Thousands took to the streets in the southern US state of Alabama on Sunday to rally against the nation’s most restrictive bans on abortions in decades.
Around 500 women’s reproductive rights defenders gathered in state capital Montgomery, while in the cities of Birmingham, Anniston, Huntsville and Mobile around 3,000 more joined in denouncing the “Alabama Human Life Protection Act,” local media reported.
The act, known as HB314, virtually outlaws terminations of pregnancy.
Protesters in Montgomery held up signs reading “her body, her choice” and “we are not ovary-acting.”
A woman wearing beige underwear that made her look naked had a drawing of her reproductive system attached to her abdomen and a banner reading: “More than an incubator.”
Several other women were dressed as characters forced to bear children in the dystopian novel and television series “The Handmaid’s Tale.”
One of them, who gave her name only as Amanda, accused Alabama’s legislators of “trying to imprison women and doctors.”
“Wearing the ‘Handmaid’s Tale’ outfit is sending a message that you’re trying to turn us into slaves, reproductive slaves,” the 40-year-old-lawyer told AFP.
“They’re trying to fill prisons, more private prisons so that women will do hard labour after they get convicted of these ‘crimes’ of abortion.”
Source: Guardian Newspaper
