Lady Gaga has blasted Alabama politicians who have pushed through a no-nonsense new anti-abortion law that will make it a felony to terminate a pregnancy.
Calling the Alabama Abortion Bill an "outrage", the Poker Face singer and actress took to Twitter on Wednesday (15May19) to vent her disgust towards state Senate officials, who passed the near-total abortion ban on Tuesday night.
"It is an outrage to ban abortion in Alabama period, and all the more heinous that it excludes those who have been raped or are experiencing incest non-consensual or not," the pop artist raged on Twitter on Wednesday (15May19). "So there's a higher penalty for doctors who perform these operations than for most rapists? This is a travesty and I pray for all these women and young girls who suffer at the hands of this system."
If not blocked, doctors who perform an abortion in the state will now face up to 99 years in prison in accordance with the new law.
The only exceptions to the new law are for ectopic pregnancy, "to avoid a serious health risk to the unborn child's mother" and if the "unborn child has a lethal anomaly".
Chris Evans, Janelle Monae, and filmmaker Ava DuVernay have also spoken out in response to Alabama's ban on abortion.
"This is absolutely unbelievable... This is why voting matters!!" Avengers star Evans tweeted, while DuVernay wrote: "Don’t move forward after reading this like everything is normal. Don’t shake your head at Alabama and then keep going about your day. Realize that this is a warning. It’s Alabama and abortion today. It’s you and your rights tomorrow. Your silence will not save you. So speak up."
And Jane Lynck wrote: "THE GOAL IS TO CONTROL WOMEN," while singer and actress Janelle Monae added: "THIS IS REAL & is HAPPENING IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA."
Alabama's new abortion bill comes just weeks after Georgia politicians voted for the "heartbeat bill", which states that abortion as early as six weeks into pregnancy can be deemed illegal.
