On May 14, Alabama state legislators passed the most restrictive and dangerous anti-abortion legislation in the United States. Less than 24 hours later, Republican Governor Kay Ivey signed it into law.
While Alabama’s HB 314 is the most extreme bill to be signed into law since Roe v. Wade—it bans abortion across the board, even in cases of rape and incest, with one exception if the pregnant person’s life is at risk—it follows in the footsteps of six-week abortion bans, like the one recently signed into law by Georgia Governor Brian Kemp.
It’s true that these sweeping abortion bans could make it all the way to the Supreme Court of the United States in a challenge to Roe. That’s what forced-birthers want, after all. It’s also true that if they’re enforced—which is extremely unlikely unless Roe is overturned—pregnant people seeking abortion care may die. (This is why education and resources about safe, self-managed abortion is critical right now.)
It’s not true, however, that abortion is automatically illegal in Alabama, Georgia, and other states that have passed near-total abortion bans in 2019. Abortion is still legal in every single state in the United States. It may not be accessible or affordable, and there may be arbitrary restrictions like 24 or 72-hour waiting periods or 20 or 24-week bans, but abortion is still legal everywhere.
Right now, abortion is still legal up to 20 weeks in Alabama and Georgia. Both states have exceptions after 20 weeks if the pregnant person’s life is in danger. If it is not blocked in court (which, again, it most likely will be), Alabama’s law would not go into effect until six months from now. Georgia’s would go into effect on January 1, 2020.
These cruel bans are downright terrifying, but we have to center patients in our activism, discussions, and reporting about them. The last thing patients who are waiting for abortion care need is to be scared out of going to their appointments because they saw a Facebook post about how abortion is “now illegal” in Alabama or how they need to secretly Georgia without telling their friends and family in order to access medical care.