Abortion In Alabama
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Abortion in Alabama is illegal. Historically, Alabama's abortion laws have evolved from strict regulations in the late 19th and early 20th centuries to a period of liberalization following the landmark 1973 Supreme Court decision in ''
Roe v. Wade ''Roe v. Wade'', 410 U.S. 113 (1973),. was a List of landmark court decisions in the United States, landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in which the Court ruled that the Constitution of the United States protected the right to have an ...
'', which legalized abortion nationwide. However, Alabama has consistently enacted legislation aimed at restricting access to the abortion. In May 2019, Alabama passed one of the nation's most restrictive abortion laws, the Human Life Protection Act. This law sought to ban most abortions at any stage of pregnancy, with no exceptions for cases of
rape Rape is a type of sexual assault involving sexual intercourse, or other forms of sexual penetration, carried out against a person without consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority, or against a person ...
or
incest Incest ( ) is sexual intercourse, sex between kinship, close relatives, for example a brother, sister, or parent. This typically includes sexual activity between people in consanguinity (blood relations), and sometimes those related by lineag ...
, only allowing abortions if there was a serious health risk to the mother. The law was granted an
injunction An injunction is an equitable remedy in the form of a special court order compelling a party to do or refrain from doing certain acts. It was developed by the English courts of equity but its origins go back to Roman law and the equitable rem ...
until June 2022 when the
U.S. Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that turn on question ...
overturned ''Roe v. Wade'' in ''
Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization ''Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization'', 597 U.S. 215 (2022), is a List of landmark court decisions in the United States, landmark decision of the Supreme Court of the United States, United States Supreme Court in which the court held ...
'', allowing the Act to go into effect. The remaining three abortion clinics in the state were ordered to cease operating. Abortion regulations in Alabama also include mandatory waiting periods, parental consent requirements for minors, and stringent guidelines for abortion clinics that many advocates argue are designed to limit the availability of abortion services in the state. In 2024, the
Alabama Supreme Court The Supreme Court of Alabama is the highest court in the state of Alabama. The court consists of a chief justice and eight associate justices. Each justice is elected in partisan elections for staggered six-year terms. The Supreme Court is hous ...
ruled that frozen
embryos An embryo ( ) is the initial stage of development for a multicellular organism. In organisms that reproduce sexually, embryonic development is the part of the life cycle that begins just after fertilization of the female egg cell by the male spe ...
should be considered children. The
Constitution of Alabama The Constitution of the State of Alabama is the State constitution (United States), state constitution of the U.S. state of Alabama. It was adopted on November 28, 2022, as a recodification of the Alabama Constitution of 1901 which had been in ef ...
explicitly bans the legal recognition of abortion. Abortion remains a divisive issue in Alabama, with a 2014 survey by
Pew Research Center The Pew Research Center (also simply known as Pew) is a nonpartisan American think tank based in Washington, D.C. It provides information on social issues, public opinion, and demographic trends shaping the United States and the world. It ...
concluding that 58% of surveyed adults in the state believe abortion should be illegal in most or all cases, and 37% indicating it should be legal. A strong correlation was observed between the opposition to abortion and
conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civiliza ...
political views. The 2023 American Values Atlas reported that, in their most recent survey, 54% of Alabamians said that abortion should be legal in all or most cases.


History

In Alabama between 1892 and 1935, there were 40 prosecutions and five convictions of women having abortions.


Legislative history

By the end of the 1800s, all states in the nation except Alabama had therapeutic exceptions in their legislative bans on abortions. In the 19th century, bans by state legislatures on abortion targeted protecting the life of the mother given the number of deaths abortions caused. By the end of 1972,
Mississippi Mississippi ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Alabama to the east, the Gulf of Mexico to the south, Louisiana to the s ...
allowed abortion only in cases of rape or incest,
Alabama Alabama ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South, Deep Southern regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gu ...
and
Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...
allowed abortions only in cases where the woman's physical health was endangered. In order to obtain an abortion during this period, women would often travel from a state where abortion was illegal to states where it was legal.


