ALABAMA, July 25, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – In November, voters in Alabama will decide whether to amend the state constitution to specifically say it does not protect a “right” to abortion. The proposed constitutional amendment would also declare “it is the public policy of this state to recognize and support the sanctity of unborn life and the rights of unborn children.”
Rep. Matt Fridy, R-73, proposed the amendment, partially inspired by a Tennessee Supreme Court ruling 18 years ago that found a “right” to abortion in Tennessee’s constitution, he told AL.com.
The full text that will be presented to voters reads:
Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of Alabama of 1901, as amended; to declare and otherwise affirm that it is the public policy of this state to recognize and support the sanctity of unborn life and the rights of unborn children, most importantly the right to life in all manners and measures appropriate and lawful; and to provide that the constitution of this state does not protect the right to abortion or require the funding of abortion.
There is a need “for placing in our organic law a manner in which to interpret the constitution as we go forward,” said Fridy.
“What it does is it states very clearly that the public policy of the state is to recognize the rights of children who are still in the womb,” he said. “And it calls for the passage of legislation that would protect preborn life. The legislation itself would drill into the specifics of that, and that remains to be seen what shape and form the legislation would take.”
Abortion activists are sounding the alarm about the proposed amendment, with the director of communications and marketing for Planned Parenthood Southeast warning this “would pave the way to ban abortion in all cases.”
A pre-Roe v. Wade pro-life law against abortion is still on the books in Alabama, but unenforceable under the current national abortion regime. Liberal Massachusetts, too, had an unenforced law on the books against abortion. Its state legislators recently voted 139-9 to repeal it, apparently spurred by fears that Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy’s replacement will rule against abortion on demand.