Baxley ruling on fetal homicide bill likely to become campaign issue

According to the Huntsville Times:

Alabama is one of 18 states where the law recognizes only one victim instead of two when a pregnant woman is killed. Twenty states recognize a second victim from conception, and 12 states set a later time in the pregnancy.

Back in January, the Alabama House tried to rectify this situation by passing an unborn victims of violence bill by a vote of 97-0. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Spencer Collier (R.-Bayou La Batre), would define "person" to include an unborn child when referring to a victim of a criminal homicide or assault. It states further that "nothing in this act shall make it a crime to perform or obtain an abortion that is otherwise legal."

Since its unanimous passage in the House, the bill has been languishing in the Senate Judiciary Committee, which is chaired by Sen. Rodger Smitherman (D-Birmingham). Smitherman has refused to schedule a vote on the legislation, saying that it needs further study. Perhaps the Senator is a just a slow learner: his committee considered and killed a similar bill in last year's session.

Last week, Senate proponents of the bill made a last-ditch attempt to save it from the same fate this year by moving it out of Smitherman's committee. Lt. Governor Lucy Baxley was having none of that, though. From the AP:

On Thursday, [Sen. Hank] Erwin [R.-Montevallo] proposed using a Senate rule that says if a committee has taken no action on a bill for six meeting days, 21 of the 35 senators can vote to pull the bill out of the committee and have the lieutenant governor reassign it to a different committee to consider.

Smitherman said the Judiciary Committee had taken action because it held a public hearing on the bill March 7-8. Smitherman said a public hearing constitutes action, and a vote on a bill is not required to have action.

Erwin argued that a vote constitutes action, and he asked Baxley for a ruling as the Senate's presiding officer.

Baxley said the public hearing constituted action. "Under any stretch of the imagination, that was action going on in the committee about this bill," she said.

Erwin urged Baxley to change her view. "This is a matter of life or death," he said.

Baxley said it was about the Senate's rules and not about life or death. She said the senators wrote and approved the rules in 2003, and her only role is to interpret them. She also said she personally favors recognizing "that it is a second life if a pregnant woman is killed."

Erwin challenged Baxley's ruling, which prompted a vote on whether to sustain her ruling. The Senate voted 12-17 to sustain the ruling. The nay votes were one vote short of the 18 needed to override a ruling of the chair. [A majority of the entire 35-member Senate is needed to override a ruling by the chair.]

"The chair's ruling stands," Baxley announced.

Now, in all fairness to Mrs. Baxley, her ruling may very well have been the correct one. It all depends on how the Senate has traditionally defined "action" by one of its committees. I don't profess to know all the arcane rules of the Senate, so I'll leave it at that.

That's really beside the point, though. Mrs. Baxley is running for Governor. She says she favors recognizing that there are two victims whenever a pregnant woman is killed, but she has not said whether or not she supports this particular bill, nor has she publicly suggested that Sen. Smitherman stop obstructing its consideration. To put it bluntly, Mrs. Baxley has not acted as a leader and prospective Governor should act, and her actions (or lack thereof) have only reinforced the notion that she is either unable or unwilling to take a meaningful stand on anything of importance.