Judicial history

The 1973
Supreme Court of the United States The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all Federal tribunals in the United States, U.S. federal court cases, and over Stat ...
's decision in the ''
Roe v. Wade ''Roe v. Wade'', 410 U.S. 113 (1973),. was a List of landmark court decisions in the United States, landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in which the Court ruled that the Constitution of the United States protected the right to have an ...
'' ruling meant the state could no longer regulate abortion in the first trimester. A 2016 Alabama law banned dilation & evacuation (D&E) which is the most common abortion procedure used in the second trimester. In August 2018, the Eleventh Circuit court ruled the D&E legislation to be unconstitutional, blocking it from enforcement. The US Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal in its 2019 term. On February 6, 2019, Ryan Magers filed a wrongful death lawsuit against an abortion clinic, Alabama Women's Center, after his girlfriend had a then-legal elective abortion in January 2017. Magers also sued three employees of the clinic and the pharmaceutical company that manufactured the medication used to induce the abortion. Madison County Probate Judge Frank Barger recognized the status of the unborn fetus as a person on March 4, 2019, in accepting the case. In May 2019,
Planned Parenthood The Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Inc. (PPFA), or simply Planned Parenthood, is an American nonprofit organization
and the
American Civil Liberties Union The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is an American nonprofit civil rights organization founded in 1920. ACLU affiliates are active in all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. The budget of the ACLU in 2024 was $383 million. T ...
both said they would challenge Alabama's recently-enacted abortion ban in the federal courts. In June 2019, it was reported that a woman, Marshae Jones, whose pregnancy was terminated after she was shot in the stomach in 2018 during a fight was arrested on grounds of manslaughter of the fetus, though the case was eventually dismissed. On February 16, 2024, the
Alabama Supreme Court The Supreme Court of Alabama is the highest court in the state of Alabama. The court consists of a chief justice and eight associate justices. Each justice is elected in partisan elections for staggered six-year terms. The Supreme Court is hous ...
ruled that frozen embryos used for
in vitro fertilisation In vitro fertilisation (IVF) is a process of fertilisation in which an ovum, egg is combined with spermatozoon, sperm in vitro ("in glass"). The process involves monitoring and stimulating the Ovulation cycle, ovulatory process, then removing ...
should be considered children. The
UAB Hospital UAB Hospital (also known as University Hospital) is a 1,207 bed tertiary hospital and academic health science center located in Birmingham, Alabama. It serves as the only ACS verified Level I Trauma Center in Alabama, and is the flagship proper ...
and other providers ended their IVF treatments in response. This is because couples are now allowed to create a lawsuit for the wrongful death of their embryos. This ruling raises questions about the status of frozen embryos, including whether they can be destroyed and the implications for pre-implantation genetic testing. The decision also intersects with broader debates around abortion and reproductive technology. On October 7, 2024, the United States Supreme Court declined to review the case. In 2025, a federal judge ruled that the Alabama state's attorney general cannot prosecute people or organizations who help Alabama residents seek an abortion by traveling to another state.


Clinic history

Between 1982 and 1992, the number of abortion clinics in Alabama decreased by 25 clinics, going from 45 in 1982 to 20 in 1992. In 2014, there were five abortion clinics, and 93% of the counties in the state did not have any clinics, leaving 59% of women in the state aged 15–44 without access to a local abortion clinic as of that year. In 2017, there were two
Planned Parenthood The Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Inc. (PPFA), or simply Planned Parenthood, is an American nonprofit organization
clinics, both of which offered abortion services, in Alabama which at the time had a population of 1,117,288 women aged 15–49. In March 2019, there were five abortion clinics in Alabama, all of which were located in urban areas
Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...
,
Huntsville Huntsville is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Alabama. The population of the city is estimated to be 241,114 in 2024, making it the 100th-most populous city in the U.S. The Huntsville metropolitan area had an estimated 525,465 ...
,
Tuscaloosa Tuscaloosa ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Tuscaloosa County, Alabama, Tuscaloosa County in west-central Alabama, United States, on the Black Warrior River where the Gulf Coastal Plain, Gulf Coastal and Piedmont (United States), Piedm ...
, Mobile and Montgomery. Of the five clinics operating in March 2019, one was only open on weekends. In 2019, the Yellowhammer Fund provided financial assistance (paying for their abortions) to women at three abortion clinics in Alabama. In May and June of that year, Alabama's abortion clinics were receiving regular calls from women inquiring whether they could obtain a legal abortion as legislative changes resulted in confusion over abortion rights in the Alabama. As of 2021, only three abortion clinics remained in Alabama: West Alabama Women's Center in Tuscaloosa, Reproductive Health Services in Montgomery, and Alabama Women's Center in Huntsville. Currently, Alabama restricts advertising of abortion clinics. In order for abortion clinics in Alabama to remain in business at that time, they had to abide by abortion-care policies. Alabama passed additional medically unnecessary codes, and required that they be followed in order to operate an abortion clinic. In some cases codes were passed to target specific clinics; for example, a 2016 law was enacted that prohibited abortion clinics from renewing their current license if the clinic was within 2,000 feet of an elementary or middle school to target a specific clinic. Clinics must have access to a hospital in the same geographical area as the abortion facility. As of 2022, Alabama's three remaining abortion clinics have been ordered to stop all abortion procedures.


