Gov. Kay Ivey, do not sign Alabama Abortion Bill

Governor Ivey of Alabama, the undersigned demand you do not sign the Alabama Abortion Bill into law.

In 1973 Roe v. Wade was a landmark decision by the Supreme Court of the United States. The decision ruled that the fundamental "right to privacy" provided by the 14th Amendment of the Constitution of the United States protects a pregnant woman's liberty to choose whether or not to have an abortion, while also ruling that this right is not absolute and must be balanced against the government's interests in protecting women's health and protecting prenatal life. The court ruled that the right to choose was "fundamental", and gave a clear timeline of what was considered legal, by states. Including, these regulations concerning the three trimesters: the Court ruled that during the first trimester, governments could not prohibit abortions; during the second trimester, abortions still could not be prohibited, but governments could "regulate the abortion procedure in ways that are reasonably related to maternal health"; during the third trimester, abortions could be prohibited entirely so long as the laws contained exceptions for cases when abortion was necessary to save the life of the mother.

We, the undersigned, understand that the Alabama Law on your desk for your signature is radically opposing Roe v. Wade's landmark decision. Something that could effect women for decades to come, and undo over four decades of women's health initiatives. Denying women access to legal abortion does not prevent them from having abortions, but just increases the likelihood that they will resort to an illegal abortion carried out under unsafe conditions. In a 1976 article, researchers from the Center for Disease Control examined national abortion data from the three years surrounding the rulings and estimated that the number of illegal procedures in the country plummeted from around 130,000 to 17,000 between 1972 and 1974. The number of deaths associated with illegal abortion decreased from 39 to five in that same time period; women who died as a result of illegal abortions typically were black, were more than 12 weeks pregnant and had self-induced in their own community. The researchers concluded that abortion services need to be improved and available more widely, especially for women at high risk for seeking illegal abortions, because “any actions which impede their access to legal abortion may increase their risk of death.”

We, the undersigned, demand you do not sign the Alabama Law prohibiting abortion in your state past the legal precedent of Roe v. Wade. If your lawmakers would like to make a stand in the Supreme Court relating to Abortion Rights, we ask they reconsider the ramifications of their draconian words and legislation that would set an unfair, unethical, unhealthy precedent in the United States of America. Madame Governor, it is in your hands now to thwart a chaotic future for the women of our country. We demand, without haste, that you do not sign this Bill into law.