Sen. Kamala Harris has raised more than $160,000 for abortion rights groups on Wednesday following Alabama’s new draconian anti-abortion legislation.
On Wednesday, Gov. Kay Ivey of Alabama signed into law a near-total abortion ban that allows no exceptions for cases of rape or incest and could punish doctors who perform the procedures with life in prison. The law is now the strictest anti-abortion bill in the country.
In a fundraising email that compared Alabama’s decision to the dystopian book and TV series, The Handmaid’s Tale, the 2020 presidential hopeful. asked her supporters to donate money that would be split among four groups fighting for abortion rights: the Yellowhammer Fund, the Clinic Vest Project, ARC Southeast and the National Network of Abortion Funds.
“Outlawing access to abortion ― including in cases of rape or incest. Threatening to punish doctors who provide abortion care with up to 99 years of jail time. This isn’t a scene from The Handmaid’s Tale. This is happening in Alabama ― in our country ― in the year 2019,” read the email.
It added: “We cannot afford to wring our hands. We need to fight back, raising our voice together to say we won’t be dragged backward and putting our collective power to work.”
As ESSENCE previously reported, the Alabama law will not go into effect for another six months.