Thousands expected to protest Alabama abortion

Thousands of demonstrators prepared to take to the streets around the southern US state of Alabama on Sunday to rally against one of the nation's most restrictive bans on abortions in decades.

Women's reproductive rights defenders will gather in the capital, Montgomery, and in Birmingham, Anniston and Huntsville, to denounce the "Alabama Human Life Protection Act," or HB314, which virtually outlaws terminations.

"People should have the right to make the decisions that are best for their bodies without state interference," organisers said on Facebook.

Alabama passed a law last week that prohibits all abortions -- even in cases of incest and rape -- unless there is a risk of death for the mother.

"We're going to return to the back alleys. We're going to return to where women will do abortions to themselves," 81-year-old Maralyn Mosley told the Montgomery Advertiser.

She had an abortion at 13, after her uncle raped her.

"We will return to the coat hangers and perforated uteruses. We will return to where women will bleed to death," she warned.

Sunday's rallies follow protests last week that saw women donning the iconic red tunics and white bonnets worn by the oppressed women of a dystopian future America in Hulu's "The Handmaid's Tale."
Trump appeared to suggest Alabama lawmakers had gone too far in a series of tweets late Saturday in which he described himself as "strongly Pro-Life, with the three exceptions - Rape, Incest and protecting the Life of the mother."
"What's happening in Alabama is so important in the world," the "Desperate Housewives" star said. "It's going to affect everybody if we don't pay attention."