voted for those men and a woman signed the law. This is as much the fault of women as men.
4
@D.B.
The hopes and dreams of 330 million Americans are boiled own to 535 elected people. Is that unfair, too?
1
@The Observer And what was the flavor of that ProLife KoolAid that you clearly gulped by the gallon. The NYS legislature absolutely did not provide for newborns to be "killed after birth". Poppycock. The New York law simply updates prior law to conform with Roe v Wade and allow for late term abortions when either the life OR the health of the woman is threatened as determined by her attending physician. The previous NY law only allowed them when the mother's life was threatened. Also, the new NY law took the procedure out of the criminal code and put it where it belongs: in the public health code. Late term abortions are done in cases where fetal viability is clearly not possible and/or the mother's life is threatened should she carry the pregnancy to term. No woman ever decides to end a late term pregnancy for convenience or 'birth control'. These unfortunate women have picked out a name or names, bought a crib and changing table, had baby showers and look forward to their next stage of life. Their decision to abort is geometrically harder than that faced by women in the first trimester, not that that is all that easy or frivolous. Somewhere on the order of 25% of women have abortions during their reproductive years, 99% of them before viability, which is 22 weeks at the very earliest.
3
Life before legalized abortion: My great great grandfather, a few days after he was elected county treasurer in a rural Pennsylvania County, was surprised to find, on his doorstep, an abandoned baby. At first the family thought they were victims of a cruel joke. But they soon realized that the baby had indeed been abandoned. The family took the baby in, adopted him, and had him baptized a few days later.
My grandfather, James J. Brown, a physician, was one of the doctors for Our Lady of Victory Infant Home since its founding in 1906. Father Nelson Baker had opened the Infant Home in Lackawanna, NY to house and care for abandoned babies. It was not unheard of at the time for desperate mothers to leave their unwanted babies exposed-- in the open or in a ditch.
As a young GYN nurse I took care of mothers after their illegal, dirty abortions. These were desperate women. And poor. None died on my watch but one in particular nearly did. Billie had septicemia; she required an emergency hysterectomy in which the OB removed her gangrenous, purulent uterus. Billie spent three months in the hospital on IV antibiotics, which she needed to treat the lung abscesses she developed due to septicemia.
This is what these forced-birthers want to go back to. They are not pro-life. They are pro-cruelty.
852
@pat,
Thank you for telling these important stories. And thank you for using the term "forced-birthers", which is in fact a more accurate description of that movement than the term "pro-life, as you point out.
I am imagining a poll question: "Should all women who have been impregnated be forced by the government to carry their pregnancies to term?" I imagine the results might be quite different from those obtained by framing the issue in terms of abortion, yet this question is at least as valid a description of the situation as the other.
294
@everydayispoetry
Yes.
We have allowed the religious right to define issues using their terminology - which the media also repeats over and over. Even "pro life" belongs to the religious right.
21
@pat Thank you. This puts a lot into perspective. I see a lot of babies left on Ms. Ivey's and Representative Collins' doorstep.
11
Let's contemplate a different type of legislation. Since condoms, used perfectly are over 95% effective, how about a law requiring men to use them during intercourse. Most unwanted pregnancies would be eliminated and if pregnancy is desired he can get a fitness exam and then a waiver from his physician.
110
@esteven, I like your idea because men instead of women shoulder the responsibility. It seems that the fact that men are necessary for conception is forgotten in this whole debate, and the consequences of sex fall only on women's shoulders. What I do wonder about is how you could enforce such a legislation!
13
@esteven Great idea. (But I don't think there should be laws regulating anyone's body.)
8
@esteven If men could get pregnant they would either insist on using a condom or not have sex. Why should it be any different for women?
5
Thank you for the invitation to come to Alabama.
Regarding Alabama... were I Bezos, Cook, Pichai, Gates, I’d plant my company precisely in places like Alabama, Ohio, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, etc.
That would bring educated, progressive-minded people to these areas, who in turn would demand (and fund via their taxes) good schools and raise the level of education. It would do so much for these stale economies, their education systems, and help our country politically as a whole - it would turn at least a few pockets of these states into bubbles of progress and progressiveness.
