Alabama has become the latest U.S. state seeking to introduce a strict abortion ban.
On Tuesday, Alabama representative Terri Collins proposed legislation that would make performing an abortion at any stage of pregnancy a crime.
The bill would effectively ban all abortions, including in cases of rape and incest, as soon as a woman is 'known to be pregnant'. The only exception would be if the mother's health was in jeopardy.
If a doctor was to perform the procedure, they could be charged with a Class A felony, which carries a prison sentence of 10 to 99 years.
'It simply criminalises abortion,' said Collins, the Republican representative behind the bill. 'Hopefully, it takes it all the way to the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v Wade.'
Collins told reporters that Roe v. Wade was a wrongful decision in the same vein as the Supreme Court’s Dred Scott decision in 1857, which held that African-Americans could not be citizens, as per Al.com.
Yet the bill has been branded a 'death sentence for women' by Staci Fox, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Southeast. 'These bans are blatantly unconstitutional and lawmakers know it – they just don’t care,' she said.
'Alabamians are just pawns in this political game to challenge access to safe, legal abortion nationally.'
The text of the Alabama bill equated legalised abortion to some of the greatest atrocities the world has seen, including the Holocaust and Rwandan genocide.
The legislation says: 'More than 50 million babies have been aborted in the United States since the Roe decision in 1973, more than three times the number who were killed in German death camps, Chinese purges, Stalin’s gulags, Cambodian killing fields, and the Rwandan genocide combined.'
The bill, which has more than 60 co-sponsors in the 105-member Alabama house of representatives, is another example of growing anti-abortion legislation occurring in America.
In recent weeks Kentucky and Mississippi approved bans on abortion once a foetal heartbeat is detected, which happens as soon as the sixth week of pregnancy. Many women, however, don't realise they're pregnant until much later than this
The states of Georgia and South Carolina are also considering passing similar bans. More than 50 Hollywood actors, including Alec Baldwin and Amy Schumer, sent a letter threatening to pull business out of Georgia if the ban goes ahead. Many television and big screen productions are filmed in Georgia.
The Alabama bill, if passed, will face legal challenges, according to The Cut. This is because the legislation violates the precedent set in Roe v Wade, the landmark 1973 Supreme Court ruling that legalised abortion in the U.S.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) responded via social media and a press release, stating their opposition to the bill and promising to sue should the bill pass.
Abortion opponents in multiple states, however, hope to start new legal battles that could prompt the court to revisit Roe v Wade. And with conservatives such as Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh now on the supreme court, many have been energised in overturning or undermining legalised abortion in the U.S.
