5 Republicans who have said the Alabama abortion ban goes ‘too far’

Associated Press

On Wednesday, Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey signed the United States’ most restrictive abortion bill into law. The The Alabama Human Life Protection Act was passed in the state’s Republican-controlled legislature.
The measure bans abortions at all stages of pregnancy with no exceptions for rape and/or incest. The only time an abortion would be legal in Alabama is if the mother’s health is at risk.
The law also includes punitive measures for doctors. Performing an abortion is now classified as a Class A felony punishable by up to 99 years in prison, and an attempt to provide an abortion would be a Class C felony that could land a doctor with up to 10 years in prison.
While there are anti-abortion Democrats and pro-choice Republicans, the issue became more reliably partisan following President Richard Nixon’s election in 1972, when in a political move to court Catholic voters, Nixon shifted to the right on abortion, Vox explains.
However, as The Washington Post noted, the Alabama bill is putting Republican lawmakers on the defense — especially given past lost elections due to extreme views on the issue (i.e. Todd Akin and Richard Mourdock).
Some Republican lawmakers’ strategy is just to stay mum on the issue. But for these five prominent conservatives, Alabama’s law crossed a line.
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On Wednesday, Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey signed the United States’ most restrictive abortion bill into law. The The Alabama Human Life Protection Act was passed in the state’s Republican controlled legislature. In the Alabama House it sailed through by a vote of 25 to 6 and in the Alabama Senate on Tuesday, 74 to 3.

The law, which is sure to be challenged in court, goes into effect in six months.

The measure bans abortions at all stages of pregnancy with no exceptions for rape and/or incest. The only time an abortion would be legal in Alabama is if the mother’s health is at risk. The law also includes punitive measures for doctors. Performing an abortion is now classified as a Class A felony punishable with up to 99 years in prison, and an attempt to provide an abortion would be a Class C felony that could land a doctor with up to 10 years in prison.

Alabama’s restrictive law is just one in a string of bills passed at the state level — on Thursday, the Missouri Senate passed a bill banning abortion after eight weeks with no exceptions for rape and/or incest — with the goal of moving through the judicial system to the Supreme Court in an effort to challenge Roe v. Wade.

Roe, the current Supreme Court precedent, gives women the right to choose to terminate a pregnancy making these newly-signed laws unconstitutional.

While there are anti-abortion Democrats and pro-choice Republicans, the issue became more reliably partisan following President Richard Nixon’s election in 1972, when in a political move to court Catholic voters, Nixon shifted to the right on abortion, Vox explains.

"In the late 1970s, fundamentalist Christians became outraged by Supreme Court decisions banning school prayer and legalizing abortion and by Jimmy Carter’s decision to withdraw tax-exempt status from segregated church schools," according to a study "The politics of abortion: a historical perspective," posted on the National Institutes of Health website. "This group was mobilized by radio and television preachers, especially televangelist Jerry Falwell who also used scare tactics to promote his Moral Majority."

And through the years, Vox explains, the issue has only become more partisan.

GOP-led state legislatures have passed bills to severely limit abortion (placing time restrictions on the procedure, or imposing laws that could cause abortion clinics to close, or implementing invasive procedures like transvaginal ultrasounds prior to the procedure, or waiting periods).

However, as The Washington Post noted, the Alabama bill is putting Republican lawmakers on defense — especially given past lost elections due to extreme views on the issue (i.e. Todd Akin and Richard Mourdock).

Some Republican lawmakers’ strategy is just to stay mum on the issue, The Post points out. But for these five prominent conservatives, Alabama’s law crossed a line.

Pat Robertson

YouTube

Robertson is a conservative Christian televangelist, who unsuccessfully ran for president as a Republican in 1988.

As noted in "The politics of abortion: a historical perspective," Robertson was the head of the Christian Coalition, which worked to mobilize voters on the issues of opposing abortion and marriage equality and rose to prominence in the 1980s.

He still opposes abortion, but told the "700 Club" on Wednesday that Alabama went "too far."

"It’s an extreme law, and they want to challenge Roe vs. Wade, but my humble view is that this is not the case we want to bring to the Supreme Court because I think this one will lose," he continued.

Tomi Lahren

Colin Young-Wolff/Invision/AP

Lahren, a conservative commentator and Fox Nation host, is admittedly pro-choice, from a libertarian standpoint.

"You know what?" she said on "The View" in 2017. "I’m for limited government, so stay out of my guns, and you can stay out of my body as well."

"Listen, I am not glorifying abortion," she tweeted following backlash to her statements on "The View." "I don’t personally advocate for it. I just don’t think it’s the government’s place to dictate."

On Thursday, she tweeted that the Alabama law was "too restrictive."

"I will be attacked by fellow conservatives for saying this but so be it, this Alabama abortion ban is too restrictive," she wrote. "It doesn’t save life, it simply forces women into more dangerous methods, other states or countries. You don’t encourage life via blanket government mandate!"

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, a Republican from California

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House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said on Thursday that he believes the Alabama law "goes further than I believe."

"I believe in exceptions for rape, incest and life of the mother, and that’s what I’ve voted on," he said during a press conference, referring to the fact that Alabama’s law does not have exceptions for rape and/or incest.

The exception for rape and/or incest issue also caused a kerfuffle in the Alabama Senate ahead of voting for the bill, when the floor erupted with shouting over an amendment to include the exception. The amendment was ultimately defeated on Tuesday and the bill was passed.

Though in the past when he was in the California State Assembly he supported abortion rights, according to a 2003 Los Angeles Times article, he has never supported spending government dollars on abortion care.

His more recent stance is against abortion rights — including supporting the Hyde Amendment and voting to remove federal funding for Planned Parenthood.

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Source: Business Insider – feedback@businessinsider.com (Sarah Gray)