Alix Lane
In the wake of all the coronavirus chaos and civil unrest in the United States, a disturbing bill was passed almost completely under the rug in Tennessee last week. This seemingly out of nowhere piece of legislation was put through in the middle of the night, almost hiding amongst all the COVID-19 changes that governments have had to make and the lack of “business as usual” going on anywhere right now.
This bill will take the place as the most aggressive anti-abortion bill in the U.S making it harder for women and girls to get access to abortion without the repercussion of the criminal law. To boil it down the bill states that no abortion shall be carried out after six weeks, or when a fetal heartbeat has been detected. It also states that any doctor who performs an abortion after six weeks can be charged up to $10,000 and 15 years in prison. Not only is this bill disturbing in that most women will not even realize they are pregnant at six weeks but it is disturbing due to the fact that it seems planned and calculated to be passed at a time when there is such unrest and other pressing issues within the U.S most notably the spike in corona cases in just the last couple of days within states in the south like Tennessee.
One issue I have, out of many, when it comes to debates surrounding abortion is the seeming lack of consideration for the women who are physically going through it. These bills are claiming to have “protective” measures, but in reality, they are putting more and more women and girls at risk. Where is the protection for these women? Both psychically and mentally? With these types of bills, it seems to be less and less about coming from a place of care and concern but more from a place of control. I will always bring up the point that these governments that pass these types of bills or attempt to are almost always predominantly senior white men. It makes little sense to me that these men feel they have the knowledge and experience to write bills concerning women’s issues and take little into account for the mental health of those who are faced with decisions like this. No matter the beliefs you hold, I think we can all agree that any unplanned pregnancy is scary and stressful, especially for those girls who are younger and are looking for guidance and empathy to support their decision. With a bill like this that is all stripped away.
It is also clear to me that this bill was written with the intention of being an almost total ban due to the six-week cut-off. Anyone can tell you this is an extremely early ct-off period, in that most women only find out they are pregnant at five or six weeks, giving them a week at most to schedule an abortion. For comparison, clinics here in Ontario will do abortions for up to twenty weeks. This just demonstrates the clear lack of care for women wanting to terminate their pregnancies and a clear political agenda.
It is also just poor timing as I remember about a year ago a similar bill was trying to get passed in Alabama, but since there was no global pandemic happening or civil unrest protests taking the attention of the public, it was met with the intense backlash that to this day has delayed its implementation. However, 2020 is a whole new ballpark as government officials clearly saw an opportunity to pass this bill almost unnoticed as the majority of the population was pre-occupied with COVID-19 and the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder by police officers in Minnesota. Sadly, these viewpoints on abortion are shared by many and it is likely that more states will try and pass bills like this one in the near future with attention being elsewhere. This lack of accountability means that with every one step forward, two are taken back. Since this bill was passed last week, there has already been put in place an emergency lawsuit that was filed to hopefully halt the implementation. Only time will tell how that outcome will go and in the wake of COVID-19 that really is up in the air.
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