Anyone that was paying attention to the actual debate that was happening in the Alabama legislature while they were passing “one of the nation’s most restrictive abortion bans” could tell you the reasoning for the wording of the legislation.
Alabama State House sponsor Rep. Terri Collins (R-Decatur) made it clear that the bill did not exempt victims of rape and incest from the bill in order to directly challenge Roe v. Wade.
The media and their Democrats were going to attack Alabama and the people who voted for this bill no matter what. Obviously, not exempting rape and incest gave the opponents of the bill and extra sledgehammer to swing around.
But make no mistake, these folks were going to react the way they did regardless.
On Sunday, Speaker of the House Mac McCutcheon (R-Monrovia) appeared on Yellowhammer News’ “Guerrilla Politics” and addressed these exemptions.
McCutcheon was asked if the legislature was really considering adding exemptions to rape and incest to the legislation in future sessions.
“Absolutely, yes,” he said. “That has been discussed.”
Watch:
When further pressed, McCutcheon reiterated what the strategy was for this bill all along, outlining, “The gist is we want to go back to state rights, we want the federal government to stay out of this issue. We want to have that debate on the floor.”
My takeaway:
Alabama legislators should have made this more clear as the bill was being debated.
The public relations failure on this issue is unfortunate. At a minimum, Governor Kay Ivey, the sponsors of this bill and the leaders of the legislative chambers should have been more outspoken on this strategy.
Members of the media, myself included, could have drilled down on this more clearly and pointed out that the exemptions would be added later.
Dale Jackson is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts a talk show from 7-11 am weekdays on WVNN.
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