Fifty-six St. Bernard students, chaperones and teachers loaded two charter buses on Jan. 19, 2022, headed to Washington, DC, to participate in the annual March for Life Rally at the Capitol.Fifty-six St. Bernard students, chaperones and teachers loaded two charter buses on Jan. 19, 2022, headed to Washington, DC, to participate in the annual March for Life Rally at the capital.St. Bernard students March for Life Rally

On Jan. 19, 56 St. Bernard students, chaperones and teachers traveled from Cullman by bus to Washington, DC, to participate in the annual March for Life Rally at the capital.

Sister Therese Lopez, LIHM, who served as pilgrimage coordinator, explained the reason for the trip.

“This march is ultimately a pilgrimage for a just and holy cause: the sanctity of human life. … We are pro-life and also pro-eternal life, giving witness to the gift of life and, most of all, to the One who gives it.”

Such activism is not rare in Alabama, and helps explain why, should Roe v. Wade be overturned, this state is one of more than nearly 20 likely to ban abortion completely.

In a November 2018 constitutional amendment vote, 59 percent of Alabamians voted in favor of “Amendment 2,” which recognizes the rights of the unborn and “provide that the constitution of this state does not protect the right to abortion or require the funding of abortion.”

The amendment paved the way for Gov. Kay Ivey to sign a total abortion ban in 2019, but that decision was delayed from taking effect by a federal judge.

Only a handful of facilities perform abortion services in the state.

Yellowhammer Fund — an abortion fund and reproductive justice organization serving Alabama, Mississippi and its neighbors — has often provided funds and resources for Alabama residents to travel to other states to get abortion care due to lack of availability.

In 2017, 6,110 abortions were provided in Alabama, though not all abortions that occurred in Alabama were provided to state residents, according to Guttmacher Institute.

“(Alabama is) already an abortion desert where it’s already hard to get an abortion. It’ll just be an abortion wasteland where it’s going to be very hard for people to choose not to have a pregnancy go forward and to choose to have a pregnancy going forward,” said Laurie Bertram Roberts, executive director of the Yellowhammer Fund.

“If you’re not a middle-class white woman or higher income, it’s a very hostile place to be a Black woman having a baby because our maternal mortality rates are ridiculous, on par with the developing world. It’s cruel to tell people you have to stay pregnant in a state that doesn’t even respect, regard or care about pregnant people or newborns enough to make sure that their basic needs are met,” Roberts continued.

For now, Alabama doesn’t allow abortions at or after 22 weeks, but Republican State Rep. Jamie Kiel and more than 20 Republican co-sponsors are now looking to mirror new abortion laws in Texas, which bans abortions after six weeks and allows private residents to sue any person who performs or aids in an abortion.

The bill, House Bill 23, would prohibit doctors from performing an abortion if a heartbeat is detected — typically at six weeks, according to some studies — and allows private residents to sue those who perform or aid in an abortion for no less than $10,000.

“My biggest fear post-Roe is people being criminalized for self-managing their abortions, and just the policing of people’s bodies … people literally policing whether or not somebody somehow discontinued their pregnancy on purpose,” Roberts said.

Republican Rep. Andrew Sorrell is also a pushing a proposal this year, HB 261, to prohibit non-surgical abortions or use of chemical abortion pills in the state. Specifically, the bill would make it illegal “to manufacture, distribute, prescribe, dispense, sell or transfer the ‘abortion pill.’”

Chemical abortions involve ingesting two pills and the bill asserts that it results in complications at a rate four times greater than the rate of complications with surgical abortions. Data from the Guttmacher Institute shows that in 2020, medication abortion accounted for 54 percent of U.S. abortions.

“Even if a person is pro-abortion, that’s no reason to be in favor of no tests and online distribution of chemical abortion pills,” said Kristi Hamrick, chief media strategist of Students for Life of America.

She clarified that abortion pills are often given without an actual pregnancy test, ultrasound or blood tests.

“These pills are a real threat to women and they’re being sold as though they have no consequences when, in fact, you can pay with your life. You can pay with your fertility.”

The FDA estimates that approximately 3.7 million women have used mifepristone in the U.S. for the medical termination of pregnancy through the end of December 2018.

From September 2002 through December 2018, the FDA reports at least 24 chemical abortion (mifepristone)-related deaths and nearly 100 reported uses have led to ectopic pregnancy. More than 1,000 have led to hospitalization.

“You can’t act like abortion pills are this big scary boogeyman that are a massive danger to people that use them because that’s just not true and that’s not born out by data at all,” Roberts said. “More pregnancies are lost in miscarriage every year than abortion, so if they have this miraculous way to stop bodies from expelling pregnancies that are in the process of miscarrying, why aren’t they working with March of Dimes?”

Many facilities that provide abortions will likely face a decision to shutter their doors if Roe v. Wade is overturned and abortion is prohibited in the state. Yellowhammer Fund, which owns West Alabama Women’s Center in Tuscaloosa, is preparing for a post-Roe existence.

The facility is planning on scaling up outreach and information in harm reduction related to self-managed abortions, and how to safely use the abortion pill which can be obtained from physicians in other states via telemedicine. The clinic is also planning to increase resources for sex education and contraceptives.

The Alabama legislative session has to end by April 25. Neither Kiel nor Sorrell responded to requests for comment on their abortion proposals.

Across the country, states are awaiting the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in cases to uphold a Mississippi law that bans abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. The state has asked the Court to overturn Roe v.Wade, a 1973 Supreme Court decision protecting a woman’s decision to have an abortion.

That Supreme Court decision is expected by June.