In the US states of West Virginia and Alabama measures were passed that could limit or ban abortion in those states and possibly beyond. This could overturn a 1973 law, Roe v. Wade that legalised abortion across the US. The new move echoes a sharp turn towards more conservative values and policies that have emerged under the Trump presidency.
The Trump presidency has already delivered a number of controversial and discriminatory policies, and the first midterm elections of his first term allow what some hope will be ‘an opportunity to reset’. Campaigners and advocates say that the new laws would most likely affect women who already face limited access to healthcare due to low income. Dawn Laguens, Planned Parenthood’s executive vice president, said in a statement.
“Women resoundingly rejected the Trump-Pence agenda, so Trump and Pence took direct aim at women’s health coverage for birth control and abortion,”
“Women will remember this attack on their basic health care.”
Dr Willie Parker a gynaecologist from Alabama and board chair of Physicians for Reproductive Health told CNN,
“Abortion is health care, health care is a right,” he said in a news release, “and a right is not a right if every patient can’t afford to access it.”
Alabama
In Alabama, an amendment to the state’s constitution to formally “recognize and support the sanctity of unborn life and rights of children, including the right to life” was leading by a margin of 59 percent to 40 percent with 96 percent of precincts counted, according to the New York Times.
Fifty-nine percent of the population of Alabama voted in favour of Amendment 2, which is a proposed amendment to the Alabama constitution of 1901 and suggests,
‘to declare and otherwise affirm that it is the public policy of this state to recognize and support the sanctity of unborn life and the rights of unborn children, most importantly the right to life in all manners and measures appropriate and lawful; and to provide that the constitution of this state does not protect the right to abortion or require the funding of abortion.’
The amendment recognises the rights of the unborn and aims to ensure that state funds do not go towards abortion.
West Virginia
In Republican-led West Virginia, voters approved Amendment 1 which strips residents of abortion rights. Known as the “No Constitutional Right to Abortion Amendment,” Amendment 1 would add to the constitution of West Virginia that,
“nothing in this constitution secures or protects a right to abortion or requires the funding of abortion,”
However, in the long term these local state constitution amendments could face legal intervention at a national level and could be unenforceable because the national 1973 law ensures a woman’s right to an abortion.
Anti-abortion campaigners in West Virginia promoted the amendment as a way to prevent taxpayers from funding abortions. Mary Anne Buchanan, program director for West Virginians for Life said,
“In our way of thinking, this is a taxpayers’ rights amendment because people that don’t believe in abortion don’t feel like they should have to pay for them.”
On the other side of the debate, Katie Glenn, Alabama state director for Planned Parenthood Southeast Advocates said,
“All three of these instances are the latest in a long string of attacks on access to reproductive healthcare nationally,”
“Amendment 2 in Alabama specifically would pave the way to ban abortion without exception, regardless of whether the person was a victim of rape or incest or if their life is at risk.”