“[This law] stands as a powerful testament to Alabamians’ deeply held belief that every life is precious, that every life is a sacred gift from God,” said Alabama Governor Ivey while signing the most restrictive abortion ban into place, in ‘The Time Is Now’: States Are Rushing to Restrict Abortion, or to Protect It,” from The New York Times.

The Alabama governor is using religion to directly justify her reasoning for banning abortion. When using religion to justify matters involving politics, the lines between the separation of church and state blur and are almost cast away. Matters of politics should not have to be justified using religious beliefs. The primary reason for making a decision should be something not involved with religion, but when it comes to making a final decision, religion should never be a deciding factor.

Michigan senators are attempting to pass a fetal heartbeat bill. House Bill 4664 would make it a felony for a doctor to perform an abortion. The doctor who performs an abortion, only if the abortion is on a fetus that has had a heart beat detected or after 6 weeks of pregnancy, would be imprisoned for two to four years, and six to fifteen if the procedure were cause the pregnant person’s death. As a result, people have started a petition.

In the article “Michigan House bill would ban Abortions after Fetal Heartbeat detected” by Lauren Gibbons from mLive it says, “At the time the petition is ‘designed to be the arrow in the heart’ of Roe v. Wade, the U.S. Supreme Court decision that allows abortions to be performed in the United States.”

States are putting in place laws that say once a heartbeat is detected, an abortion can no longer be performed. This is called the fetal heartbeat law, which bans abortion after six weeks of pregnancy when the heartbeat is detected. People often don’t actually know how small a six week old embryo is. It is only the size of sweet pea.

Most states attempting to ban abortion are stating that the reason behind the ban is to overturn Roe V. Wade.

In an article from The Washington Post, “What’s different is the laws themselves, which have gone further than ever to frontally challenge Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court’s 1973 ruling that established federal protections for abortion.”

In the article “The Rising Wave of Abortion Restrictions in America” from CNN reports that Alabama, has passed the most restrive abortion laws. “The ban makes abortion illegal in virtually all cases — including cases of rape and incest — and doctors who perform abortions could face life in prison.”

Based on this law, if a doctor performs an abortion on a rape victim, the doctor is more likely to end up in jail, than her rapist.

In Missouri on May 17th, the lawmakers passed a law that bans abortion after 8 weeks, with no exception for rape or incest. The state is currently working to shut down the last Planned Parenthood clinic. With the Planned Parenthood shutting down, simple services now become so much harder to get, like STD testing, and safe, still legal, abortions.

In an article from CBS News by Katie Smith, which explains how the governor is gunning for the end of this Planned Parenthood. “The governor said the judge should not grant Planned Parenthood the license just because the abortion clinic is the last one in the state…‘It would be reckless for any judge to grant a temporary restraining order ruling before the state has taken action on a license renewal,’ Parson said. ‘No judge should be [giving] special treatment to Planned Parenthood in this instance. If you break the law there are consequences.’”

However, Planned Parenthood has broken no laws, and in fact followed the extreme regulations that have no basis in medicine.

Lawmakers are again attempting to justify the laws they are making with religion.

Representative Holly Rehder, a republican from Missouri, said in an article for The New York Times by Sabrina Tavernise and Adeel Hassan, “‘To stand on this floor and say, ‘How could someone look at a child of rape or incest and care for them?’ she said. ‘I can say how we can do that. We can do that with the love of God.’”

Religion should not be involved, it is a political issue not a religious issue. It is direct correlation of church and the state, which does not follow the idea of separation of church and state.

Separation of church and state is the idea that the government cannot favor one religion over another when making laws. The government cannot endorse any religion. The desire for religion and government to be separate has been around since before the United States was a free country, when people were coming to the colonies to escape religious persecution.

Often the idea of separating church and state gets ignored, and religion is used to back up the reason behind laws. It is also used in political speeches, like in the case of Representative Rehder.

In a speech from Representative Rehder, the New York Times reported him saying, “I can say how we can do that. We can do that with the love of God.”

The idea is that once a heartbeat is heard, the fetus is a human being. Senator Clyde Chambliss when asked how a law would affect unused fertilized eggs, in a Rewire News article by Rebecca Todd Peters said, “‘The egg in the lab doesn’t apply. It’s not in a woman.”

This admission makes clear that the issue isn’t the moral status of prenates. The issue that traditionalist Christians, like Chambliss, are pursuing with these bills is women’s ability to control their bodies and their reproductive decision-making.”

Instead of consulting experts, Senator Chambliss is suggesting that the lawmakers who are uneducated on these matters should be in charge of making such decision.

When we look for answers for issues involving politics, as a country our first thought should not be “Let’s consult the bible, let’s see what God would say.”

Americans should instead turn to fact and reason.