This is a guest post from Toni Van Pelt, president of National Organization for Women (NOW)

A bizarre competition to pass the most extreme abortion restrictions is taking place in a growing number of states.  Alabama’s new law that criminalizes abortion for doctors and makes no exception for rape and incest is just the latest example of state laws designed to act as a fringe attack on Roe v. Wade.

           The strategy, as developed by religious extremist groups and right-wing think-tanks, is to draft laws built to the most contrived specifications in order to attract the attention of a Supreme Court they see as itching to overturn Roe.  Sixteen states now have passed or are working to pass the harshest abortion bills imaginable to serve as a wrecking ball to abortion rights.

           In Georgia they passed a law that would allow taxpayers to claim an embryo as a dependent and would also count the unborn in the national census.  As is the case in Alabama, this beyond-extreme legislation was written with just nine individuals in mind.

           “This bill is about challenging Roe v. Wade,” said Alabama state Rep. Terri Collilns (R), the lead sponsor.  In fact, Georgia recently became the sixth state to pass a bill that would outlaw abortion about six weeks into pregnancy–before many women even know they are pregnant.

           Two states—Montana and North Carolina—passed so-called “Born Alive” legislation built on junk science and political gimmickry.

           The myth that doctors are murdering newborns following a failed abortion is a cynical, dishonest and fear-mongering tactic designed to get headlines and boost right-wing fundraising.

           There is no such thing as legislatively protected infanticide anywhere in the U.S.  According to the Guttmacher Institute, 88 percent of legal abortions performed happen before 12 weeks’ gestation, and well over 90 percent in the first 14 weeks.   Third trimester abortions make up less than 1 percent of all abortions.

           And contrary to what anti-abortion extremists keep repeating, abortion after 24 weeks is very rare, very expensive, and performed for medically necessary reasons such as tragic fetal anomalies or maternal health issues.

           Of course, these laws and restrictions are all about power—not health.

           Fetal heartbeat laws, waiting periods, informed consent requirements, bans on public funding, insurance prohibitions and unnecessary clinic regulations are not designed to protect women. Instead, they are designed to deter women from choosing abortion and to make it more difficult and burdensome to obtain for those that do.

           The 25 white male Republicans in Alabama couldn’t have been more arrogant, self-righteous and out of touch.  Nearly 60% of U.S. adults say abortion should be legal in all or most cases, according to a 2018 Pew Research survey.

           During the Alabama floor debate, Democratic State Senator Vivian Davis Figures interrupted a Republican colleague who was defending the morality of not allowing abortions for pregnancies caused by rape or incest.

           “That’s not your business,” she said.

           “You don’t have to raise a child.  You don’t have to carry that child, you don’t have to provide for that child, you don’t have to do anything for that child—but yet you want to make that decision for that woman that that’s what she has to do.”

           We don’t need any more male-dominated legislatures intent on seizing more power and control over women’s health. Our leaders should be working to protect health care, and not demonize women for exercising their constitutional right to abortion.