May 9, 2019

Alabama Senate on verge of passing bill making abortion a felony

A pro-life rally in Washington, D.C. Photo: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images

The Alabama state Senate is prepared to pass a bill on Thursday that would outlaw abortion at basically every stage of pregnancy, making it the strictest abortion law in the country, before "a fight broke out" and the chamber tabled the vote, the Washington Post reports.

Details: The bill would make abortion a felony and criminalize the procedure for doctors, who could face up to 99 years in prison if convicted, according to AL.com. After the bill passed Alabama's House without any exceptions last week, the state's Senate Judiciary Committee adopted an amendment to allow abortions for rape or incest. The ACLU of Alabama has already signaled its intention to challenge the law in court if it's passed and signed by Republican Gov. Kay Ivey.

The big picture: Conservative lawmakers in the U.S. have introduced a slew of new state laws limiting abortion rights in 2019. On Tuesday, Georgia's governor signed a bill into law that prohibits abortions as soon a doctor can detect the first fetal heartbeat, following the lead of state governments in Ohio, Mississippi, Kentucky and Iowa.

Go deeper: A surge of restrictive state abortion bans take aim at Roe v. Wade

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Ben Geman, author of Generate

51 mins ago - Energy & Environment

Tallying Trump's climate changes

Reproduced from Rhodium Climate Service; Chart: Axios Visuals

The Trump administration's scuttling or weakening of key Obama-era climate policies could together add 1.8 gigatons of carbon dioxide equivalent to the atmosphere by 2035, a Rhodium Group analysis concludes.

Why it matters: The 1.8 gigatons is "more than the combined energy emissions of Germany, Britain and Canada in one year," per the New York Times, which first reported on the study.

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Courtenay Brown

2 hours ago - Economy & Business

Boeing's one-two punch

Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios

The grounding of Boeing’s 737 MAX was the worst crisis in the plane-maker’s century-long history. At least until the global pandemic hit.

Why it matters: Wall Street expects it will be cleared to fly again before year-end. Orders for what was once the company’s biggest moneymaker were expected to rebound after the ungrounding, but now the unprecedented slump in travel will dash airlines’ appetite for the MAX and any other new planes, analysts say — putting more pressure on the hard-hit company.

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Ursula Perano

2 hours ago - Politics & Policy

New downloads of TikTok, WeChat to be blocked in U.S. on Sunday

Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios

The Commerce Department issued Friday an order blocking new downloads of WeChat and TikTok in the U.S. as of Sept. 20.

The state of play: President Trump has been in a standoff with TikTok, threatening to ban the app if its Chinese owner, ByteDance, does not relinquish control to a U.S. company. A deal is in the works with the American tech company Oracle, but would need to go through before Sunday to prevent TikTok from being ousted from app stores.