So far in 2019, nine states have voted to ban or restrict abortion after six weeks, which is before many women even know they’re pregnant. These laws were passed almost exclusively by Republicans, in states with largely Republican-dominated legislatures. But they were not unopposed. Five legislators from five states spoke to the Guardian about why they took to the statehouse floor to oppose the abortion bans, and what they think will happen next.

Senator Jen Jordan, Georgia

Jen Jordan. Photograph by Melissa Golden/The Guardian

Jennifer Jordan, a Democrat, has represented district six in the Georgia state senate since December 2017. She spoke about her own experience with birth and miscarriage in an emotional speech against Georgia’s six-week ban in March.

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I was born the year after Roe v Wade was decided, so I have lived my entire adult existence with bodily autonomy. I think [this bill] was a wake-up call. There’s so much more at stake, especially when you’re talking about a bill that effectively bans abortion across the board and takes away women’s autonomy when it comes to making reproductive healthcare choices. At the end of the day, that’s what is getting lost here: it’s not about a particular procedure, or a particular policy, or a particular law. When you’re talking about Roe v Wade, or Planned Parenthood v Casey, really what you’re talking about are the very cases that have identified or recognized the rights of women in terms of the constitution. When you start peeling back that onion, you’re eroding our most basic rights, over our bodies, over our lives. And that’s problematic, because it’s much bigger than abortion.

One of the most bizarre things that happened in the process was that they – they being the Republicans pushing the bill – kept acting like this was a scientifically sound bill, and that everyone had to agree that they were right, based on science. And I was just flummoxed by that, because nothing they said was correct. No one says, ‘I had to have my womb removed the other day when I had a hysterectomy.’ That’s not a medical term. It’s important to talk about things scientifically – if you are going to insert yourself into these private health decisions between women and physicians, and you won’t listen to women and physicians with respect to this, you’re at least going to listen to me as I stand here. And if you’re uncomfortable, great.

Representative C Denise Marcelle, Louisiana

C Denise Marcelle. Photograph by Akasha Rabut/The Guardian

C Denise Marcelle, who has represented East Baton Rouge in the Louisiana house of representatives since 2015, testified against the state’s six-week ban in May.

Many of the people who say they’re pro-life really aren’t pro-life, in my opinion. If you’re pro-life then for these kids who are born, you provide service – you provide services for the mothers, you provide healthcare, you provide childcare. Because having the baby is the easy part. It’s taking care and maintaining that child and making sure that they’re in the right environment to prosper that’s the bigger concern. So I feel that hypocrisy, from where I sit, because many of those people [who voted for this ban] vote against services to the same people.

They kept talking about life, but those same people voted against every time they had an opportunity to give women additional money. Fair wages, or just bringing up the minimum wages, because many of the minimum-wage workers are women, they’re single mothers who are working two jobs to make ends meet for the very babies that they want them to keep.

This won’t reduce abortions; it will reduce safe abortions. It’s disrespectful of people’s rights, of people’s bodies.

I just keep saying to people that they need to go register to vote and go out like never before and un-elect some of these people, and ask the hard questions while they’re running: what will you do in terms of women’s rights and their bodies? Do you believe that the majority of the people will support that? The many women I’ve heard from, I just don’t think that they support that.

Senator Vivian Figures, Alabama

Vivian Figures. Photograph by Julie Bennett/The Guardian.

Vivian Davis Figures, of Mobile, has served in the Alabama state senate since 1997. She opposed Alabama’s near-total abortion ban on the senate floor, and will be honorary chair of Galvanize Alabama, a United State of Women community day of action, in September.

My goal was, first of all, trying to get my Republican male colleagues to empathize. To at least put themselves in the shoes of women, or even their female family members, to show them that this bill shouldn’t pass and how bad it was. I tried to do that in different ways – with the three amendments that I offered, that I knew would fail because we were told they didn’t want any amendments on this bill.

The first amendment was to expand Medicaid, because once this is enacted into law in mid-November, it’s going to affect women who are low-income more than anything. Therefore, they will need the medical coverage for those potentially unsafe abortions that they’re going to try to still have.

My second amendment had to do with all of the money – the potential millions of dollars that Alabama will have to come up with to pay legal fees to fight this unconstitutional bill in the courts. And my third amendment – and I said I saved the best for last – was actually to make it a felony when men got a vasectomy. That’s cutting off life, wouldn’t you think? For them to make it a felony for a doctor to give a woman an abortion, then they should receive the same treatment.

Many of the people who are voting to ban abortions will still have access because they will have the means to send the women in their lives to some place that has legal, safe abortions. So why shouldn’t it be available for all women?

Representative Doug Beck, Missouri

Doug Beck. Photograph by Neeta Satam/The Guardian

Doug Beck, of St Louis, was elected to the Missouri house of representatives in November 2016. He spoke against Missouri’s eight-week ban in May, and works in construction when not in session.

I don’t really call it abortion, I call it women’s healthcare – being able to choose your own healthcare. A lot of women decide that they can’t afford to have a family right now. That’s one of their decisions they have to make. I think it takes power away from women if we don’t let them make their own choices.

The bill – with the rape and incest and all those things in there – I think it’s barbaric. I knew [Governor Mike Parson] was going to sign it anyway. The problem with this state is that we’re a super-minority as far as Democrats go. And they feel like they can do a lot of different things and nothing happens because we keep electing these people. Personally, I think there were people on the other side of the aisle who probably wanted to vote no on this but they felt that with the political pressure, they couldn’t.

The way I look at this entire issue is that it’s putting women as second-class citizens, less than men – which it’s been for a long time, anyway. I think [men] should be speaking up and saying this is wrong. That’s the way I see it, but then again I don’t want to step in to the point where I’m telling a woman how she should feel. It’s kind of a sticky area sometimes. But I think anytime we talk about LGBTQ rights, abortion – it’s all the same issue. It’s all about just people having the exact same rights that I have. And it’s about human rights.

Representative Stephanie Howse, Ohio

Stephanie Howse. Photographs by Maddie McGarvey/The Guardian

Stephanie Howse, of Cleveland, has represented the 11th district in Ohio’s house of representatives since 2014 and spoke against the state’s six-week ban in November 2018.

A larger point we need to understand is that this is still a patriarchal society, and when you look at the gender breakdown of who is making these decisions, it’s overwhelmingly men. Break it down even further, and it’s Christian-based white men. You can look through our history to see what that one voice has done to our country at different moments in time – to take over ownership and control of other people’s bodies, based on what they believe.

Look at the money that’s being spent on this versus putting our time and energy for what people actually want. We’re talking about equitably funding education, really providing true affordable and accessible healthcare to all or our citizens, ensuring that families have the ability to have family-sustaining wages – those are the real issues that people want, that are impacting their daily lives.

Fundamentally, you can’t expect the system that, for the most part, was not designed for the people of 2019 and beyond, to cater to your needs. It’s still designed to benefit white men who own stuff.

Here in Ohio, we’ve started the Black Maternal Health Caucus, to fight back and begin to look at the health and wellness of black women, because when we talk about total abortion bans, we know the real life-and-death situations we are putting black women in. Having a caucus that can come together and look at the policies that we can introduce and champion so that we can be protectors of black women, black babies and black families, is one of the things that we’re doing and could be a strategy for other communities.