The U.S. state has adopted the most restrictive abortion law in the country. However, abortion advocates in the state of Alabama prepare to fight a war – and fear the Supreme Court. From Montgomery to Helena Humphrey reported.
“Abortion is OK”, stands on a fluttering Banner that is pulled by a small plane over the bright blue skies of Alabama. This message is part of a campaign against a new law that wants to ban abortions in the state almost completely. The abortion advocates are gearing up.
The small plane is spinning its round about the dome of the State Capitol Building, the seat of government of Alabama. The true character of the state, in Montgomery, the new front line in the battle for physical self-determination of women.
It is a fight that many thought he had been settled in the 1970s, finally. At that time, the U.S. Supreme court in the case “Roe vs. Wade had made” a decision of principle the right of a woman, anchored on the End of a pregnancy legally.
“Roe vs. Wade” put to the test
However, this right could go to tilt – at least if it is for the legislature, in the state of Alabama. Because in the Interior of the monumental government building of the voted in majority Republican Senate in the state with an overwhelming majority for the bill. This provides for abortions to allow only when the life of the Pregnant woman is at risk. Doctors who perform an abortion for other reasons, will be sentenced to imprisonment.
Just a day after the vote and Governor Kay Ivey signed the bill. In six months it will enter into force. “For the many supporters of this legislation is a sign of the deep-rooted Faith of the people in Alabama. The Belief that every life is precious and a sacred gift from God,” she wrote in a statement.
However, the opponents of the law are numerous. Only 16 percent of the southerners are of the opinion that abortions should always be illegal. A survey conducted by the independent Public Religion Research Institute last year revealed.
Until Wednesday, many of the abortion supporters had protested in front of the government building disguised with hoods and Capes, based on the U.S. TV series “The Handmaid’s Tale”, in which a Christian-fundamentalist ideology prevails. Women are deprived of their rights and are the property of men.
The meeting place of the abortion advocates: the POWER-house
Now want to organize the activists of the new, and have pulled back to a place they call the POWER house “People Organizing for Women’s Empowerment and Rights”. In the otherwise quiet neighborhood, the many flags stand out on the porch especially. Next door to an abortion clinic is located. “This clinic stays open”, on one of the banners.
Equip the dispute
“This is just another day in Alabama,” said Mia Raven, the founder and Director of the POWER-house, and refers to the, in their opinion, continuing “climate of Patriarchy” in the South of the USA. “We are used to it, but this is extreme.” Not only the protests of their organization will be continued, says Raven. You also have a legal dispute.
Actually, the citizen has indicated that the right organization ACLU in Alabama already their intention to sue because of the new legislation. “This is going to go through all the instances, and in the end the taxpayers will have to pay,” says Raven.
Running the gauntlet up to the abortion
Although the new legislation Alabama international headlines power. But before all that wanted to perform an abortion were placed in the way of that. So there is in the state with around 2.5 million women, only three clinics that provide abortions. Prior to any establishment of protesters that keep the women’s is often a sea of megaphones and cameras in the face are.
“The protesters filming women, Live Videos and photos of them. You wear clothes that allow conclusions on your work, it will be made public. This can lead up to termination,” says Raven, who also works in a clinic. It is often the case that Voluntary of POWER with patients in the clinic and they try with umbrellas to protect them from harassment.
To go to an abortion clinic, has become the gauntlet. Volunteers to accompany and protect the women with their own T-Shirts.
Information and offers of help for those who have an abortion in consideration, are rar. Search the Internet for “Alabama abortion clinic” brings only a handful of results. Second in the list of results, the “COPE Pregnancy Center” appeared in Montgomery.
No exception for rape or incest
For a woman, the “is abortion”, is the center, “at least at first, an ultrasound to undergo,” said Lorie Mullins, Executive Director of COPE.
Those who have an abortion for financial reasons, into account, advises the centre to attend parenting courses. Anyone who has occupied such a course, will be equipped in turn with diapers, baby towels, car seat and baby bed.
The fact that the Alabama law makes no exception in cases of incest and rape – one of the most controversial aspects of the text – was “one of the reasons why we supported it,” says Mullins. “If you believe that all life is sacred, then there is no exception. Incest and rape abortions are to protect the perpetrators by hiding who he is.”
The Argument that women should be allowed to your body to decide, not one for Mullins. “It’s a personal decision whether you want to be a prostitute, but most of the countries, however, adopt laws. It is a personal decision, if you are wearing a seat belt does not create. Nevertheless, our government has a law that requires them to wear it and you are not punished if you do it. The government tells us every day what we should do with our bodies.”
Supreme court lets abortion opponents hope
In fact, the legislation is about “Power and control over pregnant women to exercise,” says Elizabeth Nash. “To prevent that, you take your life and your future completely in the Hand”.
Nash works at the Guttmacher Institute, which analyzed the legal decisions and measures in the area of sexual and reproductive health in the United States. She thinks it’s important, the striving of each individual state, the abortion legislation before the Supreme court in the country challenge.
One of the few clinics in Alabama that perform abortions
“2019 is the year admitted, in the abortion opponents that their ultimate Agenda is to ban abortion entirely – to say any time in the pregnancy and for any reason,” Nash. Their hope was that the Supreme court of the country regulates the the thing with the abortions final.
Nash fears that the increasingly conservative Supreme Court could repeal the landmark decision “Roe vs. Wade” to undermine and scuttle: “Appalling that the conservative majority has shown the Supreme court only this week their willingness to continue the long-standing precedent. Anyone who still believes that ‘Roe vs. Wade’ is not threatened, should rethink the situation.”
However, the conservative members of the court must make a resistance focus. After three weeks of protests, the will of the abortion advocates seems to be unbroken. At sunset, they gathered on the Veranda of the POWER-house. “We’re not going anywhere”, summons Mia Raven. On a chain around her neck, a tiny dress shimmering Hoop of wire. He stands for the risk that women take when abortions are illegal: are abortions not less, but more dangerous, if hangers must be used.