Abortion-Related Bills Speed Through Alabama Panel

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A state Senate committee approved four abortion-related bills Wednesday, with the lone female member complaining that a predominantly male group shouldn’t regulate how women treat their body.

The Senate Health Committee voted overwhelmingly for bills saying life begins at fertilization, requiring a doctor to examine a woman before and after prescribing an abortion-inducing drug, requiring a doctor to show ultrasound pictures to a pregnant woman before performing an abortion, and prohibiting coverage for abortions in any health care plan provided in Alabama through the federal health care act.

Democratic Sen. Linda Coleman of Birmingham noted that she was the only woman on the committee and the only committee member capable of getting pregnant. “I don’t think you need to be regulating my body,” she said.

Coleman voted against all the bills except the one involving abortion-inducing drugs. No Republican on the committee voted against any of the bills.

Rep. Sen. Phil Williams of Rainbow City sponsored a two-paragraph bill that says anywhere the word “person” is used in state law, it will mean “any human being from the moment of fertilization.”

Williams said the bill will send a message that “Alabama citizens respect the sanctity of life.”

Kay Scott, president and chief executive of Planned Parenthood Southeast, said that if Williams’ bill becomes law, it will have broad legal ramifications and will be challenged in court.

Republican Sen. Clay Scofield of Guntersville sponsored the ultrasound bill, which requires a doctor to not only show ultrasound pictures to a pregnant woman, but to describe the arms, legs and other features in the images. The bill allows the pregnant woman to avert her eyes from the images, but she can’t opt out of the presentation unless she faces a medical emergency.

“I believe the way we can reduce the number of abortions is through education,” Scofield said.

No abortion-related bills have passed the Legislature in several years, but Republicans who took control of the Legislature from Democrats in the November election have given them priority in the 2011 session. The bills approved by the Senate committee now go to the Senate for consideration.

A bill approved by a House committee last week and now awaiting consideration in the House would stop most abortions at 20 weeks of pregnancy.

Scott said they are among 13 similar bills introduced in the 2011 session. “With the economy and unemployment on the minds of citizens, this preoccupation with regulating women’s health seems bizarre at best and a criminal misuse of state time and funds at worst,” she said.

The state Department of Public Health reports there were 10,882 abortions in Alabama in 2009, the last year for which records are complete.