If Republican governor Kay Ivey signs the bill, which passed in a vote of 25 to 6 and had already passed in the Alabama House, it will become law. Before the vote was taken, Alabama Sen. Clyde Chambliss opened the debate by saying, “When is a person a person? When does a life become a life? I believe that if we terminate the life of an unborn child, we are putting ourselves in God’s place.” Proponents of the bill hope to challenge Roe v. Wadewith the bill.
The bill states that “a woman who receives an abortion will not be held criminally culpable or civilly liable for receiving the abortion.”
The bill explains what it means for the mother’s life to be considered in danger:
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.
