Alabama May Pass Abortion Ban

Someone is spoiling for a fight:

The state House of Representatives on Thursday could give final legislative approval to a plan that in effect could impose a state ban on abortion, supporters and opponents say.

"My first hope is that it will prevent abortion in Alabama," said state Sen. Phil Williams, R-Rainbow City, the sponsor of the plan, Senate Bill 301.

The bill passed the Senate in May and is on a tentative House voting agenda for Thursday, which will be the last day in this year's regular session of the Legislature.

The bill says the term "persons" as used in state laws shall include "any human being from the moment of fertilization and implantation into the womb."

Opponents said that, besides challenging abortion, the bill likely would have wide-ranging effects on state law dealing with property rights, inheritance, taxes, crimes such as manslaughter and in many other areas.

"If passed, it would effectively ban abortion throughout Alabama. It would, also, likely engender any number of lawsuits trying to figure out what on earth it means on other aspects of state law," said Alexa Kolbi-Molinas, a staff attorney in New York for the Reproductive Freedom Project of the American Civil Liberties Union.

She said the bill, if passed, might even subject a woman who had a miscarriage to investigation for manslaughter or another crime. "Any time a woman had a miscarriage, she could face a criminal investigation," Kolbi-Molinas said.

Williams, who is a lawyer, disagreed. "There is no crime for a natural event such as a miscarriage," he said. "It's the same as if a child got sick and died due to a disease; no one is going to hold that parent responsible."

"If someone purposefully aborts a child, that's a different story altogether." Williams said.

Of course there will be lawsuits to stop the law, but this is one of those 10th Amendment fights we need to have. There's nothing in the constitution that gives the federal government the right to control abortion law, and perhaps this could be the case that fixes that.