Pat Robertson: Ala. law goes ‘too far’
Evangelist criticizes strict abortion rule
Longtime televangelist Pat Robertson, who opposes abortion, criticized Alabama’s neartotal abortion ban, which became the nation’s most restrictive law on the procedure Wednesday and is likely to face legal challenges.
“I think Alabama has gone too far,” Robertson said Wednesday on “The 700 Club” before Alabama’s Republican Gov. Kay Ivey signed the bill into law. “It’s an extreme law.
“They want to challenge Roe v. Wade, but my humble view is that this is not the case that we want to bring to the Supreme Court, because I think this will lose.”
Robertson cited the law’s lack of exemptions for rape or incest and its punishment of up to 99 years in prison for performing an abortion in the state.
The law, sponsored by Republican state Rep. Terri Collins, makes performing an abortion in the state a felony punishable by 10 to 99 years or life in prison. Attempting an abortion would be a felony that carried a prison sentence of one to 10 years.
The only exceptions to the ban would be a threat to the life of the mother; a mental illness that might lead to a woman’s death or the death of her child; and fetal anomalies that might result in a child being stillborn or dying after birth.
“I think it’s ill-considered,” Robertson told viewers on the Christian Broadcasting Network, though the televangelist criticized the Roe v. Wade decision and emphasized the need for strict abortion laws in the country.
“But the Alabama case, God bless them. They’re trying to do something, but I don’t think that’s the case, and I don’t want to bring it to the Supreme Court,” Robertson said.
Collins and other supporters of the law said it is designed to take a challenge to Roe v. Wade to the Supreme Court.
Legal experts said the court might not reverse the 1973 decision by taking up cases on strict laws such as Alabama’s – even after the addition of conservative justices picked by President Donald Trump.
Taking on cases with lesser restrictions to chip away at abortion rights is more likely, said Richard Garnett, director of the Notre Dame Program on Church, State & Society.