How States Like Alabama Protect Rapists Over Women and Girls

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Update Wed., May 15, 2019: In a tweet, Gov. Kay Ivey said that she has signed HB 314. “Today, I signed into law the Alabama Human Life Protection Act,” she wrote. “To the bill’s many supporters, this legislation stands as a powerful testament to Alabamians’ deeply held belief that every life is precious & that every life is a sacred gift from God.”

On Tuesday night, after nearly four hours of debate, the Alabama Senate passed HB 314, a bill that essentially outlaws all forms of abortion except in cases where the mother’s life is at risk, or if the unborn baby is found to have a “lethal anomaly.” The bill makes no exceptions for victims of rape or incest, despite Democrats’ attempts to reintroduce such exceptions as an amendment. Perhaps most notably, if the bill becomes law, doctors who perform abortions could face up to 99 years in prison. HB 314, which passed by a vote of 25 to 6, is awaiting the signature of Gov. Kay Ivey. Ivey has six days to decide whether she will sign it. (Gov. Ivey has repeatedly and vehemently expressed anti-choice views, but has not commented on HB 314 specifically; the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Terri Collins, has said she expects Ivey will sign.)

HB 314 is a near-total abortion ban. If enacted, it will be the most draconian anti-abortion law in the country. And in the context of the national discussion about reproductive rights, the implications of HB 314 could also be devastating. Proponents of the bill (including the sponsor of HB 314 itself) have openly admitted that it is intended as a direct challenge to Roe v. Wade — and given the present composition of the Supreme Court, the fear of the landmark ruling being overturned or dramatically eroded is an all too valid one.

But what has struck reproductive-rights advocates about HB 314 in particular is the seemingly punitive nature of the bill, as well as the inherent cruelty of forcing survivors of rape or incest to carry their fetuses to term, some of whom are likely very young women (according to the Rape and Incest National Network, women between the ages of 16 and 19 are four times more likely than the general population to be the victims of rape and sexual assault). And while anti-abortion legislators have been emboldened in recent years, there seems to be something particularly vindictive about the fact that doctors who perform the procedure would face up to 99 years in prison — a sentence that, as many reproductive-rights activists on Twitter have pointed out, far exceeds most of those for violent sexual offenders.

https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/alabama-abortion-law-rape-sexual-assault-punishment-835583/

[IcyPeas]

1. "every life is precious & that every life is a sacred gift from God"

in 2017 she signed into law.....

-- a bill to speed up death-penalty appeals and hasten executions in Alabama.

[pansypoo53219]

2. every sperm is sacred.