Update 5/17 @ 6:26 PM:

Elizabeth Warren has weighed in. She argues that Congress should act aggressively to enact legislation so in the event Roe-v-Wade is eventually overturned by the SCOTUS a womens rights to reproductive health would remain protected. Federal law  supersedes state law.

Her main arguments are highlighted below.  They make perfect sense and 71% of Americans, inclding 52% of republicans would agree. They do not Roe-v-Wade overtured.

• Create federal, statutory rights that parallel the constitutional right in Roe v. Wade. The extremists behind proposals like the Alabama law don’t reflect public opinion in America. Polling data shows that 71% of Americans oppose overturning Roe — including 52% of Republicans. Congress should do its job and protect their constituents from these efforts by establishing affirmative, statutory rights that parallel Roe vs. Wade. These rights would have at least two key components. First, they must prohibit states from interfering in the ability of a health care provider to provide medical care, including abortion services. Second, they must prohibit states from interfering in the ability of a patient to access medical care, including abortion services, from a provider that offers them.

• Pass federal laws to preempt state efforts that functionally limit access to reproductive health care. States have passed countless Targeted Regulations on Abortion Providers (TRAP) laws, which are designed to functionally limit and eliminate women’s access to abortion care while not technically contravening Roe. Geographical, physical, and procedural restrictions and requirements. Restrictions on medication abortion. These kinds of restrictions are medically-unnecessary and exist for only one purpose: to functionally eliminate the ability of women to access abortion services. A bill already proposed in Congress, The Women’s Health Protection Act, would provide the mechanism to block these kinds of schemes concocted to deny women access to care. Congress should pass it.
• Guarantee reproductive health coverage as part of all health coverage. All women — no matter where they live, where they’re from, how much money they make, or the color of their skin — are entitled to access the high-quality, evidence-based reproductive health care that is envisioned by Roe. Making that a reality starts with repealing the Hyde Amendment, which blocks abortion coverage for women under federally funded health care programs like Medicaid, the VA, and the Indian Health Service. Congress should also expand culturally- and linguistically-appropriate services and information and include immigrant women in conversations about coverage and access. Congress must also pass the EACH Woman Act, which would also prohibit abortion restrictions on private insurance. And we should ensure that all future health coverage — including Medicare for All — includes contraception and abortion coverage.
• Ensure equal access and reproductive justice. Securing a federal right to Roe and ensuring that reproductive health care is available to every woman in America is just the beginning. We must undo the current Administration’s efforts to undermine women’s access to reproductive health care — including ending Trump’s gag rule and fully support Title X family planning funding. We must crack down on violence at abortion clinics and ensure that women are not discriminated against at work or anywhere else for the choices they made about their bodies.

• Guarantee reproductive health coverage as part of all health coverage. All women — no matter where they live, where they’re from, how much money they make, or the color of their skin — are entitled to access the high-quality, evidence-based reproductive health care that is envisioned by Roe. Making that a reality starts with repealing the Hyde Amendment, which blocks abortion coverage for women under federally funded health care programs like Medicaid, the VA, and the Indian Health Service. Congress should also expand culturally- and linguistically-appropriate services and information and include immigrant women in conversations about coverage and access. Congress must also pass the EACH Woman Act, which would also prohibit abortion restrictions on private insurance. And we should ensure that all future health coverage — including Medicare for All — includes contraception and abortion coverage.
• Ensure equal access and reproductive justice. Securing a federal right to Roe and ensuring that reproductive health care is available to every woman in America is just the beginning. We must undo the current Administration’s efforts to undermine women’s access to reproductive health care — including ending Trump’s gag rule and fully support Title X family planning funding. We must crack down on violence at abortion clinics and ensure that women are not discriminated against at work or anywhere else for the choices they made about their bodies.

Full Article Under the Fold.

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So, in 1973 Roe -v- Wade became the law of the land giving women the right to control their own bodies. Granting women the right to access safe and legal abortion was arguably the ethical and moral thing to do. Now, in 2019 the State of Alabama has decided it knows better and passed a ridiculously stupid anti abortion law. A law that would make ALL abortion illegal, with the sole exception of when giving birth would endanger the life of the women.

Of course not one single woman voted for the anti abortion legislation. Not that there are many women in the Alabama legislature. But one thing is for certain, Alabama sure has a gaggle of conservative evangelical men who think they know by far better what is right for women and society than the Majority of the rest of the country. In fairness to Alabama there are other states trundling down the same slope.

As I read through the many media reports after the law passed two things in the law stood out as the most glaring examples of outright stupidity I’ve seen of late. The law makes no exception for rape or incest. So, if a women is forcibly raped and the rape results in a pregnancy the women would be forced by the state to carry the monsters child to term. Same for a women impregnated by a male relative. For me this raises a few questions.

Since the state of Alabama wishes to force a women to carry a rapist’s child against her will, just as she was forced by the rapist to have sex, it only seems right and proper that the state assume responsibility for her care during the pregnancy as well as carrying the burden of delivery costs. It also would be right and proper for the state to pick up all costs for child care until suitable adoptive parents are found. Incest is not necessarily an act of forced sex, but sometimes it is. Which of course puts it on the same level as rape.

It is considered safe for 1’st cousins and outward to give birth to a child as the likelihood of genetic defects is no greater than that of the general population. Unless the families are known to be full of harmful recessives (recessive genes). However, closer relatives engaging in a incestuous relationship where a history of recessive genes are evident in both can and often does lead to serious genetic defects in the child. Aborting a fetus in this case is, simply put, the humane decision. Both for the fetus and for the parents.

Of course the Alabama law is headed for the Supreme Court. Which is precisely the real goal of the Alabama law. It is the test case always dreamt of by male right-wing conservative religious evangelicals to overturn Roe-v-Wade. The hopes of the anti choice movement is to return the USA to the dark ages and back alley abortions. Which if this horrid law is upheld is exactly what will happen.

Those are my heartfelt views. I would love to hear yours.

Related article I came across that you may very well find interesting. It certainly offer fodder for rational discussion if one chooses.

Broader Implications of ‘My Body, My Choice’

Abortion Ban in Alabama Designed ‘To Directly Challenge Roe v. Wade’

Continue reading Settled Law Revisited……