The U.S. Supreme Court's 2022 court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade was a major victory for human life and a devastating blow to the abortion industry. Despite Alabama having a near-total ban on abortion, State Rep. Ernie Yarbrough (R-Trinity) believes there's more work to be done as long as mothers continue to face zero consequences for killing the unborn.
On a recent episode of "1819 News: The Podcast," Yarbrough explained his House bill to treat abortion as murder and hold the responsible parties accountable.
House Bill 518, also known as the Prenatal Equal Protection Act, would "authorize prosecutions for homicide or assault if the victim is an unborn child from the moment of fertilization at any stage of development," with exceptions.
Yarbrough said he was in part inspired to bring this bill when he read statistics reporting more abortions now than when Roe was still in effect.
"Because of chemical abortifacients, right? Chemical abortion pills, or, some people call them, murder pills. And so that, of course, as someone who is a pro-life advocate, who believes that life begins at conception, that all life is made in the image of God… That was incredibly troubling to me," he said. "... So as I looked into it, how can this be? What I discovered was that our homicide laws in Alabama afford no protections to the baby in the womb if the person taking the life of the baby is the mother. At the same time, that also doesn't afford protections to women who would like to tell that boyfriend or husband or parent or whoever is pressuring them to do this thing because the baby was not protected, and so therefore the woman also is not protected from being bullied into something that she probably doesn't want to do."
Yarbrough said his bill would protect the life of the unborn, who are Alabama citizens, and the mothers from being forced into an abortion.
"We have a moral obligation on the one hand to protect the baby because we ask ourselves, what does all life deserve? We have that obligation as lawmakers and as citizens, but also to protect the women so that they're not in a situation where they're getting bullied and pressured to do things. And also, honestly, it would, I think, decrease rape and incest because if those people know that the removal of the evidence of their crime is itself a crime, then it will have a healthy effect along the entire value chain of that conversation."
Yarbrough said the bill spells out "common-sense protections" and exceptions, like duress or saving the life of the mother, and would not apply to miscarriages, as some critics have alleged.
"Intent matters, you know? And so to your point about having to prove that the woman willfully and intentionally sought the death of her child, but intent matters in any case of the law, where you're talking about the loss of life of individuals. So obviously, miscarriages don't apply… "Obviously, that's stupid and idiotic, and you didn't read the bill."
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