Hundreds protest against strict Alabama abortion law

Around 400 people took to the streets in the capital city of the southern US state of Alabama on Sunday to rally against the nation's most restrictive bans on abortions in decades.

Women's reproductive rights defenders gathered in Montgomery, as well as in Birmingham, Anniston and Huntsville where hundreds more were estimated to have joined in denouncing the "Alabama Human Life Protection Act," or HB314, which virtually outlaws terminations of pregnancy.

Protesters in Montgomery held up signs reading "her body, her choice" and "we are not ovary-acting." There were no counter-demonstrators.

A woman wearing beige underwear that made her look naked had a drawing of her reproductive system attached to her abdomen and a banner reading: "More than an incubator." Several other women were dressed as characters forced to bear children in the dystopian novel and television series "The Handmaid's Tale." One of them, who gave her name only as Amanda, accused Alabama's legislators of "trying to imprison women and doctors."

Wearing the 'Handmaid's Tale' outfit is sending a message that you're trying to turn us into slaves, reproductive slaves," the 40-year-old-lawyer told AFP, "They're trying to fill prisons, more private prisons so that women will do hard labor after they get convicted of these 'crimes' of abortion."

"Our call center's been getting hundreds and hundreds of phone calls from concerned citizens asking us what this means," said Barbara Ann Luttrell, director of communications and marketing for Planned Parenthood Southeast.
Planned Parenthood is not currently providing abortion services in Alabama. "We'll be having abortion services up and running again as soon as possible," she said.

There are only three clinics that perform the procedure. None of them responded requests of comments.

The Alabama law is likely to be blocked in state courts before its November launch date but Republican Governor Kay Ivey acknowledged when she signed it that it was part of as a wider Republican offensive to get the issue relitigated on the national stage.

"We're going to return to the back alleys. We're going to return to where women will do abortions to themselves," 81-year-old Maralyn Mosley told the Montgomery Advertiser.

She had an abortion at 13, after her uncle raped her.

"We will return to the coat hangers and perforated uteruses. We will return to where women will bleed to death," she warned.

Conservative activists hope to get a Supreme Court decision against the landmark 1973 ruling Roe v Wade that said unduly restrictive state regulation of abortion is unconstitutional.

Conservatives are counting on support at the highest court in the land, where liberal justices are in a minority after the arrival of two conservative members appointed by President Donald Trump.

Trump appeared to suggest Alabama lawmakers had gone too far in a series of tweets late Saturday in which he described himself as "strongly Pro-Life, with the three exceptions - Rape, Incest and protecting the Life of the mother." He urged the anti-abortion side to "stick together and Win for Life" when it comes to voting in 2020.

As most people know, and for those who would like to know, I am strongly Pro-Life, with the three exceptions - Rape, Incest and protecting the Life of the mother - the same position taken by Ronald Reagan. We have come very far in the last two years with 105 wonderful new.....

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 19, 2019

While the Alabama measure is seen as particularly draconian, at least 28 US states have introduced more than 300 texts since the start of the year limiting abortion rights, according to activists.

Kentucky and Mississippi have banned abortions as soon as a fetus's heartbeat is detectable, or around the sixth week of pregnancy.

Similar measures are being adopted in Georgia, Ohio, Missouri and Tennessee.

A judge has blocked the implementation of the Kentucky law, while the Mississippi law is set to come into effect in July.

The country's largest human rights organization, ACLU, has said it will file suit against Alabama's law as unconstitutional.

HB314 seeks jail terms of between 10 and 99 years for doctors performing terminations, which are counted as homicides. It stipulates no penalty for the mother.

Around two thirds of Americans say abortion should be legal, a Pew Center poll found last year.