The Speaker of the state House in Alabama says that chamber of the state legislature will take up some of the several pro-life bills the state Senate has already approved. The rest will likely come up in the next legislative session.
Last week, the Alabama Senate voted for a bill that would have it join several other states in opting out of funding abortions under the Obamacare health care law the president and his Democratic allies approved. Under the new health care law, states will be in charge of their own health care exchanges that are available for individuals and small businesses. The exchange doesn’t go into effect until 2014 and states are filing lawsuits seeking to stop the pro-abortion health care bill in its other pro-abortion provisions entirety, but states are moving now to exercise their right to opt out of some of the abortion funding. 
The Senate also approved SB 298, to make it unlawful to administer any abortion-inducing drug to a woman without her receiving an exam by a physician and would provide a physician with guidelines to follow in administering any abortion-inducing drugs, and SB 301, to define the term “persons” as used in the Code of Alabama 1975, as including all humans from the moment of fertilization and implantation in the womb.
Other bills include SB 308, that requires an abortion practitioner to perform an ultrasound before an abortion.
There are six pro-life measures in total the Senate has approved and Republican House Speaker Mike Hubbard told AP it represents the biggest gains on the pro-life issue in Alabama thanks to Republican control of the state legislature. When Democrats controlled the legislature, pro-life bills rarely made it through the legislative process.
“I don’t think we have time to pass all of them, but we are certainly going to put some on the agenda,” he told the Associated Press about the future prospects. “We do have three years left in this quadrennium,” he said, adding that the bills not getting approved this time around will receive future consideration.
UPDATE: The House Health Committee today voted for the bill defining the beginning of human life and the one removing abrotion funding from the state exchange created under Obamacare.
Republican Rep. Kerry Rich of Albertville agreed that Alabama is making more progress.
“This new Legislature is very serious. They say they are pro-life, and they follow up,” Rich, who is the sponsor of another pro-life bill that bans abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy based on the pain unborn children feel during an abortion, told AP.
Rich’s bill has already cleared the House and he says Senate leaders have promised his bill a vote in the full Senate soon.
ACTION: Contact members of the Alabama legislature at https://www.legislature.state.al.us to support the bills.
