by Terri LaPoint

Alabama legislators have drawn a line in the sand. On Tuesday evening, May 14, 2019, senators voted 25 to 6 for “The Alabama Human Life Protection Act.” The House voted two weeks ago to approve the companion bill. The next step is Governor Kay Ivey’s desk, and then the courts.

The bill’s sponsor, State Rep. Terri Collins of Decatur, says that the purpose of the bill is to go all the way to the Supreme Court and challenge Roe v Wade.

Alabama’s state motto is “We Dare Defend Our Rights,” and today we have taken a strong step toward defending the rights of the unborn. With liberal states approving radical late-term and post-birth abortions, Roe must be challenged, and I am proud that Alabama is leading the way.

Lt. Governor Will Ainsworth

Unlike bills in other states, Alabama’s pro-life bill affirms the humanity of all babies in the womb, no matter what state of life, including those conceived by rape or incest.

Pro-life activist Troy Newman calls it “the strongest prolife bill in history!”

See link to bill here.

Attempts in both the House and the Senate by lawmakers to add exceptions for rape- and incest-conceived babies were defeated. Supporters of the bill said that exceptions would dilute the purpose of the bill, which is to affirm that unborn babies are people who have the Constitutional Right to Life.

If a fetus is a human baby, they argue, that truth applies regardless of the circumstances surrounding their conception. Rep. Collins said that an exception amendment would make the bill self-contradictory:

Well, how do we say, ‘The baby inside is a person unless they’re conceived in rape or incest’? If that amendment was to get on the bill, then I’ll kill the bill because it won’t go to the Supreme Court. It will contradict itself. 

Rep. Terri Collins, Yellowhammer News

If there is a serious health risk to the mother, such as an ectopic pregnancy, abortion would still be permitted. (Note – there are cases where both mother and baby have survived ectopic pregnancy. See link.)

Doctors or practitioners who perform an abortion are committing a Class A felony with this bill. This is the same level as capital murder, rape, and arson in the 1st degree, punishable by jail time of 10 to 99 years. (Source.) Mothers who abort, however, will not be held criminally or civilly liable.

The language of the bill argues the right to life from the Declaration of Independence and natural law:

In the United States Declaration of Independence, the principle of natural law that “all men are created equal” was articulated. The self-evident truth found in natural law, that all human beings are equal from creation, was at least one of the bases for the anti-slavery movement, the women’s suffrage movement, the Nuremberg war crimes trials, and the American civil rights movement. If those movements had not been able to appeal to the truth of universal human equality, they could not have been successful.

Abortion advocates speak to women’s rights, but they ignore the unborn child, while medical science has increasingly recognized the humanity of the unborn child.

The battle over the Human Life Protection Act in the Alabama legislature has been fierce. Rep. John Rogers made national headlines two weeks ago and ignited a firestorm of opposition when he stated:

Some kids are unwanted, so you kill them now or you kill them later. You bring them in the world unwanted, unloved, you send them to the electric chair. So, you kill them now or you kill them later.”

The newly-passed bill affirms that, despite the opinion of Rep. John Rogers and others, every baby, born or unborn, has value. They are human beings, entitled to the same right to life and liberty that every other person enjoys.