Alabama Lawmakers Pass Bill Banning Nearly All Abortions
The Alabama Senate has passed an abortion ban that would be one of the most restrictive in the United States. The bill would make it a crime for doctors to perform abortions at any stage of a pregnancy unless a woman’s life is threatened or in case of lethal fetal anomaly.
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Dave Martin/AP
Updated Wednesday at 12:03 a.m. ET
The Alabama Senate passed a bill Tuesday evening to ban nearly all abortions. The state House had already overwhelmingly approved the legislation. It’s part of a broader anti-abortion strategy to prompt the U.S. Supreme Court to reconsider the right to abortion.
It would be one of the most restrictive abortion bans in the United States. The bill would make it a crime for doctors to perform abortions at any stage of a pregnancy, unless a woman’s life is threatened or in case of a lethal fetal anomaly.
The vote was 25-6, with one abstention.
Doctors in the state would face felony jail time up to 99 years if convicted. But a woman would not be held criminally liable for having an abortion.
Laura Stiller of Montgomery protests outside the Alabama State House as the Senate debates an abortion ban. Stiller calls the legislation political and an “affront to women’s rights.”
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There are no exceptions in the bill for cases of rape or incest, and that was a sticking point when the Alabama Senate first tried to debate the measure last Thursday. The Republican-majority chamber adjourned in dramatic fashion when leaders tried to strip a committee amendment that would have added an exception for cases of rape or incest.
Sponsors insist they want to limit exceptions because the bill is designed to push the idea that a fetus is a person with rights, in a direct challenge to the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark Roe v. Wade decision that established a woman’s right to abortion.
“Human life has rights, and when someone takes those rights, that’s when we as government have to step in,” said Republican Clyde Chambliss, the Senate sponsor of the abortion ban.
The amendment has divided Republicans. Lt. Gov. Will Ainsworth, who presides over the Senate, posted on Twitter that his position is simple — “Abortion is murder.” But other Senate leaders have insisted that there be exceptions for rape and incest.
‘Abortion is murder,’ those three simple words sum up my position on an issue that many falsely claim is a complex one. #PassHB314 #NoAmendments pic.twitter.com/NjpYW2wu8T
— Will Ainsworth (@willainsworthAL) May 13, 2019
Democrats didn’t have the votes to stop the bill but tried to slow down proceedings during the debate.
Democratic Sen. Vivian Davis Figures questioned why supporters would not want victims of rape or incest to have an exception for a horrific act.
“To take that choice away from that person who had such a traumatic act committed against them, to be left with the residue of that person if you will, to have to bring that child into this world and be reminded of it every single day,” Figures said.
Republican Gov. Kay Ivey has not said whether she will sign it, and said she was waiting for a final version of the bill. She is considered a strong opponent of abortion.
The ACLU of Alabama says it will sue if the bill becomes law. “This bill will not take effect anytime in the near future, and abortion will remain a safe, legal medical procedure at all clinics in Alabama,” the organization tweeted Tuesday night, along with a map showing clinic locations in the state.
PLEASE REMEMBER: This bill will not take effect anytime in the near future, and abortion will remain a safe, legal medical procedure at all clinics in Alabama. #mybodymychoice #HB314 pic.twitter.com/vVohsiR5Md
— ACLU of Alabama (@ACLUAlabama) May 15, 2019
“Abortion is still legal in all 50 states,” the ACLU’s national organization wrote. “It’s true that states have passed laws trying to make abortion a crime, but we will sue in court to make sure none of those laws ever go into effect.”
Chipping away at abortion rights
In recent years, conservative states have passed laws that have chipped away at the right to abortion with stricter regulations, including time limits, waiting periods and medical requirements on doctors and clinics. This year state lawmakers are going even further now that there’s a conservative majority on the U.S. Supreme Court.
“The strategy here is that we will win,” says Alabama Pro-Life Coalition President Eric Johnston, who helped craft the Alabama abortion ban.
“There are a lot of factors and the main one is two new judges that may give the ability to have Roe reviewed,” Johnston said. “And Justice Ginsburg — no one knows about her health.”
So states are pushing the envelope. Several, including Alabama’s neighbors Georgia and Mississippi, have passed laws that prohibit abortion once a fetal heartbeat can be detected. But the drafters of the Alabama bill think by having no threshold other than if a woman is pregnant, their law might be the one ripe for Supreme Court review.
The National Organization for Women denounced the ban’s passage.
“This unconstitutional measure would send women in the state back to the dark days of policymakers having control over their bodies, health and lives,” the organization said in a statement. “NOW firmly believes that women have the constitutional right to safe, legal, affordable and accessible abortion care and we strongly oppose this bill and the other egregious pieces of legislation that extremist lawmakers are trying to pass in what they claim is an attempt to force the Supreme Court to overturn Roe.”
What It Would Take For U.S. Companies To Switch Supply Chains Away From China
President Trump wants manufacturers to source raw materials from outside China. NPR’s Ari Shapiro talks with Syracuse University economist Mary Lovely about how companies could move supply chains.
ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
If you dig into how a smartphone or bicycle or a pair of shoes is put together, you will eventually reach China. Even companies that make products in the U.S. often get their parts from China. This week, President Trump suggested that to avoid tariffs, those companies should buy parts domestically or from a different country like Vietnam.
To get a sense of what it takes to move a global supply chain, we’re joined now by Mary Lovely, an economist with Syracuse University. Welcome to ALL THINGS CONSIDERED.
MARY LOVELY: Thank you, Ari.
SHAPIRO: Have you already started to see manufacturers move their supply chains out of China as a reaction to these tariffs?
LOVELY: Well, there certainly have been a lot of reports, and we’ve seen some. But on a scale that would move China’s exports here very much – no, not yet.
SHAPIRO: Why do you think that is?
LOVELY: Well, the adjustment is going to be costly. You have to either find a new supplier or build a new factory. And so far, the tariffs have been conditional. You know, we might get a deal. The president might roll them back. So if firms believe the tariffs are temporary and there’s a lot of uncertainty, then they won’t go ahead and make that investment.
SHAPIRO: Is it harder to move production of a high-end product like a smartphone than something like a pair of shoes?
LOVELY: Definitely. It’s not only just the production process itself. There’s a whole host of other things. So for example, in shoes, say an American company may have a set of representatives who go out and find subcontractors. These subcontractors may change from season to season. Some subcontractors go out of business. Some of them don’t provide the level of quality that was wanted. So there’s a lot of fluidity in this process. And they can switch suppliers pretty quickly.
When we look at something like an iPhone, you’re seeing a process where at each point along the way, Apple has a role to play with very specific technology that’s done in a very specific way to very high standards. And moving that kind of supply chain from the people you know and trust and have had relationships with for a long time is going to be costly and much more difficult.
SHAPIRO: Do you think there could come a point when the trade war stretches on for so long or the tariffs get so high that companies decide they’re just going to suck up the costs and relocate?
LOVELY: Yes, and I think we’re approaching that point. Businesses aren’t seeing the trade conflict calm down. They’re actually probably seeing it escalate. So this may be the time that firms actually say, hey, this is going to be around for quite a while, and maybe it’s the time for us to start making the investments that we need.
SHAPIRO: China is so large. If American manufacturers did decide to move their supply chains out of China, is there capacity in other countries to pick up all of this business?
LOVELY: Short answer is really no, not in the short run. Longer-term, countries like India which have a large, untapped population that would like to be more deeply embedded into global value chains – they will be able to come online and gradually get the capacity to replicate what China had done. That’s not just building factories. It’s also developing the skills within the population, within the managers to get things like failure rates very low.
You know, we kind of take for granted if we buy a television set that’s made in Asia that it’s going to work. This wasn’t always the case. Products have gotten to be very good. And as we shift supply chains, you know, we’ll see those types of costs going up where you get a piece of equipment, and it’s what we might call a lemon, and you take it back to the store. That’s going to raise the costs for the companies that are involved in that business.
SHAPIRO: Mary Lovely is an economics professor at Syracuse University. Thanks for joining us.
LOVELY: Thanks, Ari.
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Who Is Believed?
“They all needed Larry. Gymnastics is punishing. Spend enough hours hoisting your body up and over those wooden gymnastics bars, eventually the skin on your palms rips right open.”
That’s a quote from host Lindsey Smith in the first episode of the podcast Believed, from NPR and Michigan Radio.
In 2018, Nassar was convicted of criminal sexual conduct and federal child pornography charges.
He serially abused hundreds of young women. His victims included household names like Simone Biles and Aly Raisman, but they weren’t all famous. Vox reports that the majority “were students and young female athletes — gymnasts, dancers, and volleyball players.”
At the very minimum, isn’t it unsettling to think that because of Nassar’s expertise treating athletes, he was kept on despite suspicions he was abusing his patients? And that when girls and young women came forward with their stories, no one believed them?
But it happened. For decades.
The purpose of Believed is to discover “how Larry Nassar abused so many for so long.”
In one instance, the police just believed Nassar instead of what his victim reported. And local detectives never referred the case to a local prosecutor for review, to see if this report of Nassar’s behavior reflected an isolated incident, or something worse.
We reached out to USA Gymnastics, and they sent us this statement.
We will never forget the appalling acts of abuse that have forever impacted our athletes and the gymnastics community. We admire the survivors’ courage and strength in sharing their stories, and our goal is to do everything we can to prevent the opportunity for it to happen again. USA Gymnastics is further strengthening its athlete safety policies — including provisions on mandatory reporting and setting boundaries for athlete-adult interaction — to establish greater accountability and make reporting easier. Athletes are the heart and soul of our sport, their safety is of paramount importance to us, and we are focused on making our organization more athlete-centric.
We bring you the latest on what’s happened since Nassar’s conviction and speak with Lindsey Smith about her work.
Produced by Kathryn Fink.
This show will discuss sexual abuse and assault. If you or someone you know needs to speak to someone, the National Sexual Assault Hotline is 1-800-656-4673. You can also use the RAINN online hotline, which you can find here.
