As expected by all, pro-life Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey on Tuesday signed HB237 into law.
The bill, which first passed the House 76-12 and then, on May 17, the Senate on a vote of 31-0, says that if an infant is born alive after an attempted abortion, the doctor “shall exercise the same degree of professional skill, care, and diligence to preserve the life and health of the child as a reasonably diligent and conscientious physician would render to any other child born alive at any other location in this state at the same gestational age,” Mike Cason reported.
This was the third time state Rep. Ginny Shaver had introduced a born-alive bill.
In a supportive tweet, Gov. Ivey said, “Alabama supports the right to life. I appreciate Rep. Shaver’s work on this critical bill, and I’m proud to sign this into law and cement our commitment to the unborn.”
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36 states have enacted laws to protect babies born alive during an abortion, according to National Right to Life’s Department of State Legislation.
As NRL News Today wrote yesterday morning, even pro-abortion state Sen. Linda Coleman-Madison, D-Birmingham, supported the bill. Cason wrote that she
distinguished it from bills to restrict abortion rights. …”You’re talking about a child that has been born and certainly that child should have every opportunity to live and be taken care of,” Coleman-Madison said.
During the House debate, Cason reported,
“Shaver argued the law was needed to protect babies while opponents of the bill said the legislation was unneeded because what Shaver was describing is already illegal.”
But Shaver would not be deterred. “This is not about abortion. This is about a baby’s right to life,” she said.
LifeNews.com Note: Dave Andrusko is the editor of National Right to Life News and an author and editor of several books on abortion topics. This post originally appeared in his National Right to Life News Today —- an online column on pro-life issues.
