Alabama passes near ban on abortion

Alabama’s Senate passed a near-total ban on abortion, sending what would be America’s most stringent abortion law to the state’s Republican governor.

The Republican-dominated Alabama Senate voted 25-6 for the bill that would make performing an abortion at any stage of pregnancy an offence punishable by up to 99 years or life in prison.

The only exception would be when the woman’s health is at serious risk.

The measure now goes to Governor Kay Ivey, who has not said whether she supports the measure.

Supporters said the bill is intentionally designed to conflict with the US Supreme Court’s landmark 1973 Roe vs Wade decision legalising abortion nationally, because they hope to spark a court case that might prompt the justices to revisit abortion rights.

“The question for me — for us — is: When is a person a person?” Republican Senator Clyde Chambliss said.

Senators rejected an attempt to add an exception for rape and incest. The amendment was voted down 21-11, with four Republicans joining Democrats in the seeking the amendment. “You don’t care anything about babies having babies in this state, being raped and incest,” Democratic Senator Bobby Singleton said angrily after the amendment’s defeat.

The bill’s sponsor and other supporters had argued exemptions would weaken their hope of creating a vehicle to challenge Roe. Emboldened by conservative justices who have joined the Supreme Court, abortion opponents in several states are seeking to challenge abortion access.

Kentucky, Mississippi, Ohio and Georgia have approved bans on abortion once a fetal heartbeat is detected, which can occur in about the sixth week of pregnancy. The Alabama bill goes further by seeking to outlaw abortion outright.

There would be no punishment for the woman receiving the abortion, only for the abortion provider.

Democrats, who hold a eight seats in the 35-member Senate, criticised the ban as a mixture of political grandstanding, an attempt to control women and a waste of money. “You don’t have to provide for that child. You don’t have to do anything for that child, yet you want to make that decision for that woman,” Democratic Senator Vivian Figures said. “It should be that woman’s choice.”