Alabama lawmakers sent a bill to Gov. Kay Ivey on Tuesday that would put doctors in prison for 10 to 99 years if they provide abortions.
The measure would be the strictest abortion ban in the U.S. Lawmakers rejected an amendment 21-11 that would have created exemptions for rape or incest — provisions typically included in anti-abortion legislation. The bill, called the Human Life Protection Act, includes an exemption if a woman were to seek an abortion because her pregnancy threatens her health, and it wouldn’t punish women for having an abortion.
Democratic state Sen. Bobby Singleton, who had introduced the rape and incest exemptions, blasted Republicans over the vote and called the bill a “shame, disgrace, and a travesty.”
“You just raped the state of Alabama yourself,” he told them. The abortion ban passed 25-6.
If Ivey, a Republican, signs the bill into law, then it’s likely to be immediately stopped by a federal judge because it violates Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion across the U.S. Still, it is one of several measures that red states are passing to try to force the justices to take up the issue under the court’s more conservative makeup.
[Related: Democratic Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer says she’ll veto ‘dismemberment’ abortion ban bill]
“When does life become a life? Right now legally we don’t know the answer to that question, so this bill is in hopes of us getting to that question,” said GOP state Sen. Clyde Chambliss from the floor ahead of the vote.
Under Roe, abortion is legalized for roughly 24 weeks into a pregnancy, a timeline generally understood to be in line with when a baby could be born and survive on its own, outside the womb. State Rep. Terri Collins, a Republican, introduced the bill saying that it was meant to challenge the decision the Supreme Court reached in Roe.
Abortion foes hope that the Supreme Court will allow more restrictions on abortion given the additions of conservatives Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch to the bench, but it’s not clear that the justices would take up the issue. The justices have met at least 13 times to discuss whether to take up a law in Indiana that bans abortion on the basis of the race, sex, or disability status of a fetus.
In the Alabama Senate on Tuesday, Democrats said it was wrong for the government to make decisions about pregnancies on behalf of women and their families, and worried about girls who become pregnant after being victims of incest.
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“This is strictly about choice,” said Democratic state Sen. Rodger Smitherman during debate on the floor ahead of the vote. “If it’s a woman it should be her choice.”
Democrats also argued that the state would spend too much money litigating the decision, at a time when Republicans have said there isn’t enough money for the state to fund healthcare services.
Democratic state Sen. Vivian Figures offered an amendment that would have attorney fees to defend the law paid for by the members of the legislature who voted in favor of the bill.
“You’re wiling to gamble that it’s going to do what you want it to do, then you all will have no problem dividing whatever [that fee] is going to be,” Figures said when she introduced the amendment, which was voted down.
The state Senate had planned to vote on the bill last week, but lawmakers got into a fight on the Senate floor over whether the bill should contain exceptions for incest or rape, so the vote was tabled until Tuesday.
The bill already passed the state House. Ivey hasn’t said whether she will sign it but is opposed to abortion.
