During a Friday morning appearance on MSNBC, Alabama State Sen. Vivian Figures (D-Mobile) shared her thoughts on the “chaos” surrounding the bill to ban abortion in the Yellowhammer state while lamenting the “white male Republicans” serving in the Alabama Senate.
“Our Senate is made up of 27 white male Republicans and eight Democrats, of which four of those are four African-American women. So yes, they’re going to get their way,” Figures stated. “What they did on yesterday was not a surprise. It’s happened before.”
Figures also explained that she feels Senate Republicans in Alabama force their agenda on the Senate Democrats.
“Although they have the numbers to do what they want to do, they always feel the need to force and cram something down our throats,” Figures said.
“Of course I went to the microphone to let the lieutenant governor know that we had made the request,” Figures explained. “Senator Singleton had asked very very politely, if you will, he had asked and was very clear about saying every vote we would take on this bill, we want a long roll call vote. In the past that’s been honored. Of course, the Lieutenant Governor Ainsworth is a new lieutenant governor presiding over the Senate.”
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Figures was also asked to share her thoughts on whether she believed Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey would sign the bill, should it be passed.
“The way it’s been going in Alabama since we received a supermajority Republican administration and legislature, whatever the Republican agenda is, everybody else falls in line to do what needs to be done,” Figures told MSNBC’s Hallie Jackson. ” That’s why they called for a voice vote on stripping that amendment from the bill, because some of their own members do not feel comfortable with not having that amendment about rape and incest to be a part of the exception in that bill.”
Figures added, “I have no doubt that she might sign it.”
Jackson also questioned Figures on how to “stop” strict abortion bills from reaching the Supreme Court.
“I’m not sure that we can stop it with the numbers,” Figures responded. “When you have the votes, you have the votes. One way we can stop this down the line is to make sure that we get people out to vote and elect more Democrats across this country.”
“This is clearly Republican agenda. It’s a hot button issue that they use for politics to get them elected and reelected,” Figures claimed. “It’s a shame because the state of Alabama doesn’t even have enough money to adequately fund public education.”
After the loss of a procedural vote, Democrats in the Alabama Senate resulted to shouting at the chair, which resulted in a delay of the vote.
The bill, which was passed by the House last week, would have only banned all abortion except when the life of the mother is in danger.
Kyle Morris also contributes daily to Breitbart News. You can follow him on Twitter @RealKyleMorris.
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