Hailed as one of the “strongest pro-life laws in the country,” Alabama Governor Kay Ivey signed the “Human Life Protection Act” into law on Wednesday, making abortion and attempted abortion felony offenses in the state. The bill will not hold women who have abortions criminally or civilly responsible, and there is an exception in the bill to allow abortion “to prevent a serious health risk” to the woman, though many doctors agree that abortion is never actually medically necessary.
Pro-abortion activists’ claims surrounding Alabama’s pro-life bill are a continuation of the misinformation being spread around pro-life bills passed recently in several states. Live Action News recently debunked myths surrounding Georgia’s Heartbeat Bill. Here we will decipher between fact or fiction regarding Alabama’s recently passed Human Life Protection Act.
Live Action News previously covered that the Alabama bill:
- “make[s] abortion and attempted abortion felony offenses except in cases where abortion is necessary in order to prevent a serious health risk to the unborn child’s mother.”
- “would provide that a woman who receives an abortion will not be held criminally culpable or civilly liable for receiving the abortion.” Only the doctor committing the abortion would be held criminally liable.”
Let’s address a few myths pro-abortion activists are spreading.
CLAIM: Women will be criminally prosecuted for abortions.
FALSE. The bill clearly states that women will not be held criminally liable.
“Relating to abortion… to provide that a woman who receives an abortion will not be held criminally culpable or civilly liable for receiving the abortion….”
Section 5 states, “No woman upon whom an abortion is performed or attempted to be performed shall be criminally or civilly liable….”
CLAIM: Women who miscarry will be punished.
FALSE: Abortion is NOT a miscarriage. Abortion is the intentional killing of a preborn child. Miscarriage occurs naturally. Abortion is clearly defined in the bill as, “The use or prescription of any instrument, medicine, drug, or any other substance or device with the intent to terminate the pregnancy of a woman known to be pregnant with knowledge that the termination by those means will with reasonable likelihood cause the death of the unborn child.”
The bill states clearly: “The term [abortion] does not include:
- activities done with intent to save the life or preserve health of an unborn child.
- remove dead unborn child.
- deliver unborn child prematurely to avoid serious health risk to unborn child’s mother, or preserve health of unborn child.
- a procedure or act to terminate the pregnancy of a woman with an ectopic pregnancy,
- the procedure or act to terminate the pregnancy of a woman when the unborn child has a lethal anomaly.
Alabama is not trying to penalize women who miscarry. Let’s be intellectually honest and fair to the drafters of the bill. The bill clearly defines abortion as the intentional killing of a preborn child. That is very different than a spontaneous miscarriage, in which a baby, unfortunately, passes away naturally.
CLAIM: The Alabama law does not allow for any exceptions.
FALSE: The bill states, “An abortion shall be permitted if an attending physician licensed in Alabama determines that an abortion is necessary in order to prevent a serious health risk to the unborn child’s mother. Except in the case of a medical emergency as defined herein, the physician’s determination shall be confirmed in writing by a second physician licensed in Alabama….”
The bill, however, does not permit abortion for rape or incest. Statistics show that only a very small fraction of abortions are committed for rape, incest, or mother’s health. U.S. law is intended to punish the criminal — in this case, the rapist — not the victims, which are in this case the baby and mother.
CLAIM: Pro-lifers want to punish children who are victims of rape/incest.
FALSE: The pro-life community seeks support, equality, and protection for both the mother and child. But abuse does not justify abortion. The guilty party in a sexual assault case is the rapist, who should be punished as severely as the law permits. Rapists, however, don’t face the death penalty — so why should an innocent child be sentenced to death for the crimes of his father?
With this Alabama law, children conceived in unfortunate circumstances will be legally protected by law and given a chance at life. Abortion does not undo rape. Adding the violence of abortion on top of sexual assault only further inflicts violence upon an innocent woman. Every person’s humanity is determined not by how wanted he or she is, or the circumstances surrounding his or her conception, but by the fact that he or she is a human being.
Live Action and Live Action News have documented how abortion is used to perpetuate rape.
- Pregnant teens or pre-teens are a red flag for possible sexual abuse.
- Rapists take victims to abortion facilities to cover crime.
- Planned Parenthood and abortion providers often fail to report suspicion of abuse in violation of law and requirements to receive federal tax dollars under Title X.
- Majority of sex trafficked women may be forced to abort.
- Even when victims tell Planned Parenthood they were raped, court records show they were returned to their rapists.
- Hollywood, pro-abortion media, and abortion-supportive politicians fail to call out Planned Parenthood.
Last year, Live Action News reported how an abortion facility in Alabama failed to report abortions committed on an underage girl.
CLAIM: Men are leading the way to ban abortion
FALSE: This bill, HB314, was sponsored by a female lawmaker, Representative Terri Collins, and was signed into law by female Governor Kay Ivey.
Pro-life organizations are led by women.
The Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision, on the other hand, was imposed by all men.
In fact, the decriminalization of abortion was led by men. Live Action News previously detailed eight ways pro-abortion men pushed abortion in the days leading up to Roe.
CLAIM: Doctors would receive 99 years in prison if convicted under this new law.
FALSE: As with any felony, the law provides a range of punishment options. According to local media, “Under the law, performing an abortion would be considered a Class A felony, which carries a sentence of life or 10 to 99 years in prison.”
- Section 7: “This act shall not apply to a physician… performing a termination of a pregnancy or assisting in performing a termination of a pregnancy due to a medical emergency….”
A legal site explains how the state organizes felonies: “The state of Alabama organizes felony crimes into three levels: Class A, Class B, and Class C felonies. Class A felonies include crimes that are considered the most serious, while Class B and Class C crimes are less serious…Every felony offense in Alabama is punishable by at least one year and one day in a state prison. Depending on the circumstances of the crime and its severity level, a felony conviction can result in a wide range of sentences.”
- Class A. No less than 10 years and no more than life or 99 years.
- Class B. No less than two years and no more than 20 years.
- Class C. No less than one year and one day and no more than 10 years.
CLAIM: Thousands of women will die from back-alley abortions.
FALSE: These false claims date before Roe and have been debunked numerous times. Read how the numbers were flawed at Live Action News here and here.
Video debunking Planned Parenthood president Leana Wen’s claim on this below:
CLAIM: The Constitution grants a “right” to abortion.
FALSE: The so-called ‘right to abortion’ was never mentioned in the Constitution. Supreme Court Justices pulled the “right” from the Fourteenth Amendment, known for giving citizenship and equal rights under the law to former slaves and African Americans. However, it is the belief of many legal scholars that this right should also apply to the preborn, as Live Action News contributor Kristi Burton Brown previously documented.
CLAIM: Roe v. Wade is settled law.
FALSE: While some consider it “settled,” settled law can be — and has been — overturned. Roe v. Wade is bad law and should be reconsidered. Racism and segregation used to be “the law of the land.” Just because something is legal does not make it moral. In Dred Scott v, Sandford, the Supreme Court ruled Black people were not citizens. That was overturned by the 14th Amendment. In Plessy v. Ferguson, SCOTUS ruled in favor of segregation and 60 years later, Brown v. Board rightfully overturned it. Roe v. Wade and its companion case, Doe v. Bolton, legalized abortion through all nine months for any reason. Lawmakers across the country are responding accordingly to constituents and realizing how extreme our nation’s abortion laws truly are.
Pro-abortion scare tactics need to end. Facts matter.
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