Planned Parenthood, the American Civil Liberties Union, the Women’s March, NARAL Pro-Choice America and other groups are organizing nationwide demonstrations on Tuesday to protest the wave of new state laws banning abortion.
The “extreme bans on abortion [are] stripping away reproductive freedom and representing an all-out assault on abortion access,” the groups said on the “Stop The Bans” protest website.
“This is Trump’s anti-choice movement... and it’s terrifying,” the site adds.
Actions will be held Tuesday at statehouses, town squares and courthouses across the nation. “We will show up to speak out and fight back against this unconstitutional attempt to gut Roe and punish women,” the website states, referring to Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion nationwide. “Politicians shouldn’t be making decisions best left to women, their families and their doctors.”
Alabama’s GOP Gov. Kay Ivey on Wednesday signed into law the nation’s strictest anti-abortion law, making it a felony in the state for a doctor to perform an abortion in nearly all cases.
Missouri lawmakers on Friday passed a ban on abortions after eight weeks, which is often before women even know they’re pregnant. There is no exception for rape or incest victims. Republican Gov. Mike Parson told reporters he’ll sign it into law.
Georgia and Ohio have also passed so-called “heartbeat” legislation, which prohibit abortion once a fetal “heartbeat” can be detected — as early as six weeks into pregnancy.
So far this year, legislatures in 16 states, many in the South, have either already passed or are considering heartbeat laws.