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Protesters in Alabama, Missouri Defend Reproductive Rights from Recent Abortion Bans

HeadlineMay 20, 2019

Back in the U.S., demonstrators gathered in Mobile, Alabama, Sunday to call out the state’s newly passed law effectively banning abortions, even in cases of rape and incest. This is a protester at Sunday’s event.

Genevieve McGinnis: “Making abortions illegal will actually not save lives. There’s many young women and women who are going to end up taking their own lives and taking dangerous measures to not have a child. But legalizing abortions make it safe and give women a place to make a choice with their own bodies. And I don’t feel like men should have a choice over a woman’s body.”

There were also protests in other parts of Alabama, including in Birmingham, where presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders also joined the protest.

Reproductive rights defenders also turned out to protest in Kansas City, Missouri, after lawmakers passed a bill Friday banning abortions after around eight weeks—once a fetal heartbeat can be detected, but before many people realize they are pregnant. The bill does not include exceptions for rape or incest. Republican Governor Mike Parson says he will sign the bill into law. Architects of the highly restrictive abortion bans say they welcome legal challenges in the hopes that the cases will end up at the Supreme Court and eventually lead to the reversal of Roe v. Wade.

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