A proposed Alabama constitutional amendment would legally define a fetus as a person from the moment of fertilization, effectively banning abortion in the state.
The House Health Committee on Wednesday debated but did not vote on the amendment.
The bill, sponsored by Rep. Ed Henry, R-Decatur, is similar to ballot measures voted down in Mississippi, Colorado and North Dakota in recent years. The Oklahoma Supreme Court in 2012 ruled a similar amendment unconstitutional.
“To me, science makes it clear that it (life) begins at fertilization,” Henry said.
Brock Boone, an American Civil Liberties Union lawyer, called the bill an “attack on women.” Boone said the amendment would ban abortion in cases of rape and incest, and could render some forms of birth control the “legal equivalent of homicide.”
“Proponents of this bill sound less and less concerned about the well-being of embryos and more and more concerned about hostility toward women,” Boone said.
Dr. Jim Belyeu, an OB/GYN who spoke in support of the bill, called a fetus “totally separate” from the mother.
“The mother only contributes the egg and the incubator,” Belyeu said.
Two Democrats on the committee, Rep. John Knight and Rep. Peblin Warren, said they hoped supporters would show equal concern for other programs that help children.
“I would hope we will be equally as passionate about the 550,000 children on Medicaid,” Knight said. “We’ve got to be passionate about taking care of the children who are here, and I don’t see that same passion.”
If the House and the Senate approve the bill, Alabamians would vote on the amendment in November.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
I am against abortion for any reason. But I fear only one state fighting against abortion after the Supreme Court has said it’s okay is suicide. This is a slippery slope.
I’m against the planet’s human population being over 5 billion. We’re past 7B and increasing by over one life EVERY SECOND. I’m against people dying because they can’t afford the ACA insurance premiums and deductibles that are as high as they are to cover the costs of taking care of high-$$$ vegetables and forcing life into bodies that were never meant to be. I’m against Octo-mom and her kind that don’t hesitate to play God when they can’t get pregnant, and then claim that “playing God” is wrong when it comes to reducing the embryo count to something God designed humans to handle. I’m against having a 9-month curve ball thrown into women’s lived because the condom was defective or some one (either by outright force or more subtle trickery) had his way with her. and as a taxpayer, I am especially against being forced to foot the bill for those who can’t let go of a defective vessel that will never be able to contain a soul.
I wonder how many men would say no to an abortion if it were absolutely necessary to save their wife’s life?
Good luck to the people of Alabama. Life begins at conception. Once people realize that fact the abortion industry is going to be in a lot of trouble.
Life is a circle. If there was a beginning, it was before any time that we can measure. the Meatsack we call the human body begins as the undeveloped egg of a newborn girl and the unformed sperm of a newborn boy. In creating the eggs, only one in four cells become viable.When sperm is released, only one in millions gets to the egg. Even if the egg gets fertilized, there’s a good chance it won’t attach to the uterus or stay in place long enough to become and embryo. Left to nature, there are hundreds of conditions–most of which would result in a fatally damaged infant–that would cause the mother to naturally abort the pregnancy (commonly called “miscarriage” by the unscientific). If you truly respect life, you don’t intervene AT ALL in that process. If you’re a hypocrite, you intervene to make the full-term/abort decision go the way you want, and condemn those who intervene in the way you don’t want.
Far as I’m concerned, you haven’t earned the right to be counted as a living individual until you can survive outside the womb without medical technology.
I surely agree, NO abortions , ONLY to save a mothers life, ONLY!!!!!
I don’t know why these stupid liberals are for abortions. Don’t they know that after so many abortions, you can’t have children? I’ve got an idea, instead of an abortion, put the child up for adoption. Da!
Depends on the type of abortion. Some destroy the first time. Some can be done repeatedly, if they’re done right. When abortions were illegal, lots of women resorted to the coathanger, which often tore the uterine wall and rendered them unable to carry again. Others went to unqualified medical personnel and sometimes died. In many cases, these women either would have their lives ruined by the pregnancy, or even ended. Even in this day and age, simply HAVING a visible pregnancy is enough to lose one’s job, be ostracized by her family, or worse. Would you rather a woman go to an abortionist, or have her husband punch her in the stomach until she miscarries when he finds out he got her pregnant?
There is never no safe way to have an abortion. The minute conception takes place, it is called “LIFE”, meaning “HUMAN” . Do you have a “Masters Degree” in Medical terms in that particular department of
a woman’s body? Do you realize the after affects what takes place in the woman’s body by abortion? Also after an abortion is done that is classified as killing? Not only by the person performing it, but also by the person who had it done? That is the Sixth Commandment of God. Only God/Jesus gives everything living today life. Man can never duplicate from NOTHING to what and how our bodies are made. Our bodies were made to live Eternally. We only die as a result of what we do to ourselves. A woman was made different than a man. Our DNA tells us that. Also a woman’s job is to stay home and take care of the home and have children. To provide guidance for children to be respected and be respective of others. If women want a job, don’t get married and abstain from sex, then you wouldn’t need all these birth control things.
