Alabama Lawmakers

Public Enemy #1 - May 2019

On May 15, Alabama Governor Kay Ivey signed into law the Alabama Human Life Protection Act which, by November, will effectively outlaws abortion in the state.

This decision by the state was met with outrage not only within the state but nationwide, sparking hashtags like #AbortionIsAWomansRight and others to fill timelines on social media. Alabama is just one of the several states this year to introduce legislation regulating abortion within their borders. This list includes the likes of Georgia, Ohio, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Louisiana, Arkansas and Utah.

What sets Alabama apart from all of the others is their outright restriction on abortion. In 1973, Roe v. Wade marked a precedent in the United States leading up to today in which abortion is legal nationwide. By enacting such a law, Alabama is shaking up the country in such a way that will affect all Americans potentially overturning a decades-long decision.

To this day, the general public does seem to support the decision of Roe v. Wade. According to a Pew Research Center survey, 58% of Americans believe that abortion should be legal in all/most cases.

Alabama lawmakers receive this month's designation of Public Enemy not for their political action in accord with their party's beliefs, but for their needless intervention on the matter. The bill, which passed in both the state's House (74-3) and the Senate (25-6) was approved completely by white Republican men.

According to the Guttmacher Institute, 75 percent of abortion patients are from low-income backgrounds with nearly half of them living below the federal poverty level.

So in the matter of abortion, a procedure which drastically impacts the lives of women from low-income backgrounds why are 99 wealthy men making all the decisions?

See what Twitter had to say about the abortion legislation down below: