Action in Alabama

Alabama Legislative Session (Updated: 2/16/2012)

Listed below are anti-choice Senate/House Bills currently being addressed in the 2012 Alabama Legislature.

Abortion Access
Senate Bill 6 – Allen/Senate Bill 96 - Allen: – “Mifepristone restrictions”
Mifepristone is a medication used to perform medical abortions.  SB 6 and SB 96 would make it unlawful to administer ANY abortion-inducing drug to a woman without her receiving an exam by a physician.  Hence, SB 6 and SB 96 would prohibit the use of mifepristone for abortion services using Evidence Based (EB) protocols. Instead, physicians would be required to use the FDA (Federal Drug Administration) protocol, even though the FDA protocol has a higher complication rate.  Additionally, the bill could prohibit the use of methotrexate to resolve ectopic pregnancies, which can be fatal if left untreated.

Senate Bill 12 - Scofield: – “Ultrasound Restrictions”
SB 12 would further restrict who may provide an ultrasound prior to consent for the abortion.  It also requires the ultrasound be shown to the patient though the ultrasound the patient may avert her eyes.  However, the physician must itemize verbally and in detail, everything he or she sees including extremities and any organs that have formed. 

Insurance Coverage of Abortion
Senate Bill 20 – McGill: “Abortion Coverage Prohibition Act”: 
SB 20 would prohibit health insurance coverage of elective abortions unless the insured has paid additional monies for a rider. This bill would deny many women the coverage they already have under their private health insurance.

Senate Bill 10 – Reed/HB 112 – Henry: “Federal Abortion-Mandate Opt-Out Act”
These bills would prohibit health insurance plans that participate in the state-based health care exchanges from providing abortion care benefits to women in Alabama.

Personhood
Any policy in support of personhood could have random implications and broad, legal and medical ramifications. It is so extreme that it could potentially prohibit the use of hormonal birth control options that doctors commonly prescribe like the birth control pill and IUDs. It could even stop women from accessing In-Vitro fertilization. These bills are intended to ban abortion without exceptions and become the legal vehicle to challenge and overturn Roe v. Wade. 

Senate Bill 5 – Williams: “Personhood”
As introduced, this bill would define the term ‘persons’ to include all humans from the moment of fertilization AND implantation into the womb.

Access to Health Care
HB 223 – McClurkin, Collins, Sessions, Long, Nordgren, Johnson (K), Henry, Buttram, Baughn, Roberts, Rich, Greer, Carns, Laird, Bridges, Wood: “TRAP” HB223 has been introduced in the Alabama legislature and it is a Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers(TRAP) Bill.
"TRAP" laws single out the medical practices of doctors who provide abortions, and impose on them requirements that are different and more burdensome than those imposed on other medical practices. For example, such regulations may require that abortions be performed in far more sophisticated and expensive facilities than are necessary to ensure the provision of safe procedures. Compliance with these physical plant requirements may require extensive renovations or be physically impossible in existing facilities. TRAP laws may also allow unannounced state inspections, even when patients are present. These excessive and unnecessary government regulations increase the cost and scarcity of abortion services, harming women's health and inhibiting their reproductive choices.

Criminalizing Pregnant Women
Senate Bill 31 – Scofield: “Criminalizing Pregnant Women”
This bill is a misguided attempt to protect children from what many believe is the devastating effect of illegal drug use. Threatening pregnant women with arrest and frightening them away from treatment is bad for women and babies.  This bill could have enormous legal implications for all pregnant women – potentially setting devastating precedent that could establish special, separate legal rights for the fetus and the basis for punishing all pregnant women, including those who suffer miscarriages.

Conscience/Refusal
Senate Bill 105 – Ward: Conscience/Refusal
This bill would give healthcare providers the following: the authority to refuse to perform or to participate in health care services that violate their conscience; immunity from civil, criminal, or administrative liability for refusing to provide or participate in a health care service that violates their conscience.