Alabama Human Life Protection Act

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The Alabama Human Life Protection Act (Act of Alabama 2019-189, introduced as House Bill 314/HB 314, also called the Alabama abortion ban) is a state law passed in 2019 to to make abortion and attempted abortion felony offenses perishable by up to 99 years in prison.

When the law was passed, states were enjoined from criminalizing abortion by the U.S. Supreme Court's 1973 ruling in Roe v. Wade that established a right to abortion services as part of a "penumbra of privacy" created by the U.S. Constitution's protection of individual rights. Prior to that decision, Alabama's criminal code had defined abortion as a misdemeanor offense against public morals, punishable by fine or up to 1 year in prison. In practice, it was often difficult to secure convictions against women who obtained abortions, though the law did effectively prevent medical practices from offering the procedure, except in cases where it was necessary to preserve the mother's life.

The author of the 2019 law was Alabama Pro-Life Coalition president Eric Johnson. He premised the law on a 2013 decision by the Alabama State Supreme Court, confirmed in 2014, that fetuses and fertilized eggs are included by the term "child" under state law. In a separate concurring opinion in Ex Parte Hicks (2014) Chief Justice Roy Moore claimed that the 14th amendment's equal protection clause established an "inalienable right to life" for unborn children. The bill explicitly compares abortions to the casualties of "German death camps, Chinese purges, Stalin's gulags, Cambodian killing fields, and the Rwandan genocide."

The bill was introduced into the Alabama State House of Representatives, with 66 co-sponsors, on April 2, 2019 by Terri Collins (R-District 8). Alabama State Senator Clyde Chambliss (R-District 30) introduced the same bill to the Alabama State Senate. It was read in the House Judiciary and Health Committees, where it received favorable reports. An amendment proposed by Anthony Daniels to exclude pregnancies caused by rape or incest was rejected on a 72-26 vote. It passed the house on April 30.

It was signed on May 15, 2019 by Governor Kay Ivey, but could not then be enforced, as U.S. District Court Judge Myron Thompson had already ruled on October 29, 2019 that it contravened the Supreme Court's precedent.

By 2019, with Brett Kavanaugh having been confirmed to the Supreme Court seat left vacant by Anthony Kennedy's retirement, many anticipated that a more conservative Supreme Court could reverse its 1973 precedent. When the court ruled in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization (2022), Roe v. Wade was in fact reversed, and states were no longer enjoined from criminalizing abortion. Judge Thompson lifted his injunction the same day, and the Alabama Human Life Protection Act therefore went into effect on June 24, 2022.

In the 2023 Alabama legislative session Chris England introduced a bill to repeal the abortion section in the state's 1840s criminal code in order to avoid the possibility that if district attorneys were unable to enforce the 2019 law they might turn to the older one to prosecute women who obtain abortions.

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