Alabama Passes A Bill Making Abortion A Felony, Potentially Setting Up A Historic Showdown In The Supreme Court

We should applaud Alabama for trying to do the right thing


By Michael Snyder Wednesday, May 15, 2019

They actually did it.

On Tuesday night, the Alabama Senate passed a bill that would actually make abortion a felony in the state of Alabama. Needless to say, pro-abortion forces all over the nation are officially freaking out about this new law. They know that it is intended as “a direct challenge” to Roe v. Wade, and they know that this bill could potentially set up a historic showdown in the U.S. Supreme Court. As this bill was being debated, actress Alyssa Milano called for women all across America to conduct a national “sex strike” because she believes that “whoever controls reproduction has power”. Of course she has been greatly mocked for calling for such a strike, but the truth is that the left is going to do all that they can to derail this effort.

And even though there will be immediate legal challenges, the passing of this bill still represents an important victory. For decades, pro-abortion forces have successfully shot down bills that would have made abortion a felony in state legislatures all over the nation, but now we have finally had a breakthrough in Alabama…

After several hours of contentious debate, the Alabama Senate tonight voted 25-6 to pass what many say will be the strictest abortion ban in the nation. The controversial abortion bill all but bans the procedure in the state. The bill makes abortion a felony in Alabama. A similar measure already passed the Republican-controlled House but controversy erupted last week in the Senate after an attempt to add amendments that would allow exceptions for victims of rape or incest. Another attempt to add rape and incest exceptions today also failed and led to a filibuster attempt. Proponents of the measure pushed for a “clean bill” without amendments in order to clear the way to a legal fight in the U.S. Supreme Court and a review of Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that legalized abortion. The bill now goes to Gov. Kay Ivey, who will decide whether to sign it into law.

Governor Kay Ivey has not indicated whether she will sign the bill or not.

If she doesn’t, she probably will not get another term as governor.

If she does, the ACLU and Planned Parenthood are already promising to challenge the new law in court…

“The ACLU of Alabama, along with the National ACLU and Planned Parenthood, will file a lawsuit to stop this unconstitutional ban and protect every woman’s right to make her own choice about her healthcare, her body, and her future,” the ACLU of Alabama wrote in a statement Tuesday. “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.”

So nobody is going to be put in jail for performing an abortion in Alabama any time soon, but that was never the intent.

Instead, pro-life forces in Alabama always intended for this bill to be a direct legal challenge to Roe v. Wade…

It is meant to be a direct challenge to Roe v Wade, the landmark 1973 supreme court decision that guaranteed women in the US the right to an abortion. Backers fully expect the legislation to be quickly challenged and then overturned in lower courts, but hope the case will ultimately make it to the high court and persuade the justices to overturn the landmark decision.

We will see what happens as this case goes through the court system. The Supreme Court turns away most of the cases that are submitted to it, so it would be a huge victory just getting the Court to agree to hear it. In a typical year, approximately 7,000 cases are submitted to the Supreme Court for review, and the Court only usually accepts between 100 and 150.

And even if Roe v. Wade was overturned, that would not make abortion illegal in the United States.

Instead, abortion would no longer be a “constitutional right”, and it would be up to each individual state to determine if it is legal or not. And at this point, there are only a handful of very conservative red states such as Alabama that would attempt to make it illegal.

But of course overturning Roe v. Wade would still be a very important step, and that is why the composition of the U.S. Supreme Court is so vital.

Many conservatives assume that we should be able to overturn Roe v. Wade now that we have five “conservative” justices on the Supreme Court.

Unfortunately, that is not actually true.

Brett Kavanaugh was not the right choice for the Supreme Court, and conservatives should have made a much bigger fuss about him during the confirmation process. Kavanaugh has referred to Roe v. Wade as a precedent “we must follow”, and at no point in his entire career is there any indication that he would be willing to overturn it.

In fact, in a previous article I pointed out something extremely disturbing about Kavanaugh. When she delivered her speech on the floor of the U.S. Senate explaining why she was voting to confirm Kavanaugh, U.S. Senator Susan Collins publicly admitted that Kavanaugh essentially promised her that he would not vote to overturn Roe v. Wade if it was a 5 to 4 vote…

Most notably, Collins said in her explanation of why she was not worried that Kavanaugh would overturn Roe that Kavanaugh had told her when they were discussing his nomination that he did not think five sitting justices—a majority of the nine member court—would be a sufficient number “to overturn long-established precedent.”

