Legislators introduce bills to ban most abortions in Alabama

Bills have been introduced in both the House and Senate that would ban abortion for all reasons except those in which the pregnancy threatens the life of the mother.

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Two Alabama legislators have introduced bills that would ban almost all abortions in the state, except those performed to save women's lives.

The bills are similar to legislation banning abortion that passed in South Dakota last month and was signed on March 6 by Republican Gov. Mike Rounds.

"I thought if South Dakota can do it, Alabama ought to do it because we are a family friendly state," said state Sen. Hank Erwin, R-Montevallo, who has introduced a bill in the Senate that would even ban abortions in cases where a woman became pregnant because of rape or incest. ...

A similar bill has been introduced in the House by Rep. Nick Williams, R-McIntosh. Both bills have been assigned to committees, but no further action has been taken. The bills would make it a felony crime to perform abortions in Alabama.

With only seven meeting days remaining in the 2006 regular session, the bills are not given much chance of passing this year, but supporters say they expect to keep trying, particularly if Republicans are successful in cutting into Democratic control of the Alabama House and Senate in this year's elections. There are currently 62 Democrats and 43 Republicans in the House and Democrats have a 25-10 margin in the Senate.

Sen. Erwin's bill is Senate bill 503; Rep. Williams's bill is House bill 791.