Abortion-related bills clear Legislature in session's final hours

“I personally don’t feel like these type of facilities need to be anywhere near our children,” Rep. Ed Henry, R-Hartselle, said. He carried the bill in the House.

The Alabama Women’s Center for Reproductive Alternatives in Huntsville is across the street from Edward H. White Middle School. The clinic moved to that location in 2014 after being forced out of a building on Madison Street in downtown Huntsville — within sight of Huntsville Hospital’s main emergency room — in order to comply with the 2013 Women’s Health and Safety Act and its regulations on building standards.

Bill sponsor Sen. Paul Sanford, R-Huntsville, has said his intention isn’t to limit the number of abortion clinics in the state, but he doesn’t think they should be across the street from a school “because they do tend to cause a certain amount of commotion on a regular basis.”

Rep. Laura Hall, D-Huntsville, said a business shouldn’t be punished because of protestors outside of it.

Rep. Mary Moore, D-Birmingham, became emotional at the podium when speaking against the bill.

“You are not here to put your beliefs on other people and that is all that y’all have done,” Moore said to Henry and speaking of Republicans in general. “… I can’t understand that level of intolerance.”

This bill failed last year.

Passage of the bill led to tense moments on the House floor about 9:45 p.m. Wednesday night.

Democrats began singing “We Shall Overcome” and the next bill was called.

Speaker Mike Hubbard, R-Auburn, called for security when lawmakers wouldn’t stop singing but didn’t have anyone removed. Moore began shouting when Rep. Mike Ball, R-Madison, apparently approached the group and complimented their singing.

“We are not here to entertain you,” Moore said later.

The House also gave final passage to Senate Bill 363, which bans “dismemberment abortions.”

The bill prohibits a medical procedure called dilation and evacuation, or “D&E,” unless not performing it poses a serious health risk to the mother. The procedure is used in second-term abortions.

Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant signed a similar bill into law last month, while West Virginia lawmakers overrode their governor’s veto in March to pass a similar law, The Associated Press reported recently. D&E bans in Kansas and Oklahoma have been struck down by state courts.