Since Bezos isn’t coming to NYC, my suggestion to him would be that he give one of these states a try. Given decent salaries and quality of life, and like-minded company, smart people will move there and change the landscape within a generation!
22
@Quantummess You have a misconception about high tech companies. They don't take their labor with them (we tend to like where we live, and the number of job opportunities present around us), they move to where the labor pool is highly educated.
41
@John Watlington
I agree, employers are not interested in uneducated and unskilled workers. Red states fail to invest in education and it shows in the wages of the red state workforces.
41
@Quantummess
Your idea has merit. I have thought the same. Birmingham metro area is a large blue bubble that is expanding, as is Huntsville. There are more progressives in Alabama than is known. Due to gerrymandering, straight party voting, and voter suppression, we are unable to break free from the stranglehold of the entrenched conservative leadership. They are a desperate, shallow, ignorant group, but entrenched, and prey upon the faithful for votes.
Tim Cook, Apple Corp., is a native of Alabama, as is Dr. E.O. Wilson.
Alabama is a beautiful state with lots of potential, low cost of living, outstanding food, and some very smart people. And the politics are surreal... Come on down!
7
The Alabama governor, and the people who passed the laws, were all on record speaking of God in this matter.
Government in the US is supposed to be neutral with respect to religion.
If the Supreme Court can find in favor a religious person by saying that the government was being "hostile" to religion, shouldn't it work the other way?
The vast majority of pro-life, forced birthers are overtly religious. Their abortion prohibitions are motivated by religious belief, and are being passed with express reference to religion, which demonstrates hostility towards towards those who don't share the antiquated religious notion that procreation and creation are related, or that Conception is sacred and must be worshiped as a symbol.
These prohibitions are just as much a violation of First Amendment principles as the Supreme Court said about the Colorado Civil Rights commission in Masterpiece Cakeshop.
305
@Doug McKenna - How does God, The Bible and
religions reference Rape and Incest?
1
Back in our college days we could get on the bus, but nowadays most people who are established in another state don't have the time, resources, or inclination to move to Alabama. And how would that work anyway?
It's up to Alabamians to guard the freedoms of the state, change the laws of the state where they are unfair and oppressive, sometimes even unconstitutional, and reform the government to represent the majority instead of the current Old South, mostly white, rulers.
In order for progress to be permanent, it must come from within, and persuading people to vote is the key.
26
@dutchiris
I would love to help in Alabama, but I am busy defending Florida!
7
@dutchiris
agreed - do the people of CA want the folks from AL to come fix their state? height of ignorance thinking we need to go fix the state, they voted on wanting to be an anti-choice state. of course, that's against the law, but i'm sure they don't want outsiders coming to fix the state, it must come from within
5
@dutchiris
I guess I personally feel that your posting is mean spirited and lacks any bearing of concern for your compatriot women. California is indeed a different country from Alabama (my brother lives there). But it would not hurt if you spent some time trying to put yourself in others shoes. Looks like there is more education needed all over the country.
Thanks for going home to help change your state for the better. But don't expect others to come help. That's your job. There's plenty of work to be done all across the south and midwest educating people about why the GOP is terrible for the vast majority of Americans.
71
Thank you for standing with and for the women of Alabama.
Most women have abortions because they do not have the resources (financial, emotional, social) to raise a child at that time. If these red-state abortion restrictions and bans go through as the anti-abortionists want, many, many more children will be born into non-resourced circumstances.
I believe that--if legislators are going to pass these anti-abortion bills--THESE BILLS MUST INCLUDE PATERNAL RESPONSIBILITY CLAUSES. The biological father must be identified, through DNA testing if necessary, and required to provide at least half of the child's financial support for the next 18 years.
The way the abortion debate is framed now, the responsibilities of the biological father are completely absent from the conversation, as though children were conceived by Immaculate Conception!
