For years, pro-lifers have rallied outside the Alabama Statehouse hoping to encourage legislators to pass laws protecting the lives of unborn babies. And for years, anti-abortion bills have been proposed and left to die in the Senate and House Health committees. Now that the committees are under Republican control, this legislative session is already proving to be different.
As usual, legislators have sponsored anti-abortion bills, but unlike previous years, several of the bills are already seeing movement in the Statehouse. Some, which received a second reading, could even come up for a Senate vote in the upcoming weeks.
At the March 31 pro-life rally, held at the Statehouse, first lady Dianne Bentley praised the legislators in front of more than 150 rally attendees for their life-saving efforts. Also several lawmakers who are sponsoring and co-sponsoring the anti-abortion bills explained the legislation to the crowd.
“For the first time in a very long time, there really is an opportunity for some very positive things to happen,” said Lisa Hogan, executive director of Sav-A-Life Vestavia, who attended the rally. “It’s very exciting to see what could happen because of who they (pro-life legislators) are and what they believe. It’s very obvious that they are all godly men, and that’s refreshing to see in government.”
Joe Godfrey, executive director of Alabama Citizens Action Program, is also optimistic about this year’s legislative session.
“In the past, we hoped we might sneak through one pro-life bill,” he said. “Now we’ve got a long laundry list of pro-life bills that we are getting out of committee and hope will get passed.”
One of the bills that passed from committee and received a second reading is Senate Bill (SB) 201, sponsored by Health Committee Chair Sen. Greg Reed, R-Cordova. This bill would require that insurance companies not cover elective abortions unless the insured pays extra. Sen. Shadrack McGill, R-Scottsboro, sponsored a similar bill, SB 281.
Reed also sponsored SB 183 and SB 202, which also received a second reading. SB 183 would keep health care plans from providing coverage for abortion, while SB 202 would allow Alabama to opt out of “allowing abortion coverage by exchange participating health plans” provided in the new federal health care reform law. Both bills are co-sponsored by Sens. Scott Beason, R-Gardendale, and Gerald Allen, R-Tuscaloosa.
Sen. Cam Ward, R-Alabaster, also had success getting SB 46 out of committee and read a second time. The bill proposes the Health Care Rights of Conscience Act, which would give health care providers, institutions and payers the authority to refuse to perform or participate in services that violate their conscience — like abortion — without fear of termination or transfer.
In the House, Rep. Kerry Rich, R-Albertville, made progress with House Bill (HB 18), which prohibits abortion at or after 20 weeks, when babies are believed to feel pain. The bill was passed from the House Health Committee and read a second time. One bill pro-life supporters hope will pass is SB301, sponsored by Sen. Phil Williams, R-Huntsville, and 18 of his colleagues. This bill would define the term “persons” to include all humans from the moment of fertilization. HB 405, sponsored by Rep. John Merrill, R-Tuscaloosa, and 31 of his colleagues, is the companion bill.
Other pro-life bills sponsored at the Statehouse include
• SB 308, sponsored by Sen. Clay Scofield, R-Arab, would require physicians planning to perform nonemergency abortions to administer ultrasounds and review the results with pregnant women.
• SB 34, also sponsored by Scofield, would make it a crime to expose a child at any developmental stage — including an unborn child — to a controlled substance, chemical substance or drug paraphernalia.
• SB 298, sponsored by Allen, would make it unlawful to administer any abortion-inducing drug to a woman without her receiving an exam by a physician.
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