Roe v. Wade first recognized a citizen’s constitutional right to abortion and this year states decided… fuck that, we’re just doing what we want!!
*AIRHORN NOISE*
This was the year of bans! It was a situation SO bad that it meant… EVERYONE TALKED ABOUT ABORTION FOR A MONTH. Yes, the news stations that so often ignore abortion news, Twitter which is so oversaturated with people talking about the president, conversations at water coolers, PEOPLE WERE TALKING.
5.Bans for “REASONS”
We’ve LONG known that anti-abortion people don’t *actually* care about babies or real humans. THESE laws that ban abortion based on a Down Syndrome diagnosis make that… real clear. ONE: stop trying to pit disability rights against reproductive rights. That’s not gonna work. TWO: We will remember FOREVER this story out of Utah (which DID pass one of these bans this year). A family with a child with Down Syndrome testified that they had been waiting 22 MOTHERFUCKING YEARS for their child to get the assistance they needed. THINK about that for a second: Utah is so busy trying to force people to give birth that they don’t have a plan to get aid to REAL LIVE HUMAN BEINGs who have been asking… FOR 22 YEARS!
Arkansas, Kentucky, and Missouri also passed these diagnosis, “We get to decide which reasons are BAD for getting an abortion this year” bans this year. Kentucky also passed a ban for getting an abortion because of genetic anamolies. Kentucky and Missouri banned abortion because of sex or… wait for it… race of the baby. These both feel INCREDIBLY racist to us.
4. Arbitrary Week Bans
To our buddies that tried to argue these bans at a week were more about “deadlines” than “bans”… honestly, what a fun use of tax payer dollars buying a thesaurus is. So these arbitrary week bans offer a weird glimpse into how every politician defines “unhinged” and “weeks.” We’re pretty sure doctors KNOW when viability is and ALSO in a lot of states the biggest barrier to getting an abortion after 12-weeks is availabilty of clinics that perform the procedure. BUT NO, some politicians this year decided that banning abortion after a SPECIFIC, ARBITRARY number of weeks was important. Montana attempted a 22-week abortion ban, but it didn’t pass.
And then Arkansas and Utah tried to ban abortion at 18 weeks. BECAUSE REASONS. You know trying to argue that you have to have a specific reason to get an abortion and then just randomly saying “OK also, we’ve decided based on nothing that viability is now 18 weeks” is… truly anti-abortion. Both of these were blocked though!
3. Bans on Procedures
So if they can’t ban it by an arbitrary number of weeks DIRECTLY, some places try to do it INDIRECTLY by banning the safest procedure for second trimester abortions. We’ll have a blog later about how anti-abortion misogynists make up science. BUT saying “Abortion is not safe” and then also saying “You can’t perform the safest abortion procedure, do a more dangerous one” is peak anti-abortion logic. Indiana and North Dakota banned dilation and evacuation abortions (again, the safest method for second trimester abortions). These laws true combination of “not helping” and “trying to find a loophole to Roe v Wade” that would be the most shockingly obvious thing ever if… WE DIDN’T HAVE ONE AND TWO TO GET TO!
2. Bans As Soon As You Know You’re Pregnant
Yes, that’s right now we’re getting to the TOTAL BANS. The “heartbeat” bills so frickin’ emo but not in a good way. Anti-abortion heartstrings do everything possible to try to make you feel bad about getting an abortion and to redefine what life is. Now deciding that the SOUND of a heartbeat is ENOUGH to count as life has TAKEN over. And we got the year of BANS AT SIX WEEKS! Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Ohio, and Missouri (so technically this is an eight-week ban because it requires a different ultrasound) all passed these bullshit total bans. Bans where it would be LITERALLY impossible to get an abortion. All of these, of course, have been blocked.
Georgia’s ban specifically garnered a HUGE amount of attention and sparked outrage on social media. The bill has some truly scary and ridiculous personhood language in it that allows for fetuses and embryos to be COUNTED IN THE STATE POPULATION. Wow, we can’t believe this bill became a “let’s try to trick the electoral college” bill too! It redfines “natural person” to include an unborn child. It’s a … mess. You can read some more of the messiness here.
Just a reminder that Georgia has the highest maternal mortality rate in the United States.
1. Alabama
Last AND least we get to Alabama which HAPPENED AFTER GEORGIA. Like after so many protests and so much outrage Alabama politicians were like “let’s go BIGGER.” Alabama passed a TOTAL BAN. NO EXCEPTIONS FOR RAPE AND INCEST. The ULTIMATE definition of a fucking troll on Roe v Wade. “Human Life Protection Act” this… name. The most obvious example of how tainted their worldview is that they think THIS is the thing that will PROTECT human life.
We want to say the fact that all the TOTAL bans of #2 and #1 got blocked is a good sign, but they’re just trying to get to the Supreme Court. And we can’t even predict that the SCOTUS will be logical! Do you know how SCARY that is???
But we think that the thing that is most important to leave this blog with is this: Abortion is still legal in all 50 states. BUT, there’s no way for us to know the number of people these bans hurt. The number of people who thought abortion was illegal and therefore didn’t get the procedure they needed. The number of people too afraid to search abortion in these states. There’s no telling how much “human life” these anti-abortion orcs hurt. And that’s the legacy of this year.
