By CAROLINE BECK, Alabama Daily News
MONTGOMERY, Ala. – The Alabama Senate Judiciary Committee approved a bill that would criminalize most abortions in Alabama, but added an exception for victims of rape and incest despite objections from the bill sponsors.
That amendment could be a large part of debate Thursday when the full Senate is expected to consider the legislation.
House Bill 314 is sponsored by Rep. Terri Collins, R-Decatur, and its intent is to challenge Roe V. Wade, the U.S. Supreme Court decision that made access to abortions a constitutional right in the first two trimesters of pregnancy.
“To accept another amendment that weakens the argument or diverts the message that the baby in the womb is a person dilutes the whole message,” Collins said before the committee vote.
Sen. Tom Whatley, R-Auburn, proposed the amendment. He said that he understands Collins’ intent in not allowing exceptions, but thinks it is a “dangerous” thing to do.
“I don’t think this bill will survive the Senate without an amendment,” Whatley said.
Sen. Clyde Chambliss, R-Prattville, is sponsoring the bill in the Senate and said that he hopes the amendment is removed. He put the bill’s chance of passage without the amendment at 50 percent.
Senate Pro Tem Del Marsh, R-Anniston, said that he approves of the amendment for rape and incest.
Sen. Larry Stutts, R-Tuscumbia, who has practiced obstetrics and gynecology for 27 years, voted against Whatley’s amendment in committee Wednesday.
“I think it needs to be passed out as a clean bill with no amendments on it just as the House did so it can have a chance in the Supreme Court,” Stutts said.
Another amendment was offered by Sen. Linda Coleman-Madison, D-Birmingham, that would make the state provide prenatal and medical support for the mother and child if the woman was forced to give birth. It would include costs for mental and psychological care, as well as labor. That amendment failed.
Coleman-Madison said that she thinks it’s hypocritical for men to pass legislation regulating women’s bodies when they don’t have to give birth.
“I am adamantly opposed to the concept of regulating a person’s body,” Coleman-Madison said. “You don’t find bills that regulate men’s personal body parts.”
Sen. Rodger Smitherman, D-Birmingham, voted against advancing the bill and said he is worried about the amount of taxpayer money that could be wasted in defending this bill in the courts. Multiple organizations have said they’ll sue to block it implementation.
“This is a waste, and the thing that concerns me the most is that we sat right upstairs and debated about the fact that we may have to go into the Education Trust Fund and take out $35 million to (fund the Children’s Health Insurance Program),” Smitherman said. “And we are talking about that we don’t have money to give retired teachers a raise but now we are going to take millions to (defend) this in the Supreme Court and we are going to lose. All that money we could have had for Medicaid expansion and kept rural hospitals open. We are wasting money, that’s what this is.”
The committee vote Wednesday was 7-2 along party lines.
Committee member Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur voted to advance the legislation, but declined to comment Wednesday about his support for the bill.
If the rape and incest amendment remains on the bill through the Senate, it will have to go back to the House where it passed along party lines last week. Most Democrats refused to vote on the legislation and left the chamber.
The legislation makes performing an abortion a class A felony, but women who seek or have abortions would not be criminally liable. The only exceptions in the bill are if there is a serious health risk to the mother and if the fetus has a “lethal anomaly.”
Currently, abortions in Alabama are banned after 20 weeks of pregnancy.
Attempting to perform an abortion would be a Class C felony, punishable with one to 10 years in prison and a $15,000 fine. Several groups have said they will sue to stop the law if it’s enacted.
This week, the governor of Georgia signed a bill banning abortion if a fetal heartbeat can be heard, which can be around six weeks of pregnancy. Opponents say some women don’t know at six weeks that they are pregnant.