The America Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) celebrated the blocking of the Alabama law prohibiting most abortions – one of seven abortion bans passed this year that have been struck down by courts.
“Politicians, listen closely: We have a constitutional right to abortion,” ACLU tweeted. “If you try to ban it, we will see you in court.”
On Tuesday, Judge Myron H. Thompson, of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama, a Jimmy Carter appointee, blocked Alabama’s Human Life Protection Act that was set to take effect on November 15.
The law would make most abortions in the state at any point during pregnancy illegal, except those necessary in order to prevent “a serious health risk to the unborn child’s mother.”
The law, Thompson said, would have caused “serious and irreparable harm,” reported UPI.
However, as Breitbart News’ Jeff Poor wrote in May, the Alabama legislature, like that of the other states that passed serious abortion restrictions, hoped not only to save the lives of babies and their mothers, but also to serve as a challenge to the 1973 Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade, in which the Court invented a right to abortion when none ever existed in the Constitution.
“The way that this bill is drafted – it goes to ask the question of personhood,” said Alabama Sen. Clyde Chambliss (R), one of the bill’s sponsors, during a radio interview at WVNN at the time.
Chambliss said:
The 14th Amendment gives people, a person the right to life, liberty and property. But it doesn’t say when a person becomes a person. Obviously, if somebody is walking around, we know that’s a person. In the womb, do we know if that is a person or not? Unborn babies can hear, they can feel – at what point can they hear and feel and think and feel pain.
And so, we need some guidance. We need some guidance. We need some guidance from the Supreme Court. So, this bill has been drafted so that it goes directly to that question. It goes to the Supreme Court, hopefully. And we do expect it to be ruled unconstitutional at the lower court. It has to be. It has no choice because they have to follow Supreme Court precedent. That’s no surprise. We know that’s going to happen. We know that will be found unconstitutional on appeal, but hopefully, we’ll have the Supreme Court to take up the matter. And we hope and we feel that the Supreme Court will rule this law constitutional because it gets to that personhood issue that is so, so important.
Alabama State Rep. Terri Collins, who sponsored the bill in her chamber, also said the bill’s intention is “to confront a decision that was made by the courts in 1973 that said the baby in the womb is not a person.”
“This bill addresses that one issue,” she added. “Is that baby in the womb a person? I believe our law says it is. I believe our people say it is. And I believe technology shows it is.”
In a statement sent to Breitbart News, pro-life leader Father Frank Pavone, national director of Priests for Life, echoed those sentiments.
“This is not at all surprising, and in fact it’s par for the course,” Pavone said. “Every time a federal judge blocks an abortion law, Americans are reminded about the importance of having a pro-life president in the White House – for two terms – and a pro-life Senate.”
“When all of President Trump’s judicial nominees are seated, it will no longer be par for the course for life-saving laws to be blocked,” he added. “We look forward to that day.”
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