The Alabama Attorney General asked a judge this week to lift the blocks on two state laws that protect children from abortions, AL reports.
In July, a federal judge granted abortion activists’ request to block the state laws, one that bans brutal dismemberment abortions that tear unborn babies limb from limb, and the other that prohibits abortion facilities from doing business near public schools. Both laws were supposed to go into effect on Aug. 1.
State Attorney General Luther Strange argued the merits of both laws in the new court filing. He explained that dismemberment abortions, which are gruesome and horrific, are not really any different than partial-birth abortions, which are illegal. Strange pointed out that even liberal U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg called both procedures “equally gruesome.”
The dismemberment abortion ban has the potential to save hundreds of unborn babies in Alabama. In 2014, there were 594 abortions in Alabama that occurred in the second trimester or later, the Montgomery Advertiser reports. Dismemberment abortions typically are performed on a fully-formed, living unborn baby in the second trimester. It is a barbaric and dangerous procedure in which the unborn child is literally ripped apart in the womb and pulled out in pieces.
The state attorneys also defended the law banning abortion businesses within 2,000 feet of elementary and middle schools, arguing that it protects young children from a potentially hostile environment. They cited abortion activists’ own statements about the conflicts that sometimes occur on the sidewalks outside between pro-life and pro-abortion protesters.
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“Although these particular groups are peaceful, abortion clinics have attracted violence before,” the state’s lawyers argued. “The legislature reasonably determined that these activities should not occur across the street from a school.”
If allowed to take effect, the legislation could close two of the busiest abortion facilities in Alabama, one in Tuscaloosa and one in Huntsville, or at least force them to move.
The Huntsville abortion clinic opened across the street from a middle school several years ago. According to the Times Daily, the facility administrator, Dalton Johnson, said they moved to that location after being forced out of a building in downtown Huntsville due to the 2013 Women’s Health and Safety Act. That pro-life legislation was initiated after there were multiple botched abortions in Alabama.
The American Civil Liberties Union challenged the two laws earlier this summer on behalf of the two top abortion businesses in the state. WVTM 13 reports the ACLU argues that the laws are an “undue burden” on women’s access to abortion because they could close two of the busiest abortion facilities in the state and severely limit second trimester abortions.
The dismemberment law embodies model legislation from the National Right to Life Committee that would ban “dismemberment abortion,” using forceps, clamps, scissors or similar instruments on a living unborn baby to remove him or her from the womb in pieces. Such instruments are used in dilation and evacuation procedures. Dismemberment abortion bans have been voted into law in Kansas, Oklahoma, West Virginia, and Mississippi. Similar legislation has also been introduced in Pennsylvania, Minnesota , Idaho, Nebraska, Missouri, Louisiana, Rhode Island, and Utah.
“Alabama children should be protected by law from being torn limb from limb,” said Bill Klein, President of Alabama Citizens For Life, previously. “No human should die this way in a civilized society. It shows a total disrespect for the sanctity of human life.”
An Oct. 4 hearing will be the next step in the cases.
