ACLU, Women’s March to hold nationwide protests over abortion bans

A slate of women’s and civil rights groups are planning to hold nationwide protests next week against a series of bills being weighed by states that seek to restrict access to abortions.

Planned Parenthood, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), NARAL Pro-Choice America, the Women’s March and other groups are working to organize the demonstrations Tuesday.

The protests at statehouses and courthouses across the country are aimed at condemning bills that the groups are calling an “unconstitutional attempt to gut Roe and punish women.”

{mosads}“Across the country, we are seeing a new wave of extreme bans on abortion, stripping away reproductive freedom and representing an all-out assault on abortion access,” the groups said on the protest’s website.

“This is [President] Trump’s anti-choice movement… and it’s terrifying, particularly for women of color and low-income women who are most affected by these bans.”

Abortion rights groups have expressed outrage in recent weeks as states across the country work to restrict access to the procedure.

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey (R) this week signed into law the nation’s strictest legislation, which virtually bans all abortions in the state unless a mother’s life is at risk due to a pregnancy.

Sixteen states have passed or are currently considering abortion bans once a fetal heartbeat is detected, about six weeks into pregnancy. Four states have approved so-called heartbeat abortion laws.

Advocates of the movement say they hope to spark a court battle that could lead the Supreme Court to reconsider Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that recognized a women’s right to abortion.

Many have pointed to the high court’s new ideological balance after the addition of conservative Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, two nominees put forward by Trump.

The bills have become a leading issue early on in the 2020 White House race, with several Democratic candidates suggesting the movement amounts to a “war on women.”