Like many of the Democrats looking to challenge President Trump in 2020, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) is not happy with recent pro-life laws passed by states like Alabama.
Alabama Governor Kay Ivey recently signed a bill into law that made abortions after eight weeks of pregnancy illegal. Several other states like George have introduced “heartbeat” laws that make abortions after a heartbeat can be detected inside the pregnant mother illegal — heartbeats can usually be detected after six weeks of pregnancy.
Warren is calling for the federal government to step in. She wants Congress to make access to abortion mandatory across the United States in an effort to stop these states and others from joining them — the Missouri Senate just recently approved pro-life legislation.
“These extremist Republican lawmakers know what the law is — but they don’t care,” Warren wrote in a Friday opinion piece for Medium. “They want to turn back the clock, outlaw abortion, and deny women access to reproductive health care. And they are hoping the Supreme Court will back their radical play.”
The senator blames President Donald Trump for all of this, of course. She says the president “stole” a seat on the Supreme Court, which has led to more lawmakers looking to pass anti-abortion laws. Warren says these moves against abortion could lead to the ultimate goal for many Republicans: overturning Roe v. Wade, 1973’s landmark Supreme Court decision that made abortion legal within the United States.
“I’ll be blunt: It just might work,” wrote Warren. “President Trump has packed the courts with extreme, anti-choice judges. Senate Republicans stole a Supreme Court seat and rammed through the confirmation of Justice Kavanaugh last year in order to cement an anti-choice majority on the Supreme Court.”
Warren goes on to say that reproductive rights are a Constitutional right.
The Democrat senator also said she wants Congress to pass more federal laws to protect access to legal abortion.
“Congress should pass new federal laws that protect access to reproductive care from right-wing ideologues in the states,” she wrote. “Federal laws that ensure real access to birth control and abortion care for all women. Federal laws that will stand no matter what the Supreme Court does.”
Warren acknowledged in her piece that right now is an unsure time for pro-choice advocates.
“This is a dark moment,” the senator wrote. “People are scared and angry. And they are right to be. But this isn’t a moment to back down – it’s time to fight back.”
Some on the right have actually criticized Alabama’s new abortion law. Conservative commentator Tomi Lahren said the law is “too restrictive.” Televangelist Pat Robertson also called the law “extreme.”
“It’s an extreme law, and they want to challenge Roe vs. Wade, but my humble view is that this is not the case we want to bring to the Supreme Court because I think this one will lose,” he said.
The law does not include exceptions for rape and incest, which some have objected to.
Missouri is poised to be the next state to enter the abortion debate as a new anti-abortion bill passed the state’s Senate and now only needs to go through the House and then get the governor’s signature — the governor has said he supports the legislation.
Via BPR
