Pro-choice and anti-abortion protestors face off outside the Supreme Court.Photo: Drew Angerer/Getty
Legislatures in Arizona, Florida and West Virginia all voted this week toban abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy,with no exceptions for rape or incest.
On Tuesday, Arizona’s Senate and West Virginia’s House of Delegates passed bills that would ban the procedure just after the first trimester. And on Wednesday, Florida’s House of Delegatespassed a similar bill.
The bills now need to go to the states' other legislatures and their governors before they become law, but with all three states entirely Republican-led, they are expected to pass.
The bans would be in violation ofRoe v. Wade, but the legislators are counting on the Supreme Court overturning those protections this year now thatthe majority-conservative Court is hearing argumentsonMississippi’s near-identical 15-week abortion ban.
If the Supreme Court decides in favor of Mississippi’s ban, it couldend the right to abortion nationwide.
“You cannot perform an amniocentesis until the second trimester and generally speaking, we don’t perform an amniocentesis until 16 to 20 weeks,” Deans said. “That’s just a medical fact.”
Republican Sen. Nancy Barto, the sponsor of Arizona’s abortion bill, argued with Democratic Sen. Martin Quezada, who asked if she thinks the bill is constitutional.
“I believe it is. I believe it is,” Barto said,according to NBC News. “I believe our constitution stands clearly for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness and the first part of that is life.”
RELATED VIDEO: ‘I Pray for All … Who Will Suffer’: Many Stars Are Outraged at Sweeping Alabama Abortion Ban
Quezada pointed out that it would impact low-income Arizonians who already have a difficult time getting health care.
“Instead of making this type of health care more accessible to these people, we’re making it more difficult for them to get access to,” he said. “So the reality is that that we’re making life harder for the people that need the most help in our society.”
In West Virginia, Republican Delegate Ruth Rowan, who sponsored their bill, falsely claimed that the fetus can feel pain at 15 weeks, saying that it “can feel that it’s being torn apart and aborted,“HuffPost reported. Extensive research has shown that fetuses cannot feel pain until 24 weeks of gestation at the earliest, according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.
Democratic Delegate Danielle Walker, who has spoken publicly about being a rape and domestic violence survivor and having an abortion,argued against the bill.
“I shouldn’t have to keep getting up to give these speeches,” she said. “Every year, time and time again, this state legislature decides to spend our time and resources putting more and more restrictions on abortion care ― a common, normal medical procedure that one in four who identify as a woman, and for those who don’t, a patient, will access in their lifetime.”
source: people.com