This was after he had testified, she noted, that Roe–upheld by Casey–was “precedent on precedent.”

“Finally, in his testimony, he noted repeatedly that Roe had been upheld by Planned Parenthood v. Casey, describing it as precedent on precedent,” said Collins in her floor speech. “When I asked him whether it would be sufficient to overturn a long-established precedent if five current Justices believed it was wrongly decided, he emphatically said no.”

I would like you to read that last phrase again.

Kavanaugh “emphatically said no”.

For pro-life forces, the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh was actually a massive defeat. If a pro-life justice had actually been confirmed in his place, we may have actually had a chance of overturning Roe v. Wade. With Kavanaugh there, we do not.

And unfortunately the truth is that at this point most Americans are not in favor of overturning Roe v. Wade either. A survey conducted last year found that 71 percent of all Americans want to keep Roe v. Wade in place, and only 23 percentof all Americans want to overturn it.

But as I keep telling my readers, if we continue to murder children on an industrial scale, there is no future for America.

60 million children are already dead, and we keep adding to that number every single day. This cannot continue, and we should applaud Alabama for trying to do the right thing.

I'd be willing to bet that I've been in more abortion debates than everyone else here combined. Every Libertarian convention I've been to - national, state, and local - at some point, the discussion turns to abortion. These discussions have more than once lasted throughout the night, and a couple times nearly came to blows. As far as I'm concerned, if I never get into another abortion debate again, it will be too damn soon.

The reason? In all the abortion discussions I've seen, not one person's mind has ever changed.

Let's consider a hypothetical situation: Imagine that the world's most brilliant scientific minds discover, without a doubt, that life begins at conception. The fetus can experience pain a half hour after conception, can solve simple algebraic equations at two weeks and complex linear equations at six weeks, can come up with a Universal Theory of relativity at twelve weeks, and can offer a foolproof plan for peace in the Middle East at fifteen weeks of gestation. Even if all this were true and can be proven, not one pro-choice person will change his mind.

Consider the opposite: The world's leading scientists discover that a fetus never feels pain, is not alive in any sense, and the world's leading theologians determine that a fetus does not even have a soul until five days after birth. Even if all this were true, not one person on the pro-life side will change his mind.

Just, trust me on this. you can't win an abortion debate, because the other person will never change his mind. And you will never lose an abortion debate, because you will never change your mind.

The debate is not about logic, or reason. it's about feelings, and people's feelings will not change.

We've taken the abortion plank completely out of the Oklahoma Libertarian party platform and, if I get my way, we'll take it out of the national platform as well. If a Libertarian candidate wants to state his opinion on the matter, he is free to do so, but it's useless for our party to even have a plank on it. Let the Democrats and Republicans debate it until they run out of breath, I would just as soon talk about something where I can actually make a difference.

That's my two cents. Feel free to flame away.

Onward and upward,
airforce

The "debate" is just getting started. Georgia has passed a similar law and Missouri is contemplating the same as are numerous other states. It's past time the States stood up and exercised their authority. Personally, I'd like to see them abort a few baby murdering doctors before this "debate" is over.

I may be wrong, but I don't think a lot is going to come of this. Most, if not all, of those laws will be overturned in the courts. The states will appeal to the Supreme Court, but it's far from certain the Court will even hear it. Frankly, i doubt they will.

Four Justices will have to agree to hear the case. We can write off four of them right away, the liberal Justices will not want to hear it, and neither will Justice Breyer, or Justice Roberts. That means that Alito, Thomas, Gorsuch, and Kavanaugh will all have to agree to hear the case. Thomas and Alito will agree, and maybe Kavanaugh, but I doubt Gorsuch will. That means the decisions in the lower courts will stand - unless I'm wrong. And I've certainly been wrong before.

Onward and upward,
airforce

The Supremne Court won't kill Roe v. Wade yet, but is likely to restrict abortion access slightly. If it takes the case at all.



Onward and upward,
airforce

It's time for the States to bring back nullification and tell the fed to shove Roe v Wade.




Establishment Conservatives Furious As Alabama Legislature Makes Good On Their Promises to Voters

I wonder if this endless apologizing and equivocating has anything to do with conservatives failing to conserve anything over the last 60 years?

By Chris Menahan | Information Liberation Friday, May 17, 2019

The GOP establishment has been telling their followers they want to restrict abortion ever since the Supreme Court legalized it through judicial fiat in 1973.

