Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey signs the country's most restrictive abortion bill into law

Pro-choice activists are in mourning this week after the Alabama state legislature passed the country's most restrictive abortion bill and Gov. Kay Ivey signed it into law on Thursday. In her signing statement. Gov. Ivey acknowledged that this bill was designed to challenge the 1973 landmark Roe v. Wade decision in the Supreme Court.

The bill, which is titled the "Alabama Human Life Protection Act," outlaws almost all abortions in the state. If the law goes into effect when it is supposed to, in six months, physicians could face up to 99 years in prison for ending or attempting to end a pregnancy, unless their patient's health was at "serious" risk. Women who terminate their pregnancies would not face jail time. The law does not permit abortion even in the case of rape or incest.

On Thursday, survivor Sam Blakely told CNN's Alisyn Camerota that the worst moment of her life was when she found out she was pregnant with her rapist's child, and being able to receive an abortion was a huge relief. "I have absolutely no words to describe the disgust that I feel and so many women have told me that they feel," she said. "We don't know what's going to happen. We are seriously in fear for our lives as women in Alabama."

Alabama isn't the only state to pass a restrictive abortion law in recent months. Last week, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp signed a bill into law that would outlaw abortion after about six weeks, before most women even know they are pregnant. Ohio's governor signed a similar law in April. And just today, the Missouri Senate passed a law that would prohibit terminating a pregnancy after eight weeks.

Sponsors of the Alabama bill crafted the legislation with the specific intention of excluding any exceptions, in the hopes of legally establishing that a fetus is a person with rights. "Human life has rights, and when someone takes those rights, that's when we as government have to step in," Republican Clyde Chambliss, the Senate sponsor of the abortion ban, told NPR.

Some conservative public figures lambasted the law, warning that the Alabama strategy could backfire, and set the anti-choice movement back. "I think Alabama has gone too far," said televangelist Pat Robertson on Wednesday. "They want to challenge Roe v. Wade, but my humble view is that this is not the case that we want to bring to the Supreme Court because I think this will lose." 

There are already several abortion ban-related laws pending before the Supreme Court, as well as laws that are making their way appellate courts. The Supreme Court may announce whether it will hear an Indiana law that would require pregnant individuals to receive an ultrasound at least 18 hours before an abortion, thus necessitating two visits to the clinic or doctor's office, as early as Monday. But according to many legal experts, the Supreme Court may be reluctant to overturn such an important ruling that has been the basis for many subsequent judicial decisions. The Court will likely be more willing to whittle away at Roe by allowing states to increasingly restrict abortion, but not do away with it entirely. 

Meanwhile, advocacy groups are getting ready to fight. Alabama's bill is not due to go into effect for another six months, but as soon as the bill became law, pro-choice civil liberties organizations have promised they will litigate against it. "Abortion is NOT a crime — it's a constitutional right," the ACLU's national organization wrote on Twitter. "It's true that states have passed laws trying to make abortion a crime, but we will sue in court to make sure none of those laws ever go into effect."