In what might be seen as a dismissively antagonistic stance, Republican Alabama Governor Kay Ivey said she doesn’t think the abortion ban that has no exception for rape or incest, which she just signed into law, will hurt tourism or business recruitment, in spite of the activists who pledged to boycott the state.
Ivey, standing next to a helpful Trump-style graphic pointing to a rise in tourism, said Alabama has seen a rise in tourism each year. How that relates to the impact on tourism for a law she just signed a week ago is anyone’s guess.
The Republican governor last week signed a bill to ban nearly all abortions in the state, even in cases of rape and incest.
Republicans defeated a Democratic amendment that would have made an exception for rape or incest, so those two horror shows will not be exempted, thereby giving rapists and sexual assaulters of children the very power the motivates them to commit these crimes.
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Republicans call this “valuing the sanctity of life.”
Asked if she has gotten any push back from big business like Toyota Mazda due to this bill, Ivey said, “No I have not and I don’t expect to.”
In a joint venture, Toyota Mazda are building a $1.6 billion assembly plant in Alabama.
However, Reuters reported officials in Maryland and Colorado calling for economic retaliation and online flyers urging people not to buy anything in, or from Alabama.
Maryland’s Democratic Comptroller Peter Franchot said he would advise his state’s $52 billion pension fund to divest from Alabama, and urged other states to follow suit.
Colorado’s Democratic Secretary of State Jena Griswold called for a boycott of Alabama and urged the Election Center, an organization that trains election officials from across the country, to move out of the state.
The hashtag #BoycottAlabama gained momentum online, with activists calling for boycotts of products ranging from Mercedes-Benz cars to broiler chickens that are produced in Alabama.
Activists have vowed to boycott after Republicans in Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi and Ohio have outlawed abortion after a doctor can detect a heartbeat, which is often before a woman knows she’s pregnant.
The Alabama bill goes further, banning abortions at any time, unless the mother’s health is in danger. Performing abortions would be a felony, punishable by 10 to 99 years in prison.
Supporters of the Alabama ban said the right to life of the fetus transcends other rights. This means that the woman’s life and agency is not worth that of a fetus, as they can’t be medically equal.
Republicans want voters to go to the polls in 2020 knowing that they do not support a woman’s right to medical freedom and sometimes her very life.
Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine, who claims to be a moderate, pro-woman’s liberty politician, voted to confirm credibly accused of rape Judge Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, claiming he had assured her he had no intention of overturning Roe, even though he was known for wanting to do just that.
It seems that no other Republican in the land got the same Collins’ memo on Kavanaugh, as they have been emboldened to push challenges to Roe, with challenges to abortion rights in 16 states.
Governor Ivey is positive that disrespecting women will have zero consequences.
Oh, Miss Ivey.
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