By TODD STACY
The nation’s largest abortion provider, Planned Parenthood, and its affiliated advocacy groups are investing large amounts of political money in Alabama aiming to defeat a pro-life ballot initiative.
Alabama Healthy Families PAC, a political group ostensibly set up to fight a constitutional amendment enshrining “the sanctity of life,” reported more than $800,000 in donations from Planned Parenthood and its affiliated groups on a recent campaign finance filing.
Planned Parenthood Contributions
New York City-based Planned Parenthood Federation of America and Planned Parenthood Action Fund gave $150,000 and $500,000, respectively. Southern California-based Planned Parenthood of Orange and San Bernardino Counties contributed $100,000. Planned Parenthood of Mar Monte, California recently contributed $50,000, as YellowHammer News previously reported.
A website and Facebook page for Alabama Healthy Families PAC advocate for voting against Amendment 2 claiming the measure “would pave the way to outlaw abortion in all cases, including rape, incest, and when the life of the woman is at risk.”
However, the amendment doesn’t make any action or activities unlawful, according to the Fair Ballot Commission. In its report on the Secretary of State’s website, the Commission concludes Amendment 2 “does not identify any specific actions or activities as unlawful. It expresses a public policy that supports broad protections for the rights of unborn children as long as the protections are lawful.”
Amendment 2, sponsored by State Rep. Matt Fridy reads:
“Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of Alabama of 1901, as amended; to declare and otherwise affirm that it is the public policy of this state to recognize and support the sanctity of unborn life and the rights of unborn children, most importantly the right to life in all manners and measures appropriate and lawful; and to provide that the constitution of this state does not protect the right to abortion or require the funding of abortion.”
The Alabama Policy Institute, a conservative think tank that supports Amendment 2, says the ballot initiative is meant to avoid a situation that happened in Tennessee in which the state supreme court ruled that the constitution guarantees abortion rights.
Supporters want “to eliminate any opportunity for what happened in Tennessee to happen here, and this amendment would be effective in that vein. Any further impact, however, would require change on the national level,” API’s Parker Snider wrote in a recent op-ed.
Alabama Healthy Families PAC says on its website that “Most Alabamians, including doctors and nurses, agree: abortion is needed in some circumstances,” and that “Lawmakers should prioritize family planning, comprehensive sex education, and access to birth control.”
The group is organizing events and petitions to oppose the ballot initiative.