Alabama and cardiogenesis

In 2006, Alabama was one of 23 states to have a detailed abortion-specific informed consent requirement. By law, abortion providers in Alabama,
Louisiana Louisiana ( ; ; ) is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It borders Texas to the west, Arkansas to the north, and Mississippi to the east. Of the 50 U.S. states, it ranks 31st in area and 25 ...
and
Mississippi Mississippi ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Alabama to the east, the Gulf of Mexico to the south, Louisiana to the s ...
were required to perform an ultrasound prior to providing women with an abortion, despite that an ultrasound in the first trimester has no medical necessity. In 2013, state Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers (TRAP) law applied to medication induced abortions and private doctors' offices in addition to abortion clinics. Alabama was one of five states nationwide that tried, and failed, to pass a so-called 'fetal heartbeat bill'The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists states that:They also argue that the term 'fetal heartbeat' should be replaced wit
ACOG Guide to Language and Abortion
/ref> in 2014. House Bill 490 prohibiting abortions once a
cardiogenesis Heart development, also known as cardiogenesis, refers to the prenatal development of the heart. This begins with the formation of two endocardial tubes which merge to form the tubular heart, also called the primitive heart tube. The heart is t ...
or "fetal heartbeat" is detected passed the Lower House (73–29) on March 4, 2014. The bill later died in committee. Despite this, Alabama's Lower House was the first state in the nation to pass such a bill. The Alabama state legislature tried and failed in 2015, 2016, and 2017 to pass a fetal heartbeat bill, each time being joined by two, three, and seven other states respectively. As of March 2019, the law required women wait 24 hours after their initial consult before they could obtain a second appointment for the actual procedure. State law at the time prohibited state-funded health insurance companies from offering abortion services unless the life of the woman was at risk, or the pregnancy was a result of rape or incest. One of the most active years for state legislatures in terms of trying to pass abortion rights restrictions was 2019. State governments with Republican majorities began to push these bills after conservative Supreme Court candidate
Brett Kavanaugh Brett Michael Kavanaugh (; born February 12, 1965) is an American lawyer and jurist serving as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. He was nominated by President Donald Trump on July 9, 2018, and has served since Oct ...
was confirmed as a
US Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all Federal tribunals in the United States, U.S. federal court cases, and over Stat ...
judge, replacing the more liberal
Anthony Kennedy Anthony McLeod Kennedy (born July 23, 1936) is an American attorney and jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1988 until his retirement in 2018. He was nominated to the court in 1987 by Pres ...
. These state governments generally saw this as a positive sign that new moves to restrict abortion rights would face less resistance from the courts.


The Alabama Human Life Protection Act

The most recent act relating to the abortion in Alabama is "The Alabama Human Life Protection Act" also known as the Human Life Protection Act. Formally, the act has the name of House Bill 314. The bill was drafted by the Alabama Pro-Life Coalition. The bill, which banned abortions at every stage of pregnancy and made it a crime for doctors to perform the procedure (except in the case of a medical emergency), was introduced into the Lower House on April 2, 2019. The bill passed the Lower House on April 30, /sup> the Senate on May 14, /sup> and was signed into law by then-Governor
Kay Ivey Kay Ellen Ivey ( ; born October 15, 1944) is an American politician who is the 54th governor of Alabama, serving since 2017. A Republican since 2002, Ivey was the 38th Alabama state treasurer from 2003 to 2011 and the 30th lieutenant governor o ...
on May 16, 2019. 0/sup> Formerly, abortion was allowed in cases of incest or rape. With the introduction of the Human Life Protection Act, these cases were no longer exempt. Additionally, cases in which mothers faced mental illness were declared insufficient to provide an exception. These restrictions made the bill one of the most aggressive anti-abortion laws in American history. Although the bill was approved by Alabama legislators, then-Governor Kay Ivey recognized that its aggressiveness would most likely not be approved in the federal court due to ''
Roe v. Wade ''Roe v. Wade'', 410 U.S. 113 (1973),. was a List of landmark court decisions in the United States, landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in which the Court ruled that the Constitution of the United States protected the right to have an ...
''. Despite this, Alabama legislators hoped the introduction of the bill could weaken pre-existing abortion protections. Shortly after the introduction of the Human Life Protection Act,
Planned Parenthood The Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Inc. (PPFA), or simply Planned Parenthood, is an American nonprofit organization
and ACLU of Alabama filed a lawsuit to challenge the anti-abortion bill on May 24, 2019. Serving as plaintiffs to the case were the three remaining abortion clinics in Alabama: Alabama Women's Center, Reproductive Health Services, and the West Alabama Women's Center. The controversial bill was set to go into effect on November 15, 2019. However, on October 29, 2019, the bill was blocked by the federal court. US District Judge Myron Thompson granted a preliminary injunction on October 28, 2019, until the court was able to resolve the case in full. Federal judge Myron H. Thompson declared the bill defied previous rulings seen in ''Roe v. Wade'' and the U.S. Constitution. Furthermore, Judge Thompson expressed that the bill could cause "serious and irreparable harm", referring to the ''Planned Parenthood Southeast v. Strange'' lawsuit from 2014 that identified a near-total ban as adding a financial burden to women and their need to access abortion services. As a result of this need, women are more likely to take unsafe measures to end pregnancies. Judge Thompson lifted the injunction after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade on June 24, 2022, allowing the law to go into effect.


Statistics

Between 1972 and 1974, Alabama had an illegal abortion mortality rate of 0.1 and 0.9 per million women aged 15–44. In 1990, 456,000 women in the state faced the risk of an unintended pregnancy. In 2010, the state had nine publicly-funded abortions, none of which were federally or state funded. In 2014, 59% of women in Alabama lived in a county without an abortion clinic. There was an average of one abortion clinic every 10,483 square miles that year. In the year following the overturn of Roe v. Wade in 2022, 210 pregnant women in a dozen states were criminally charged for conduct associated with their pregnancy, pregnancy loss or birth. Six states — Alabama, Mississippi, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Texas — accounted for most cases.


Abortion incidents

Roughly 862,320 US abortions occurred in 2017, with .7% occurring in Alabama account. Although over 6,110 abortions occurred in Alabama in 2017, not all were performed on Alabama residents. Residents of other states traveled to Alabama for abortions, and some Alabama residents traveled to other states for abortions. Between 2014 and 2017 the Alabama abortion rate declined from 8 to 6 abortions per 100,000 women, a 25 percent decrease.


Restrictions on abortion

As of June 24, 2022, with the Supreme Court's overturning of Roe v. Wade, abortion in Alabama became illegal except when the life of the pregnant individual is in danger. There are not exceptions for rape or incest. On August 28, 2023, attorneys for Attorney General Steve Marshall wrote in a court filing that the attorney general will prosecute those who help a pregnant person leave the state to get an abortion. Although there is supposedly an exception to the abortion ban in the case of fatal fetal abnormalities, the exception has not been used because doctors do not want to risk losing their medical license or facing jail time, meaning that patients have to leave the state in order to receive an abortion regardless.


Abortion rights views and activities


Views

Abortion is a divisive issue in the state, with 37% of adults believing it should be legal in all or most cases and 58% believing it should be illegal in all or most cases in 2014. According to a 2014 Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) study, 60% of white women, the same percentage as white men, in the state believed that abortion should be illegal in all or most cases. In 2018, fifty-nine percent of Alabamians voted in favor of a state constitutional amendment declaring the state's policy to recognize the "rights of the unborn". Politically, the Alabama Executive Governor, Senate, and House report a majority of anti-abortion views. In recent years, white evangelical women have played a major role in helping Republican male anti-abortion rights candidates get elected. One of the biggest groups of women who oppose legalized abortion in the United States are southern white evangelical Christians. With states like Alabama and
Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...
passing restrictive abortion laws in early 2019, some businesses announced they would boycott these states.
Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...
Mayor Randall Woodfin said that these boycotts would likely mean two tech companies would not base themselves in the city. Other states moved to try to take advantage of this political situation, including
New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeas ...
, where Governor
Phil Murphy Philip Dunton Murphy (born August 16, 1957) is an American politician, diplomat, and financier serving as the 56th governor of New Jersey since 2018. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he was elected governor i ...
related a statement that said, "New Jersey is open for business for any company that, given the assault on a woman's right to choose perpetrated by states like Alabama and Georgia, is seeking a home that recognizes basic constitutional rights. ..New Jersey offers not only a hospitable business climate, but also maintains its progressive values, which include defending a woman's right to choose." Yellowhammer Fund President Amanda Reyes said in 2019, "Republicans don't have fewer abortions than Democrats or liberals or anarchists or communists. It's that our political rhetoric paints people who have abortions as largely the same—poor women, young women, irresponsible women, women who hate children. ..It's gotten us to a point where we can't see the fact that we're all having abortions, and we're doing it for reasons we personally think matters—and that's all that matters.
Pro-life Anti-abortion movements, also self-styled as pro-life movements, are involved in the abortion debate advocating against the practice of abortion and its legality. Many anti-abortion movements began as countermovements in response to the lega ...
women are having abortions, too."


Organizations

The Yellowhammer Fund is an organization that financially assists women in Alabama who are seeking an abortion but have difficulty paying for one. In May 2020, The Yellowhammer Fund purchased West Alabama's Women Center from retiring owner, Gloria Gray. The organization purchased the clinic to ensure it would continue providing abortion services to the area. Yellowhammer Fund is currently striving to add additional services to the clinic, including
hormone therapy Hormone therapy or hormonal therapy is the use of hormones in medical treatment. Treatment with hormone antagonists may also be referred to as hormonal therapy or antihormone therapy. The most general classes of hormone therapy are hormonal therap ...
for
transgender A transgender (often shortened to trans) person has a gender identity different from that typically associated with the sex they were sex assignment, assigned at birth. The opposite of ''transgender'' is ''cisgender'', which describes perso ...
people,
midwifery Midwifery is the health science and health profession that deals with pregnancy, childbirth, and the postpartum period (including care of the newborn), in addition to the sexual and reproductive health of women throughout their lives. In many cou ...
and
doula A doula (; ; ) is a non-medical professional who provides guidance for the service of others and who supports another person (the doula's client) through a significant health-related experience, such as childbirth, miscarriage, induced abortion ...
care, and
gynecological Gynaecology or gynecology (see American and British English spelling differences) is the area of medicine concerned with conditions affecting the female reproductive system. It is often paired with the field of obstetrics, which focuses on pre ...
care. People Organizing for Women's Empowerment and Rights House (P.O.W.E.R. House) houses the Montgomery Area Reproductive Justice Coalition. It currently serves as Montgomery's only abortion clinic. Additionally, the clinic provides transportation and housing to those in need of these services. American Civil Liberties Union of Alabama (
ACLU The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is an American nonprofit civil rights organization founded in 1920. ACLU affiliates are active in all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. The budget of the ACLU in 2024 was $383 million. ...
) is an organization striving to protect the right to abortion for all people. ACLU's work centers around the courtroom to stop extreme attacks to women's reproductive rights. Additionally, ACLU ensures governmental policies provide access to affordable contraception options.


Donations

After Alabama passed its abortion legislation in 2019, The
National Network of Abortion Funds The National Network of Abortion Funds (NNAF) is an American non-profit organization purposed to increase access to abortion for low-income people across the U.S. Founding and history The NNAF was founded by 22 abortion funds from 14 states ...
received more than US$262,000 in donations from more than 12,000 people. Yellowhammer Fund also saw a surge in donations. Because of fundraising efforts by a single activist, the organization earned close to US$30,000 in donations in a three-hour period.


Protests

On May 19, 2019, women from Montgomery participated in an abortion rights march, the "March for Reproductive Freedom", outside the Alabama Capitol building as part of a #StoptheBans rally, a protest against the new abortion law signed by Governor Kay Ivey a week prior. In conjunction to this protest, other Alabama protests took place in Birmingham, Huntsville, and Mobile on May 19, 2019. The Birmingham rally was held in Kelly Ingram Park and had 2,000 supporters. The rally in Huntsville had support from 1,000 people and was held in Butler Green Park. Mobile hosted two rallies, one in Bienville Square and the other in downtown Mobile. A smaller rally supporting the movement was held in Florence, Alabama. Following the overturn of Roe v. Wade on June 24, 2022, in
Alabama Alabama ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South, Deep Southern regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gu ...
abortion rights protesters marched from the Alabama Department of Archives and History to the
Alabama State Capitol The Alabama State Capitol, listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the First Confederate Capitol, is the state capitol building for Alabama. Located on Capitol Hill, originally Goat Hill, in Montgomery, it was declared a National ...
in Montgomery on June 26. Protests were also held in
Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...
,
Huntsville Huntsville is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Alabama. The population of the city is estimated to be 241,114 in 2024, making it the 100th-most populous city in the U.S. The Huntsville metropolitan area had an estimated 525,465 ...
, and Mobile.


Anti-abortion views and activities


Activities

North Jefferson Women's Center is a non-profit family planning clinic in Fultondale that opposes abortions. In 2019, they sought funds for a new ultrasound machine to assist pregnant women using their services. Unable to pay for it on their own, the Southern Baptist organization The Psalm 139 Project donated the funds to support the clinic, which teaches that life begins at conception. The North Jefferson Women's Center will never refer women to an abortion provider, even if the pregnant woman desires such information. The Southern Baptist Convention held their annual convention in Birmingham in June 2019. The timing was coincidental with the efforts in the state to restrict legal abortion access, but opposing legal abortions was part of their planned two-day discussion.


Violence

On May 12, 1984, two men entered a
Birmingham, Alabama Birmingham ( ) is a city in the north central region of Alabama, United States. It is the county seat of Jefferson County, Alabama, Jefferson County. The population was 200,733 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List ...
clinic on
Mother's Day Mother's Day is a celebration honoring the mother of the family or individual, as well as motherhood, maternal bonds, and the influence of mothers in society. It is celebrated on different days in many parts of the world, most commonly in Mar ...
weekend shortly after a woman opened the doors at 7:25 A.M. Forcing their way into the clinic, one of the men threatened the woman not to prevent the attack while the other, wielding a
sledgehammer A sledgehammer is a tool with a large, flat, massive, often metal head, attached to a long wooden or solid handle. The long handle is combined with a heavy head which allows the sledgehammer to pick up momentum during a swing and applying a large ...
, did between US$7,500 and US$8,500 of damage to suction equipment. The man who damaged the equipment was later identified as Edward Markley. Markley is a
Benedictine The Benedictines, officially the Order of Saint Benedict (, abbreviated as O.S.B. or OSB), are a mainly contemplative monastic order of the Catholic Church for men and for women who follow the Rule of Saint Benedict. Initiated in 529, th ...
priest who was the Birmingham diocesan Coordinator for Pro-Life Activities. Markley was convicted of first-degree
criminal mischief Mischief (or malicious mischief) is the name for a class of criminal offenses that are defined differently in different legal jurisdictions. While the wrongful acts will often involve what is popularly described as vandalism, there can be a lega ...
and second-degree burglary. His accomplice was not identified. The following month, June 15, 1984, Markley entered a women's health center in
Huntsville, Alabama Huntsville is the List of municipalities in Alabama, most populous city in the U.S. state of Alabama. The population of the city is estimated to be 241,114 in 2024, making it the List of United States cities by population, 100th-most populous ...
. Kathryn Wood, one of the workers, received back injuries and a broken neck vertebrae while preventing Markley from splashing red paint on the clinic's equipment. Markley was convicted of first-degree criminal mischief, one count of third-degree assault, and one count of harassment in the Huntsville attack. Between 1993 and 2015, 11 people were killed at American abortion clinics. The anti-abortion group named Army of God claimed responsibility for
Eric Robert Rudolph Eric Robert Rudolph (born September 19, 1966), also known as the Olympic Park Bomber, is an American domestic terrorist convicted of a series of bombings across the Southern United States between 1996 and 1998, which killed two people and injure ...
's 1997 shrapnel bombing of abortion clinics in
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and Birmingham. The organization embraces being labelled Christian terrorists. On January 29, 1998, Robert Sanderson, an off-duty police officer who worked as a security guard at an abortion clinic in
Birmingham, Alabama Birmingham ( ) is a city in the north central region of Alabama, United States. It is the county seat of Jefferson County, Alabama, Jefferson County. The population was 200,733 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List ...
, was killed while working at the clinic when it was bombed. Rudolph admitted responsibility for the bombing and he was also charged with three Atlanta bombings: the 1997 bombing of an abortion center, the 1996
Centennial Olympic Park bombing The Centennial Olympic Park bombing was a pipe bombing attack on Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, on July 27, 1996, during the Summer Olympics. The blast directly killed one person and injured 111 others; another pers ...
, and another bombing of a lesbian nightclub. He received two
life sentence Life imprisonment is any sentence of imprisonment under which the convicted individual is to remain incarcerated for the rest of their natural life (or until pardoned or commuted to a fixed term). Crimes that result in life imprisonment are c ...
s for his crimes.


Footnotes


References

{{Abortion by US state
Alabama Alabama ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South, Deep Southern regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gu ...
Healthcare in Alabama Women in Alabama