In recent months, Katie Britt’s past leadership role in the University of Alabama Student Government Association has come into question as the hard-fought Senate election draws to a close. A recent report from 1819 News brings about the question: Should a U.S. Senate candidate or any other candidate seeking higher office have to answer for their past student government record?
The SGA has served as a starting point for many of Alabama’s leaders, including Jim Zeigler, John Merrill, and Don Siegelman. Britt served as Alabama’s SGA president during the 2003-2004 academic school year.
In October 2003, during Britt’s tenure, the SGA Senate passed a resolution urging the University’s Russell Student Health Center to offer the so-called morning-after pill. It was passed unanimously. However, it was later met with pushback from some students.
Then student Joshua Taylor commented in an article from the school newspaper, the Crimson White, “I do not believe the University of Alabama as an educational institution should be distributing the morning after pill. A public-funded institution does not have the ability to decide where life begins.”
The controversy with Britt’s participation in this issue stems from the question of whether Britt had veto powers and could have attempted a veto of the SGA Senate’s resolution calling on the University’s health center to offer the morning-after pill but chose not to.
According to the report, two weeks after the morning-after pill unanimous resolution, she used that power to veto an SGA Senate parking resolution calling for a one-ticket limit per 24-hour period. Opponents quickly questioned her ability to veto the resolution.
In February 2004, while Britt was still SGA president, the Crimson White investigated the veto question, which stemmed from her earlier veto of the SGA Senate’s parking resolution.
The question remained unanswered for years until the SGA Constitution finally stated that resolutions were not subject to presidential vetos.
Britt responded to questions about her time in the SGA, dismissing the resolution as something “she had no control of.”
“As a Christian, conservative wife and mother, I am proud to be 100% pro-life. Both my faith and the science tell me that life begins at conception, and I’ll fight tirelessly to protect life in the Senate,” Britt said in a statement to 1819 News. “Over 63 million innocent unborn babies have been murdered in America since the disastrous Roe v. Wade decision in 1973, and my family and I are praying that the Supreme Court finally overturns Roe this year and allows states like Alabama to defend life.
“As far as my time in college goes 20 years ago, I will admit to learning and singing every single word of the Auburn fight song. And, like Justice Kavanaugh, I might have even had the opportunity to enjoy a beer or two along the way — but only after I turned 21,” Britt continued. “I am sure there are also a laundry list of things that happened on campus while I was SGA president that I had no control of. At the end of the day, I’m proud to say I was an active leader in our College Republicans chapter back then. I was raised in a Christian, conservative household in Enterprise, Alabama, and that’s how my husband and I are raising our two children. If this is how low my opponents are stooping and how far they’re stretching, I must be doing something right.”
