Mea Culpa! I Did Not Read the Alabama Bill Carefully Enough.

Guess I'm not moving to Dixie after all.

And here's the section of HB 314, the Human Life Protection Act, that renders it as gutless as all the other bills that failed to protect the baby in utero since Roe v. Wade. It allows abortion for mental illness and like the early bills that required two doctors to confirm the woman is suicidal it will be the same automatic rubber stamp loophole we've seen in the past. Can anyone doubt that two doctors can't be found to confirm a woman is at risk for suicide?:

(6) SERIOUS HEALTH RISK TO THE UNBORN CHILD'S MOTHER. In reasonable medical judgment, the child's mother has a condition that so complicates her medical condition that it necessitates the termination of her pregnancy to avert her death or to avert serious risk of substantial physical impairment of a major bodily function. This term does not include a condition based on a claim that the woman is suffering from an emotional condition or a mental illness which will cause her to engage in conduct that intends to result in her death or the death of her unborn child. However, the condition may exist if a second physician who is licensed in Alabama as a psychiatrist, with a minimum of three years of clinical experience, examines the woman and documents that the woman has a diagnosed serious mental illness and because of it, there is reasonable medical judgment that she will engage in conduct that could result in her death or the death of her unborn child. If the mental health diagnosis and likelihood of conduct is confirmed as provided in this act, and it is determined that a termination of her pregnancy is medically necessary to avoid the conduct, the termination may be performed and shall be only performed by a physician licensed in Alabama in a hospital as defined in the Alabama Administrative Code and to which he or she has admitting privileges.

And then there's this under Section 8:

(b) An abortion shall be permitted if an attending physician licensed in Alabama determines that an abortion is necessary in order to prevent a serious health risk to the unborn child's mother. Except in the case of a medical emergency as defined herein, the physician's determination shall be confirmed in writing by a second physician licensed in Alabama. The confirmation shall occur within 180 days after the abortion is completed and shall be prima facie evidence for a permitted abortion.

Siena Hoefling is right to call it the Alabama Pro-Life Fraud. Excuse my enthusiasm for this very flawed bill. I must have been having a senior moment to overlook these two major problems with the bill.