Alabama bill SB376, filed last week by four Republican state senators, would expand a current law — which requires parental consent for Alabama minors to obtain abortions — to require parental consent for out-of-state minors as well. The bill passed the Senate 25-7 and was opposed by most Democrats. It now returns to the House for approval of changes made to the bill by the Senate.
According to AL.com, parental consent is not required if minors are found to be “sufficiently mature and well enough informed to intelligently decide whether to have an abortion without the consent of either of her parents or legal guardian” or in the case of parental sexual abuse. “A judge could also grant the waiver if they find parental consent ‘is not in [the girl’s] best interest’,” reports the news outlet.
These exception loopholes are obviously very large and subjective.
However, even with these loopholes, Alabama Democrats are not pleased, with Democratic Senators Vivian Davis Figures and Linda Coleman-Madison claiming that “[a]ll women are capable of making the decision for themselves,” adding that the choice to abort a child is “very personal.”
Interestingly, Alabama is one of only a handful of states that disallows minors from purchasing any tobacco products until age 19. And just two years ago, the state’s Democrats pushed to increase that age to 21. However, when it comes to abortion, the opposite seems to be true, with those same legislators regarding an abortion procedure, which has numerous risks and which takes a human being’s life, as something of little consequence, even for minors.
The Global Dispatch reports that “[t]he legislature is also considering bills to ban assisted suicide, declare the state a ‘pro-life state’ and create religious exemptions that will allow healthcare providers to opt out of performing abortions.”
