How Can Alabama Possibly Change The Freedoms of Women and Abortion When Abortion Has Been Legally Available For Over 45 Years?

The fact is the anti abortion laws in Alabama have never been repealed. It was the case of Roe v Wade from 1973 that allowed legal abortion in the United States, During the first trimester of a pregnant woman, the United States Supreme Court required that the procedure be performed by a licensed doctor in medically safe conditions.

During the second trimester it is the health of the pregnant woman that is the determinate when the Court decided that a state may regulate abortion.

During the third trimester of pregnancy, the state's interest is that the potential human life outweighs the woman's right to privacy. For this reason, the state may prohibit abortions unless abortion is necessary to save the life or health of the woman. Historically, it has been the viability of an unborn child on the outside that has distinguished it’s “humanness” and not the fact of it’s beating heart or even its humanoid form.

Justice White, dissenting in Roe v Wade said, The upshot is that the people and the legislatures of the 50 States are constitutionally disentitled to weigh the relative importance of the continued existence and development of the fetus, on the one hand, against a spectrum of possible impacts on the woman, on the other hand. As an exercise of raw judicial power, the Court perhaps has authority to do what it does today; but, in my view, its judgment is an improvident and extravagant exercise of the power of judicial review that the Constitution extends to this Court.

As time has rocked on, Alabama passed the Alabama Partial Birth Abortion law aimed at physicians who might perform such; a partial birth described as the baby’s head exiting the birth canal or in the case of a breech presentation birth at least to the baby’s navel. This is a class C felony by the physician.

Certainly as an observer and not privy to the discussion of Alabama legislators, I believe that the conservative changes to the United States Supreme Court make this a time for those states who had previously or whose voters would have voted against abortion to move forward with anti abortion legislation.

Alabama did in it’s Fall 2018 election largely affirm that abortion is murder. It is interesting that an intentional act that kills the unborn child of a pregnant woman is deemed murder but in the protections afforded a pregnant woman’s privacy, that an intentional abortion is not so considered as murder. In a former life I performed diagnostic medical ultrasound examinations at a local hospital under the guidance of a radiologist and I could see a fetal heart beat as early as 5 weeks gestation. It was not a viable life outside of the woman, but it was clearly life.

Truly, rolling back the clock on abortion will be difficult if the laws of Alabama survive a Supreme Court review. The signed law by Governor Ivey on May 15, 2019 does not become effective until November 15, 2019. The new law does not make the pregnant woman the criminal but rather the physician that is willing to perform an abortion. The woman is free to go to any other state that is willing to perform the abortion. Only in the case of a woman whose health (mental or physical) is at such stake that an abortion is allowed. The law is clear to also define things such as an ectopic pregnancy where the pregnancy occurs outside of the uterus and without the support needed for a full term.

Part of the law states, (d) In the United States Declaration of Independence, the principle of natural law that "all men are created equal" was articulated. The self-evident truth found in natural law, that all human beings are equal from creation, was at least one of the bases for the anti-slavery movement, the women's suffrage movement, the Nuremberg war crimes trials, and the American civil rights movement. If those movements had not been able to appeal to the truth of universal human equality, they could not have been successful.(e) Abortion advocates speak to women's rights, but they ignore the unborn child, while medical science has increasingly recognized the humanity of the unborn child.

The law seems to establish a basis of protection for the most vulnerable of all, the unborn. The law further quotes the most horrible genocidal acts of the 20th century and notes that the number of U.S. abortions since Roe v Wade in 1973 is triple those acts in numbers.

A physician that performs an abortion can be charged with a Class A felony and one that attempts an abortion a Class C felony. The law does not distinguish between rape and incest and a look at the facts shows that very few pregnancies occur from rape. Jane Roe or Norma McCorvey never had the abortion that Roe v Wade would have allowed and instead the child was delivered and adopted. The child is probably almost 50 now and you have to wonder about their life.

Norma McCorvey was 22 when her third child was born, the second and third children being adopted out. After working for abortion rights and living for years in a same sex relationship she finally saw abortion for what it is and began to work as a pro life advocate becoming a born again Christian. She later on renounced her same sex attraction. Norma McCorvey died at 69 in 2017.

This article is informative only and not meant to be all inclusive. Additionally this article does not serve as legal advice to the reader and does not constitute an attorney- client relationship. The reader should seek counsel from their attorney should any questions exist.

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Mailing address:

Ronald A. Holtsford, Esq.

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