Alabama’s Governor has signed off on a pro-life bill to ban abortion clinics from operating near schools — and now two abortion centers may close, even if temporarily to relocate, as a result.
Gov. Robert Bentley signed the bill today. The legislation would ban abortion facilities from building within 2,000 feet of public elementary or middle schools and prohibit the state health department from issuing or renewing a health center license to current abortion clinics within the same distance of the schools. If passed, the legislation could close the Alabama Women’s Center for Reproductive Alternatives Services (AWCRA) in Huntsville or at least force it to move.
The abortion clinic opened across the street from a middle school in Huntsville 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. The legislation was initiated after there were multiple botched abortions in Alabama.
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Now, news reports indicate that abortion facility and another one may be forced to close:
Gov. Robert Bentley on Thursday signed into law a bill that could close two of the most active abortion clinics in Alabama.
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The new law prohibits the issuing or renewals of a health center license to facilities within 2,000 feet of a grades K-8 public school where abortions are performed.
Bentley spokeswoman Jennifer Ardis confirmed to AL.com that the governor signed the bill on Thursday morning.
Two of the state’s five abortion clinics – in Huntsville and Tuscaloosa – are located within 2,000 feet of schools. Those two clinics accounted for 72 percent of the abortions performed in Alabama in 2014 – the most recent year statistics are available.
But abortion advocates plan to fight the new law in court. ACLU Alabama Executive Director Susan Watson previously called the bill an attack on “the health and well-being of Alabama women.” She said it would be ACLU’s fourth lawsuit against the state in three years, AL.com reports.
The ACLU has vowed to fight the new law in federal court.
“Not only do we feel good about the victory,” Henderson said, “but we see this as an opportunity to expose the ACLU for what they are as far as their pattern of standing against basic morality and Christian values.”
The ACLU has vowed to fight the new law in federal court.
“Not only do we feel good about the victory,” Henderson said, “but we see this as an opportunity to expose the ACLU for what they are as far as their pattern of standing against basic morality and Christian values.”
Pro-life lawmakers’ concerns are not unfounded. The abortion industry has a reputation of targeting young, vulnerable women and girls.
This spring, the abortion business Planned Parenthood is constructing an abortion mega-clinic right near an elementary and middle school in Washington, D.C. In December, LifeNews reported that families at the sought-after elementary school in Washington, D.C. are increasingly concerned about the construction of the new abortion clinic next to their school.
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