Earlier this week, a draft opinion of the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization case in the U.S. Supreme Court, which overturned Roe v. Wade, was leaked to Politico. If Roe v. Wade were overturned, the legal authority would revert back to the states.
In 2019, Gov. Kay Ivey signed the Alabama Human Life Protection Act, which bans most abortions and doesn’t include exception for rape or incest.
According to the Alabama lawmaker who led the effort to get that bill passed, the legislature might reconsider abortion laws in the Yellowhammer State if Roe v. Wade were overturned.
State Rep. Terri Collins (R-Decatur) joined WVNN’s “The Dale Jackson Show” to discuss what was next for Alabama if the Supreme Court were to overturn Roe v. Wade.
“Alabama would never be able to have a law for abortion that was our law until Roe v. Wade was overturned,” she said, “and so the 2019 law was aimed at overturning that. If the Mississippi law is able to accomplish that goal, then I would want us to have what we want to be our law in Alabama.”
The state lawmaker admitted that the legislature could decide to keep the current law but said there was a strong chance they might want to change it to something that included certain exceptions for rape and incest.
“[I]t may be the Human Life Protection Act,” she continued, “it may just be just what that is, but the quadrennium before that I carried a heartbeat bill that does include a couple of few exceptions, but it’s a very strong bill and it’s the one I think most the people in Alabama would support.”
Collins emphasized that the goal of the Human Life Protection act was solely overturning Roe v. Wade. She advised if that was accomplished, the legislature could focus on making changes to abortion restrictions that were more in line with the will of the voters.
“That bill was simply aimed to overturn it,” she explained. “Yes it said that baby in the womb was a baby, was a child, was a person, and it didn’t matter how it was conceived. But in our law is that how we want our law? Do we want it to be that rigid? When people are under those extreme extreme circumstances…Should families, doctors, everyone have a choice in those awful circumstances? That would be up to the legislature to decide.”
The lawmaker said she hoped the leaked draft opinion would be the Supreme Court’s real opinion on the case.
“I pray that that is true,” she said, “and at the same time very still concerned over a leak within the judicial system.”
Yaffee is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts “The Yaffee Program” Weekdays 9-11am on WVNN. You can follow him on Twitter @Yaffee
