On Tuesday, the Alabama House of Representatives overwhelmingly voted to ban nearly all abortions in the state.
The legislation was passed with a vote of 74-3, making it a felony to perform an abortion at any stage during pregnancy.
The floor erupted in applause at the passing of the bill.
Applause in Alabama House after abortion bill passes 73-4. Most Democrats walked off the floor before the vote. Bill advances to the Senate. Makes abortion providers felons. Doctors convicted would face 10 plus years in prison for performing abortions. @WVTM13 pic.twitter.com/KmeQX3dyGO
— Jeff Eliasoph (@JeffWVTM13) May 1, 2019
Here’s what’s even better about the bill. It is intentionally designed to conflict with the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision in which “legalized” abortion nationally.
According to Fox News,
“The heart of this bill is to confront a decision that was made by the courts in 1973 that said the baby in a womb is not a person,” said Republican Rep. Terri Collins of Decatur.
Republicans in the chamber applauded after the bill was approved after more than two hours of sometimes emotional debate. Collins acknowledged that such a ban would likely be struck down by lower courts, but she said the aim is eventually to get to the Supreme Court.
Without the numbers to stop the bill, Democrats walked off the House floor ahead of the vote, calling the proposal both extreme and fiscally irresponsible. They said the ban would cost the state money for a potentially expensive legal fight that could be spent on other needs.
Rep. Louise Alexander, a Democrat, said the choice to give birth to a child should be left up to a woman, and the decision should not be made on the floor of the Alabama Legislature.
The bill takes an approach which uses the Dred Scott case.
We used to say that if you were African you were not a person and did not have the rights of all other persons. Then we learned more and realized how wrong and immoral that was and overturned that.
Similarly, when we passed Roe v. Wade we did not know what we know now scientifically about when life begins. Now we know where life begins.
We once declared something was not a person that is a person with Dred Scott. So the bill is saying that with what we know now, we must overturn the Roe v. Wade case’s incorrect decision.
And this has a very good chance of doing just that very thing because we finally have another conservative majority on the Supreme Court.