On Tuesday night, Alabama voted to outlaw abortion entirely. Doctors who perform the procedure could go to prison for 99 years, simply for providing healthcare that one in four American women obtain at some point in her life. The law offers no exception for rape or incest victims because, as the Republicans lawmaker Clyde Chambliss said, “when God creates the miracle of life inside a woman’s womb, it is not our place human to terminate that life.
Alabama’s Republicans Governor has signed the most stringent abortion legislation in the nation, making performing an abortion a felony in nearly all cases.
“To the bill’s many supporters, this legislation stands as a power testament to Alabama’s deeply held believe that every life is precious and that every life is sacred gift from God,” Gov. Kay Ivey said.
The sex education law in Alabama, though,”tend to be permissive”and is” not mandated and not regulated,” said Christina Clerk Okarmus, executive director of an effort recently renamed the Alabama Campaign for Adolescent Sexual Health.
If sex ed is offered, it must meet several criteria,she said, including an emphasis on abstinence and language emphasizing “that homosexuality is not a lifestyle acceptable to the general public and that homosexual conduct is a criminal offense under the laws of the state.”
After years of anti-abortion efforts to chip away at a woman’s right to choose, the American “pro-life” movement has finally decided to go whole hog: they are introducing, and successfully passing, legislation across the country that outlaw abortion.
Many of these are “backdoor bans” on abortion, which outlaw the procedure after six weeks of pregnancy. That may sound reasonable enough how can a woman be pregnant for six weeks not realize it? but they are also prey on American about reproduction.
A bill now before the Legislature seek to remove some of that language, she said, but emphasis on abstinence would stand. And while schools are also told to include discussions about condoms and other forms of birth control,lack of oversight or enforcement has meant that “a lot of places don’t,” Clark Okarmus said.
Alabama has the ninth highest teen birth rate in the country, with 27 births per 1,000 female 15-19,according to 2017 data from the US centers for Disease control and prevention. Arkansas has the highest rate a 32.8 birth per 1,000 and Massachusetts has the lowest rate at 8.1 births per 1,000.
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