In today's seriously depressing news, the state of Alabama has proposed a law that would make having an abortion punishable by up to 99 years in jail.
The abortion ban would apply at any stage of the pregnancy, and would mean that doctors performing an abortion would be at risk of spending at least 10 years in prison, with 99 years being the maximum sentence.
The legislation, which was out forward for consideration on Tuesday, would even criminalise abortion in the case of rape or incest, and would only allow women to abort in cases of "a serious health risk to the unborn child's mother".
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The controversially-worded bill likened abortion to some of the worst genocides in human history, including the Holocaust. It has over 60 co-sponsors in the 105-member Alabama house of representatives.
It says: "More than 50 million babies have been aborted in the United States since the Roe decision in 1973, more than three times the number who were killed in German death camps, Chinese purges, Stalin's gulags, Cambodian killing fields, and the Rwandan genocide combined."
Terri Collins, Alabama state representative, filed the bill, saying it "simply criminalises abortion" and saying that she hopes "it takes it all the way to the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v Wade."
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Roe v Wade was the landmark Supreme Court ruling that legalised abortion across the country in 1973.
The proposition was met with dismay across the world. Staci Fox, the president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Southeast, said the bill would be a "death sentence for women across this state".
"Beyond that, these bans are blatantly unconstitutional and lawmakers know it - they just don't care," she said. "Alabamians are just pawns in this political game to challenge access to safe, legal abortion nationally."
There are worries that other states including Georgia and South Carolina could follow suit. Georgia's governor is currently thinking about signing a law that would ban abortion once a foetal heartbeat is detected.
Over 50 Hollywood actors, including Alyssa Milano and Amy Schumer said they would stop filming in Georgia, a popular location for film and TV production, if the ban was enforced.
Featured Image Credit: Steve Eberhardt/Zuma Press/PA Images and UnsplashTopics: Life News