AMEN!!! YOU HIT THE NAIL ON THE HEAD!!!
GOD IS THE ONLY ONE WHO GIVES LIFE!! WHO IS A HUMAN TO DARE TRY TO PLAY GOD AND TAKE ALL MANNER OF LIFE INTO ONE’S OWN HANDS. FOR ALL SUCH PEOPLE WILL GIVE AN ACCOUNT TO GOD FOR SUCH EVIL ACTIONS AND MOCKING GOD OUR CREATOR.
I AM 100%AGAINST ABORTIONS. FOR EACH PRECIOUS BABY IS A VERY SPECIAL GIFT FROM GOD OUR FATHER/ CREATOR.
FOR ALL YOU WHO THINK AND BELIEVE ABORTIONS ARE OK, THEN I HAVE. JUST 1QUESTION TO ASK YOU, “WHAT IF YOUR MOTHER HAD ABORTED YOU”??
I LIVE IN ALABAMA, AND I AM VERY PROUD OF THE HONORABLE DECISIONS/LAWS THAT ARE MADE AND ENFORCED IN MY GREAT STATE!!!
GOD BLESS ALABAMA AND GID BLESS AMERICA ONCE AGAIN!!!!!
But when the courts and states reverse the law to keep abortions illegal, there are those stories about a
teenager, walking across the railroad tracks to “The House, knock at the back porch door, and they will help you.”
Rumors told of how the young girl, and the dirty kitchen table surroundings, and the horrible instruments
caused the hemorrhage, which made the girl die alone, trying to cross back over the railroad tracks and walking to her home.
For those girls, having to carry a baby on her body, can acquire many complications, preemie birth, or
cesarean or breech birth, etc.
Very glad there are some level headed, clear thinking lawmakers there. Hopefully, enough citizens can vote likewise. Hopefully God intervenes and disallows libjudges from ignoring the will of the people in protecting the lives of our most helpless and precious brothers and sisters.
As far as being anti-women, I simply and loudly call bullsh*t on that!
Not anti-women. Its pro-baby. There are so many alternatives to abortion that there is no place in civilized society for abortion.
Nothing level-headed about forcing women to carry a pregnancy, especially when there’s no exceptions for rape, high-risk pregnancies that have a good chance of killing the mother, or high probabilities of fatal defects in the fetus.
What would you do with all the girls Daesh and Boko Haram have raped? Girls who not only couldn’t refuse, but are so young that carrying a fetus to term is life-threatening for them? They certainly didn’t ask for their situation! Or how about that woman in Ireland a year or two ago: the fetus was already dead, but the rules on when doctors could perform an abortion were so strict, by the time they decided they could legally go ahead, it was too late–the mother died.
Abortion often happens because your “so many alternatives” have failed. No method of birth control is foolproof–and that includes abstinence (just because SHE took an oath of celibacy doesn’t mean every man that comes into her life is going to respect it). Women and children today are DYING because either something went wrong with their pregnancy or they were too young (like the sex slaves of Daesh and Boko Haram) to be getting pregnant in the first place, and the people responsible for their medical care either refuse themselves, or are bound by law to favor the continuation of the pregnancy over the life of the mother.
I AGREE WITH YOU 100%.
THE ONLY PROBLEM WE HAVE AMERICA IS THAT THERE ARE MANY PEOPLE IN THIS COUNTRY WHO HAVE BECOME EVIL, COLD HEARTED, UNGODLY TOWARD HUMAN LIFE IN GENERAL, ABORTIONS TO THEM IS JUST A WAY OF SAYING ONE LESS MOUTH TO FEED, OR A COMPANY HARVEST BABIES PARTS FOR PROFIT. MAY GOD FORGIVE THIS SIN SICK, SATANIC DEMONIC COUNTRY.
Let them try; it will never work. Abortion is the law of the land and no state can outlaw it.
The only comment I have is “consider the fact that your mother did not have an abortion” . Nuff said!
when all retards [pc] not viable babys are adapted fine until then STAY OUT OF OTHER PEOPLES BUS PEROID
I suppose that if I wanted to kill someone that you would be fine with that as long as it wasn’t you. After all, it wouldn’t be any of your business.
“And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being” .
Pretty clear to me … the Bible in numerous places says that life begins when God breathes into the lungs of the newly born, and NOT at conception.
There are many places for strangers to meddle, when this is between the woman and a doctor. Molestation causes a condition of hatred to the molester, and being physically ill for three months of morning sickness will make things a lot worse. The emotional attachment to something, which you cannot go full-term at age 10-11years of age, causes anguish, suicidal moves, removes the will to live, but perhaps, it will stop the anguish, pains, horrible memories, and the horrible depression. I doubt it will erase WHAT has been done to you and your life………the memories and pain will still take a long time to be forgotten.
It really is on the side of the Doctor to advise you, of your options, costs, and help with complications either way you chose.