Now that the legislature in Alabama is actually standing up for their voters and making good on their promises, the GOPe and their fake right establishment propagandists are flipping out.

First up, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy:

Q: “Alabama just passed possibly the most restrictive abortion law in the country. Do you think that law goes too far?”@GOPLeader: “It goes further than I believe. Yes.” pic.twitter.com/gsUgan1V0I

— CSPAN (@cspan) May 16, 2019



Note how he says he’s told voters he’s been pro-life his “whole political career!”

Now that Alabamans are actually following through he wants to undermine them!

(The Alabama bill does allow exceptions for the life of the mother, as that is not even a thing.)

Next up, Pat Robertson, who in the past has said “abortion is tantamount to murder”:

“It’s an extreme law”: Pat Robertson says that Alabama’s anti-abortion law goes too far and will most likely lose at the Supreme Court. pic.twitter.com/lDuteweasq

— Right Wing Watch (@RightWingWatch) May 15, 2019


“I think Alabama has gone too far,” Robertson said Wednesday. “It’s an extreme law.”

“They want to challenge Roe v. Wade, but my humble view is that this is not the case that we want to bring to the Supreme Court, because I think this will lose.”

I wonder if this endless apologizing and equivocating has anything to do with conservatives failing to conserve anything over the last 60 years?

Last, we have Tomi Lahren, who has said she’s pro-abortion in the past, said she’s pro-abortion again today.

“I will be attacked by fellow conservatives for saying this but so be it, this Alabama abortion ban is too restrictive,” Lahren said. “It doesn’t save life, it simply forces women into more dangerous methods, other states or countries. You don’t encourage life via blanket government mandate!”

I will be attacked by fellow conservatives for saying this but so be it, this Alabama abortion ban is too restrictive. It doesn’t save life, it simply forces women into more dangerous methods, other states or countries. You don’t encourage life via blanket government mandate!

— Tomi Lahren (@TomiLahren) May 16, 2019

No doubt the conservative establishment will come down on her like a ton of bricks!

Incidentally, it looks like it’s actually her most popular tweet of all time — wow, who could have predicted this?!?!

“I know I will be attacked by the media for telling them exactly what they want to hear and throwing my base under the bus… but by golly I’m willing to do it to advance my career!”

(“Oh wow, this is my most popular tweet ever and I’m getting tons of good press, omg, teehee!”) https://t.co/hrhRVZAIEM

— Chris Menahan 🇺🇸 (@infolibnews) May 17, 2019

Other than Lahren, who is straight-up pro-abortion, all the other GOPe people could just have easily have said, “I’m against abortion and look forward to the law being put before the Supreme Court.”

“The outcome of the case will determine whether abortion is legalized in certain states or outlawed in others, all to varying degrees depending on the will of voters.”

Instead, they chose to virtue signal to a media which hates them so they could get positive press for themselves while working to sabotage the first small victory in the culture war right-wingers have had for decades!

Even if the courts uphold this Alabama law, I don't see anyone being convicted of violating it. The reason is, well, jury nullification. It would be pretty hard to find a lawful jury, or even an Alabama jury, that would convict anyone. It might be even harder to find a prosecutor who would bring a case to trial, because prosecutors don't like to bring cases when they know it;s unlikely for them to get a conviction. All it takes is one juror to say "not guilty," and you have a mistrial. And prosecutors are smart enough to know this. We may get some slight restrictions on how and when abortions are performed, but abortions are not going away.

Onward and upward,
airforce

Here's Ron Paul's take on abortion. Fat chance of this ever actually happening, but still...





Onward and upward,
airforce

Ron Paul is right.


Roe v Wade: Supreme Court vs Separation of Powers
A lesson on the historical court decision

By David Knight | INFOWARS.COM Friday, May 17, 2019

People on both sides of the ethical questions around abortion should agree that it’s a question (like many, many others) that shouldn’t be decided by 9-lifetime political appointees in black robes.

As state nullification of marijuana laws showed, we can get back to a vital separation of powers — both between the branches of the federal govt and between the federal govt, state govt, and the people.

https://www.newswars.com/roe-v-wade-supreme-court-vs-separation-of-powers/

Now Missouri has joined Ala. and Georgia. Good for them.

I still have doubts SCOTUS will even hear the case.

Onward and upward,
airforce

Here's a handy guide to all the new state abortion laws. I'm still rather skeptical the SCOTUS will eventually hear any of them.

Onward and upward,
airforce