An activist, Tamara Stevens, leaves the Georgia capitol after an event opposing new abortion restrictions.
Credit: John Amis/AFP/Getty

On the floor of the Alabama state senate this week, a robotic voice read nine pages of legalese that would define a new reality for women in the state: abortion would be a crime, starting from the moment a woman knows she is pregnant. Doctors who perform the procedure could face up to 99 years in prison.

Then senators’ names were called one by one, and they cast their votes. There were 25 yes votes, enough for the bill to pass easily. Every single one was cast by a white man.

Those most hurt by the ban, by contrast, will be women of color and poor women, advocates say.

“For those with the means, it doesn’t matter that Alabama bans it. They’re going to find another state, find another country,” said the state senator Linda Coleman-Madison, one of four black Democrats who spent hours denouncing the bill before it passed overwhelmingly. Pictures of Coleman-Madison, her head […]

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