Before every legislative session, Alabama Baptist leaders prepare to fight numerous bills they believe will chip away at the moral values held dear by many Alabamians.
Many of the expected bills coming in this year’s legislative session — which opened Jan. 12 — including ones concerning gambling, had not been filed at press time.
But Rep. Robert Bentley, R-Tuscaloosa, got a head start on fighting advancements in the abortion battle. Bentley, a member of First Baptist Church, Tuscaloosa, and retired dermatologist, filed House Bill (HB) 40 proposing a constitutional amendment to “prohibit an abortion for any reason except in an extreme case where the pregnancy threatens the life of the mother or where there is rape or incest.”
Bentley also filed HB 41 seeking to protect health-care professionals from taking part in any medical procedure or service that violates their conscience. The bill is modeled after Mississippi’s bill. Alabama, Vermont and New Hampshire were the only states without this kind of protection as of last year, he noted.
“It protects our beliefs … that you can be punished or hurt in any way if you refuse to do anything against your conscience,” Bentley said.
Using a South Dakota bill as a model, Bentley filed HB 39 to require more information be disclosed to women before an abortion is performed. The bill states the mother be told “the abortion will terminate the life of a whole, separate, unique, living human being.”
“We already (have) a law that says if you murder a pregnant woman you are murdering two people,” he said. “It brings the abortion laws up to the same standards as the criminal laws we already have in place.”
Bentley also hopes to pass a resolution opposing the proposed federal Freedom of Choice Act.
“It is a federal act they said they were going to pass immediately when the new Congress comes in,” he said. “It would do away with all the abortion regulations in the states and … put into code Roe vs. Wade.” (TAB)
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