PLEASE, start introducing and debating Paternal Responsibility amendments and force these legislators to explain why they are requiring only one of the two individuals who created the pregnancy to bear all of the decades-long responsibility!
656
@SusannaMac
Susanna, this is a brilliant suggestion. None of the so-called pro-life groups are actually pro-life because they do not look past the moment of birth. They do not advocate for the feeding, housing, education or healthcare of the lives they lobby to bring into this world. Of course the men who participate in conceiving children should take responsibility for their actions, and DNA testing is the perfect way to make sure that happens.
225
@SusannaMac
I agree and have been posting this very idea including the father needs to actively support the mother's ability to work or go to school. Too many women's lives are disrupted permanently by an unwanted pregnancy. Let's put an end to that with legislation.
119
@Judith
Thanks, Judith.
I'm not for the government legislating citizens' reproductive lives in a heavy-handed way, but if they are going to do it, they need to address the consequences of their interventions.
A DNA cheek swab is WAY less invasive and dangerous than 9 months of pregnancy and giving birth. If the male legislators who enact these laws are not even willing to impose this burden on their fellow men, their arguments that they are not waging a war on women go up in smoke.
The Paternal Responsibility laws would make men who aren't prepared to support children think twice about having sex, unless they have had a vasectomy or at least use condoms religiously.
183
Thank you for standing up for Democrats like me who live in Republican-controlled states. I am here in the Texas trenches and at times, it can be demoralizing. Thankfully, I have ground a growing army of engaged Democrats and we are working from the local level up to run forward-thinking candidates and get out the vote. I do believe that one day we will reach that critical mass to change things. I want to be here to celebrate with some tacos and pecan pie.
177
Thank you for what you do. Texas is looking hopeful.
22
I was there in the 60's and again in the late 70's. I will not be coming to help people who refuse to help themselves any where in world any longer.
After this fiasco with Trump and MAGA groupies I finally saw the light. It is impossible to help the willfully ignorant leave the swamp-lands and the mire.
The world is a big place. There are several places where the majority of the people are open to intelligent conversations and actually willing to work together to accomplish good things. Unfortunately for the USA Trump is President and with his ilk accomplishing anything that requires an open mind plus common sense multiplied reason, well, it simply will never happen.
383
Ms. Crain, thank you for a very well done op-ed post. I am just appalled by the lack of understanding of basic science that went into this decision. Though your piece focused on the politics, I wish I understood how to interject science into the equation. When a state senator talks about "chromosomes" circling around, it is depressing. The fact is there is no law that can be written to cover all the circumstances that happen with pregnancy, a gift that all of our mothers gave us in order for us to be here. When legislators talk about transferring an ectopic pregnancy to a womb, I cringe. My grandmother nearly died from an ectopic pregnancy. A colleagues wife almost died, but was able to get a third term abortion which saved her life. Pregnancy is not a place for government! Please tell me the male body part that government tries to govern!
Ms. Crain, you are admirable for returning to AL and I won't be returning to Missouri.
318
Research shows that the provision of good sex education and freely available cheap contraception is the best way to reduce abortion. I see no attempt by so called “pro life” politicians to introduce, promote and fund these demonstrably more effective measures. Instead these politicians are anti education and contraception, deny welfare to living children in poor families and health care to everyone. They’re not “prolife” , seems to me they are more likely to be gun toting bigots and misogynistic control freaks. Most of the western world has moved on from the abortion debate since contraception became freely available, only in the USA is this issue used to manipulate elections and exert social control.
50
@Patrick T. Henry
Think through how you envision the government enforcing the abortion ban and try to put yourself in a woman's place rather than an embryo or fetus, which has no consciousness.
23
@P Dunbar
Enjoyed your article, but I really don't see where pro-choice is "progressive" and pro-life is backward. It is important we respect women's rights. That means equal pay, mandatory maternity leave, etc. But who is watching out for the life of the unborn? A society is only as good as its capacity to protect its most vulnerable. I cannot think of anyone more vulnerable than a fetus or unborn child. Generally, I am slightly left of center on most issues. Abortion is another matter.
2