"Florida's abortion procedures ban – and every other ban like it – is an unconstitutional attempt to overturn Roe v. Wade and outlaw all surgical abortions. The ban covers abortions at any stage of pregnancy and ignores threats to women's health. We applaud the judge's decision to overturn it," said NOW President Patricia Ireland, following U.S. District Judge Donald Graham's decision to strike down the Florida law. "The real goal of these bans is to stop all abortions -- even in the first trimester," Ireland said.
"While anti-abortion forces claim to be targeting a specific late-term procedure, their proposed laws purposely contain deceptively broad language, no clear definition of the procedure and no reference to trimester. These laws, with their vague wording and threats of prison, are designed to scare doctors away from performing any abortion," Ireland said. When Wisconsin's abortion procedures ban went into effect, every women's clinic in the state stopped providing abortion services out of fear of prosecution.
"Anti-abortion extremists are using abortion procedures bans as an underhanded strategy to stop abortion and to waste valuable abortion rights resources in courts and on referenda campaigns," Ireland observed. During the recent elections, NOW was instrumental in defeating two proposed abortion bans in Washington and Colorado.
Ireland encourages abortion rights activists to remain resolute in their
support of women's reproductive freedom. "The conservative extremists
will stop at nothing. They are intent upon controlling women.
NOW and our 500,000 contributing members will continue to stand up for
women's rights in the courts, in the polls and at the clinics," Ireland
promised.