HUNTSVILLE — On Thursday, news outlets across the country proclaimed the Alabama Senate had devolved into “chaos” in the wake of a floor debate over an amendment that would have added exceptions for rape and incest to HB 314, a bill that would criminalize abortions in Alabama.
Shortly after the so-called “chaos,” Senate President Pro Tem Del Marsh (R-Anniston) adjourned the Senate until Tuesday, where debate is expected to pick up where it left off. Bill proponents have warned that by adding those exceptions, the eventual law would be weakened and have less of a chance of being heard by the U.S. Supreme Court, where it would presumably be a challenge to the 1972 Roe v. Wade that legalized abortion in America.
However, during a panel discussion put on by the Alabama Policy Institute in Huntsville later in the day, Rep. Terri Collins (R-Decatur), the sponsor of the House version of the abortion bill, warned against adding those amendments and threatened to kill the bill should the Senate add those exceptions.
The Morgan County Republican explained why her bill was different than the “heartbeat” bill recently passed by the Georgia legislature given it was specifically crafted to take on the Roe v. Wade decision and not to create other legal questions beyond establishing that a baby in a womb is a person.
“This year after much discussion, prayer and thought as a caucus, we decided we would have one pro-life bill, and we’ll try to make one that counts,” Collins said. “We aimed for language that addresses the language of Roe v. Wade. The decision was based on someone in utero, someone pregnant so we don’t get into conception. We don’t get into birth control. We don’t get into the morning-after pill, but in utero, which is the language they used that when a woman is pregnant. This bill criminalizes abortion through the doctor. And not the woman, but the doctor.
“The reasoning is the same reasoning, Roe v. Wade was decided that the baby in the womb was not a person,” she continued. “So this bill bases its reasoning that the baby in the womb is a person. And we based it on the fact that in Alabama law, we currently consider the baby in the womb a person. If you were a drunk driver and you killed a pregnant woman, you have a double homicide on your hands. We voted as a state to be a pro-life state.”
According to Collins, adding the exception for rape and incest could negate the argument that the baby in the womb is a person.
“The biggest thing to attack it with is to say, ‘What, you’re not going to include rape and incest?’” she explained. “Well, how do we say, ‘The baby inside is a person unless they’re conceived in rape or incest’? If that amendment was to get on the bill, then I’ll kill the bill because it won’t go to the Supreme Court. It will contradict itself. And so that’s why we’re trying to keep it clean, and we’re fighting with the Senate, which is what the House does. So, we’ll see what happens on Tuesday. Stay tuned.”
@Jeff_Poor is a graduate of Auburn University, the editor of Breitbart TV and host of “The Jeff Poor Show” from 2-5 p.m. on WVNN in Huntsville.
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