The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a lawsuit against pro-life legislation sponsored by Rainbow City-Republican state Senator Phil Williams during the 2016 Alabama legislative session last week.
The lawsuit challenges SB363, the Unborn Child Protection from Dismemberment Abortion Act, which prohibits a procedure called dilation and evacuation (“D&E” abortion), which accounts for approximately 95 percent of all abortions in the second trimester. It allows an exception only in the event of a “serious health risk to the mother.”
According to Life News, “the ACLU argued that the laws restrict women’s access to abortion by closing abortion clinics and ‘severely curtailing’ second-trimester abortions in Alabama. Its lawyers also argued that dismemberment abortions are safe, common second-trimester procedures that women should have access to.”
Williams responded Tuesday and slammed the ACLU for the lawsuit.
“Last week, the ACLU filed a misguided legal challenge against the Unborn Child Protection from Dismemberment Act (SB363), which prohibits the gruesome abortion of unborn children by dismemberment,” Williams said in a statement where he cited a U.S. Supreme Court opinion in the case of Stenberg v. Carhart by Justice Anthony Kennedy, describing the procedure: “The fetus, in many cases, dies just as a human adult or child would: It bleeds to death as it is torn limb from limb.”
“Life is a gift from God and protecting life is a primary duty of any court or legislature,” Williams continued. “The people’s representatives in the Alabama Legislature overwhelmingly approved the passage of the Unborn Child Protection from Dismemberment Act, and I am confident the courts will uphold its legality.”
The law has been signed by Gov. Robert Bentley and is slated to go into effect August 1.
