Goddess Kaka and Emma Watson are all in solidarity with the protest! What's the controversy over Alabama's abortion bill?

As Taiwan celebrates the passage of the same-marriage bill, a group of people in the United States are fighting for women's right to have abortions.

Western celebrities including Lady Gaga, Emma Watson, Selena Selena Gomez, Rihanna, and "Captain America" Chris Evans are among those who have joined in their response. Who are they in solidarity with? Why is "female abortion" so popular?

This week's Gender Watch takes you through the Abortion Prohibition Act from Alabama to see the best example of "women's physical autonomy is not in their own hands."

What is the Alabama Abortion Act?

On May 14, the Alabama Senate passed one of the nation's toughest abortion bans, which would ban medical personnel from performing abortions on pregnant women, regardless of whether a woman is an adult or becoming pregnant or because of rape or incest. Unless the health of a pregnant woman is seriously affected by the fetus.

The bill is undoubtedly intended to bind women's physical autonomy with legal force, forcing women to give birth to this life on the grounds that "you can't kill a life" - whether a woman wants it or not, whether she wants it or not, whether it's born or not, whether it's born with "parents and a happy parent." (Recommended reading: Gender Newsletter, "Abortion after rape, 10 years in prison" New bill in pipeline in Alabama

Alabama Gov. Mike Baird Kay Ivey. Photo by Associated Press

In addition to the full number of movers pushing the bill being male, another dispute in the bill is that it is clear that all health care workers in abortion, except for the pregnant woman herself, will face more than 10 years in prison and 99 years in prison, which is even more severe than the sentence of two to 20 years for raping a child.

Let us wonder, what caused this clearly controversial bill to pass the Senate by an overwhelming majority? And on what basis is the standard of judgment that makes health care workers who do their job more seriously criminally than rape of children?

Singer Rihanna: The governor's is disgraceful!

The Anti-Abortion Act passed the Alabama Senate by an overwhelming margin of "25 votes in favour and 6 against" and has been submitted to Governor Ky. Kay Ivey signed it, which could take effect as soon as six months later. The 25 senators who voted in favor of the bill, all of whom are white men, caused outrage over the long-running gender-focused singer Rihanna, who posted a photo of 25 senators on her instagram and wrote, "Look, these people make decisions for women across the country, Governor Kay Ivey, You're so distasteful! 」

Photo: Rihanna Instagram

Goddess Kaka: I pray for all women

Lady Gaga tweeted her support for the health care workers: "Alabama's opposition to women's abortion is outrageous! Not only can people who have been sexually assaulted or incest not to have an abortion, but even the doctor who performs it will be sentenced to more severe than a child rapist? It's ridiculous, and I pray for all women that they won't be victims of the future system. 」

Photo: Lady Gaga Twitter

Emma Watson: These laws force women to have illegal abortions

"These bills will not stop women from having abortions, they will not allow families to make "good" decisions, they will only force women to try abortions using illegal abortion channels and be guilty of crimes," said Emma Watson, a Hollywood actor who has long focused on international gender issues. 」

Photo: Emma Watson OnInstagram

Alabama controversy: At the expense of women, the bill will be brought to the supreme court

During the Alabama state legislature, many conservative lawmakers made it clear that the law was not really about ignoring incest and rape pregnancy cases, and that the new law was enacted with such harsh standards in order to maintain the high controversy of his bill at the expense of all women, only to ensure that it "will be brought before the Supreme Court of the Federal Assembly."

But why do lawmakers want the case to go to the Supreme Court of the Federal Republic of Justice? The ultimate goal of the House of Representatives is to "overturn" the 1973 Roe v. Wade case, which has long been a legal protection of abortion rights - that is, respect for women's freedom to decide whether an abortion is available or not. (Recommended reading: After Korean abortion decriminalization: Why are women only bearing the consequences of having sex?) ) )

What is Roe v. Wade?

In 1973, a Texas waitress who wanted an abortion because of an unwanted pregnancy, but because the Texas law at the time required sexual assault to legally have an abortion, the service provider's attorney sued the Texas government's anti-abortion law, which violated the "privacy rights" of female service students. The case went from the District Court to the until the until the highest federal court in the United States, and finally, among the nine justices, by a 7:2 vote, agreed that "the law prohibiting abortion violates women's privacy" and proposed a "three-stage standard" as a benchmark for subsequent related abortion cases.

It is worth noting that in these three stages of the standard, the legal level of the discussion of abortion is around "what stage in pregnancy" can legislate against abortion, rather than "abortion is allowed". So we can see the Abortion Prohibition Act passed by Alabama as a move by the house to see the justices reinterpret ingress the benchmarks for abortion cases.

Why is women's body autonomy determined by a group of men?

The Alabama Abortion Prohibition Act, which was driven by 25 male state legislators, did not have any female members of Congress. Looking back on the international political history, the proportion and history of women's participation in politics because of the early repression and deprivation, originally compared to the male minority, after a long struggle, women began to have a political participation, voice, and began to be able to discuss and dialogue with men in the political arena on an equal footing.

In today's society, where gender is not a limit, why do there be no female voices among mps who voted in favour of the bill? Can this be regarded as an experience of "women being silenced"? If the abortion bill is really good for women, why not open the door to parliament and listen to what women really say? Why is women's body autonomy up to men?

From the "purpose" of the passage of the bill to overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade case, to the "process" of the passage of the bill without the participation of female parliamentarians, we have seen patriarchy constantly intervene from it - I am all for your own good, you have to respect every life, so you can't have an abortion for any reason, for any reason. (Recommended reading:"Gender Watch" 12-year-old victims of sexual assault, Filipino women who can't have abortions)

Photo by Reuters

What social problems might be likely after the bill is passed?

will put more pregnant women at unnecessary risk

Once the Alabama bill is passed, it will be "pregnant women who want to have an abortion." When this group of mothers because of family, economic, personal and other factors, judge that they should not have a baby in the abdomen, but can not use the "legal pipeline" to complete abortion surgery, the fastest way is to seek medical assistance, or even "self", induced birth. According to the Montgomery News, an 81-year-old woman said "more women will go back to the old path of illegal clandestine abortions and the old way when women have to do their own abortions." 」

When passed, the bill will not only fail to reduce the number of "actual abortions" but also put women at unnecessary risk.

will allow some people to move out to other areas in order to be able to have a legal abortion

As of May 22, 2019, fewer than 10 states have passed the Abortion Prohibition Act in the United States, so some women who want to have an abortion with a legal pipeline will likely move to other states for legal abortion. Population migration may not be an urgent social issue, but in the long run, it may not be a good sign if the states that passed the Abortion Prohibition Act do not have pregnant women.

We do understand that conservative supporters and parliamentarians have their religious and moral beliefs in the promotion of the Abortion Prohibition Act, which holds that "every life deserves respect." But we also want to ask: Can only newborns be considered life, and women are not covered by "life"? If women are not one of those lives, is that a fertility machine?

The bill's push may also ignore the real needs of women as birthers. Life can be the crystallization of love between parents, may also be the product of sexual violence, in different situations of pregnancy results, women have the right to say no? At least in terms of the promotion of the anti-abortion bill, we see women's physical autonomy, which is denied along with the prohibition of abortion rights.

Since the development of society, there have been many different multi-view points of view in the past, at this time we should also be on the various levels of the preservation of life, including the economy, family composition and other issues, rather than a single value to judge. What do you think of this act, which is wrapped in patriarchal sugar-coated "I am for the sake of life", which oppresses women's freedom of body and consciousness?

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